Abstract

Today's S. Korean society has become more multicultural, so many libraries in S. Korea have been working hard to serve their "new customers". In this regard, this study intends to investigate library cooperative systems for acquisition of multicutural materials in Western countries to relieve difficulties of libraries in S. Korea in acquiring multicutural materials. the study analyzed 23 national libraries, state libraries, public libraries and library systems in North America, Australia and Northern European Countries. The research found categorization schemes. First, library cooperative systems are divided into two groups according to cooperative methods: cooperative acquisition and bulk loan method. Second, the systems are categorized according to the territorial scope of the service: country, state or province, borough or city and inter-library. The study also analyzed and synthesized the characteristics of these systems. It finally provides recommendations to apply the methods used by the library cooperative systems in Western countries to Korean's situation.