Abstract

This study used author-keyword network analysis to examine the structural development of intellectual freedom research in the Korean library and information science. We retrieved 745 Korea Citation Index (KCI)-indexed papers and, after screening titles and abstracts, selected 67 papers directly addressing intellectual freedom. Author keywords were standardized by resolving variant spellings and synonyms and removing irrelevant terms, yielding 219 refined keywords. Keyword frequencies and a co-occurrence matrix were computed and normalized using Pearson correlation coefficients. The network was visualized and clustered with NodeXL. The results identify “censorship” and “banned books” as central keywords, strongly linked to collection development, material selection, publishers, and studies of the Japanese colonial period. Six thematic clusters emerged: (1) collection-policy-based censorship, (2) the Japanese colonial censorship system, (3) public library reading campaigns, (4) inclusive services for information-vulnerable groups, (5) privacy, and (6) regulation and filtering of online expression. Findings indicate a growing intersection between intellectual freedom and personal information protection in the digital environment, suggesting that Korean scholarship has broadened from traditional collection and censorship debates to encompass user rights and governance of online information.