CCL: the world’s first creator library

For a long period of time, Libraries have long been places of required silence. Students have visited libraries to study hard for school, prepare for employment, and cram for state exams with the mindset of soldiers going into battle. However, libraries today have to break away from their spatial stereotype. Just as predicted by futurologist Alvin Toffler, the era of “prosumers” has arrived. Now just like other consumers, students do not merely take in knowledge, but also create it. As a natural consequence, libraries have had to build upon their traditional function to become spaces where students are free to carry out their activities. Agreeing with President Jaeho Yeom’s view that a library is not the same as a reading room, Professor Kim Seongcheol, Director of the Korea University Library, decided to revolutionize the library. The result was the opening of the CJ Creator Library (CCL) in the Central Plaza of Korea University’s Seoul Campus in May 2017. Based on the concept of an “archive theme park” or a learning park where students can learn, engage in discussions, and create multi-media contents as well as play, eat and rest, the CCL was created as a departure from existing concepts of what a library can be.



“The CCL is a complex cultural facility serving as a space of media-based venture incubation and creativity, and a place where students can learn and relax at the same time. The CCL provides five studio rooms where media output can be produced; stages where performances and academic events can be held; Marushimto, a study-and-rest area where students can lie down; and study rooms whose size can be adjusted according to students’ needs.

As introduced by Director Kim, the CCL is the result of an effort to change the very paradigm of libraries, and shows the work dedicated to space reconfiguration. When building the Central Plaza in 2002, a space of 2,479m2 was offered as reading rooms to meet students’ needs, and a part of that space was newly renovated. Many students expressed their dissatisfaction with the proposed changes, but Director Kim worked on persuading students as to the value of the project, with the hope that the space could symbolize the library of the future. After regular meetings and much discussion, the vision finally came to fruition with the establishment of the KU SOC@Library Project in 2016. The project is based on the principles of sympathy, openness, and co-existence, following the mandate of the Three-No’s Policy introduced by President Yeom.



Changes attempted based A transformation based on the principles of sympathy, openness and co-existence

“Sympathy, the first principle of the KU SOC@Library Project, expresses the will to respond to students’ needs. Based on this principle, resting spaces are offered for students to burn the midnight oil at 24-hour reading rooms, and some spaces are provided as creators’ places and adjustable study rooms where creativity and collaboration are encouraged. To accommodate the reduction of reading room areas, March 2017 to May 2018 saw the construction of a new study space called the CDL Floor was built on the first floor of Centennial Digital Library (CDL) building. The CLD Floor’s C-Lounge provides a space for cooperative work, discussion, and relaxation, while the D-Lounge is for large group learning, and the L-Lounge offers a multipurpose space for learning and cultural activities.

The second principle of the KU SOC@Library Project is openness. This principle is represented in a policy of engagement, which means that Korea University’s libraries will be open not only to Korea University students but also to students from other universities and to the local community., In this spirit of the traveling library, Korea University Library operates ten Open Libraries on the campus that are open to everyone with unlimited access. Thus any visitor to Korea University can use the Open Libraries any day of the week to read books and enjoy cultural life (for more information about Open Library, please see:

https://library.korea.ac.kr/link/html/useSubjectLibrary03). Korea University also signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate with Yonsei University on the joint use of academic resources and ICT research, enabling faculty and students from both universities to share academic resources and infrastructure. Projects aimed at mutual cooperation with other universities in Seoul are also in the pipeline.

Lastly, co-existence refers to the policy of bridging the past and the future through one space. The Korea University Library aims to create areas where the analog and the digital can intertwine and where the school’s diverse communities and functions can intermingle. To this end, the Korea University Library has been fundraising^* to support the transformation of the Main Library into a unique preservation area for intellectual heritage. The goal is to connect the Main Library and Haesong Law Library to establish a state-of-the-art digital information library.