DistantNews
Support us
🇰🇷 South Korea /Culture & Society

National Library of Korea Suspends Lending Data Service After 9-Month Daegu Data Omission

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Outcome reported
  • - The National Library of Korea has temporarily suspended its library lending data service due to a significant omission of Daegu's lending data for nine months.
  • This error led to inaccurate analysis of regional reading habits, including a misrepresentation of Daegu's per capita book lending.
  • The library apologized for the inconvenience and stated it is reviewing previous reports that may have contained the flawed data.

The National Library of Korea has temporarily suspended its 'Library Information Naroo' website's lending data service, which aggregates and analyzes lending records from approximately 1,600 libraries nationwide. The suspension follows the discovery that lending data from Daegu city was omitted for nine months, leading to significant inaccuracies in regional reading statistics.

The library issued an apology, stating, "We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the service disruption." This marks the first time the institution has officially apologized for an error since the notice board was first established in February 2016. The omission came to light after a recent news report by Hankyoreh, which analyzed regional lending data. The report initially showed Daegu's per capita book lending as significantly low, a conclusion now known to be based on incomplete data.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the service disruption.

— National Library of KoreaIssuing an official apology for the temporary suspension of the library lending data service.

According to the National Library, the omission occurred "in the process of changing the collection method for personal information enhancement last year." It confirmed that 97.7% of Daegu's data had been provided to the public without proper inclusion since November of the previous year. While data from other regions was unaffected, the error has cast doubt on the accuracy of previous reports based on this data, including analyses of children's reading trends and national reading trends for 2025.

The library stated that it is currently reviewing previous analytical reports for errors and plans to relaunch the service with corrected data soon. It also pledged to strengthen monitoring to prevent similar incidents in the future. Hankyoreh has since revised its digital articles, removing references to Daegu in its analysis of reading trends.

It was found that lending data from the Daegu region was partially omitted in the process of changing the collection method for personal information enhancement last year. Other regions have no problems. We apologize for not being able to provide accurate data.

— National Library of KoreaExplaining the cause of the data omission to Hankyoreh.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

More Stories

From Our Blog