Children's Behavior in a Ready Room of Children's Behaviors

It may be because of the importance of reading books in childhood, and because we want to help children stay in contact with diverse knowledge and information, and use them, through the medium of books, in this information-oriented society, that the social interest in children’s libraries is increasing these days. But although many studies are being made on children’s libraries, those on their spatial environments and the usage behaviors are still insufficient. Therefore, this study is to examine the reading behaviors of the children who use the children’s libraries and grasp the characteristics of the user requirements, so as to analyze their behavioral responses to the physical environmental elements. The result of the study is as follows: Concerning the bookshelves, children are found to have difficulties in choosing and picking up books due to the height of the bookshelves. In the relationship between the auxiliary furniture for reading around the bookshelves and the users, concerning the book reading, the behavioral characteristics turn out to be different in accordance with the age of the children. We found that although the physical environmental elements of the children’s libraries have seen much aesthetic improvement, the behavioral characteristics of the children are not qualitatively well reflected. In future plans for children’s libraries, the children’s physical characteristics and their ages should be taken into consideration, while their detailed behavioral characteristics, in relation with these, should be supported