The grand people’s study house, a place for the entire people’s learning, is situated in the heart of Pyongyang, the capital of the DPRK. It was opened on April 1, 1982. The grand people’s study house which is situated on Namsan Hill in harmony with Kim Il Sung Square is a base for educating the Juche idea and disseminating scientific, technical and cultural knowledge. It is a center for intellectualization of the whole society and a correspondence university of the working people in the DPRK.
Leader Kim Jong Il said that the Grand People’s Study House is one of the important bases for intellectualizing the whole society and a correspondent university.
The mission of the grand people’s study house is to arm all the working people in Korea with the Juche idea and the latest science and technology to intellectualize the whole society and make an active contribution to the development of science and technology of the country.
The name, “grand people’s study house” means a place where the entire people including workers, peasants and working intellectuals come and study.
Its construction was started on December 2, 1979 and completed in only a year and nine months under the wise guidance of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il. It was opened on the occasion of the 70th birthday of President Kim Il Sung.
President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il sent valuable books to the grand people’s study house to equip it better as a document storehouse of the world and saw to it that a regular management and operation system was established, so that all working people in the country could come and study to their hearts’ content.
It is a great monumental edifice that can not be found in any country in its size, architecture and the level of equipment.
It is a 10-storeyed building of the Korean style. The building is divided into 10 blocks and it has 34 Korea-style roofs and more than hundreds of rooms. 23 reading rooms with 6 000 seats, 14 lecture rooms, several information rooms, question-and-answer rooms and music appreciation rooms are arranged with the library that can house 30 million books as a center.
Books required by readers are transported by the inertial remote carriage device in each lending desk of reading rooms and libraries.
It is a main document storehouse in Korea.
It has immortal classic works of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il and other books on the glorious revolutionary history of the t
It also keeps the books published after liberation, the old printed books, books printed from wooden blocks and written copies. It has also many foreign scientific and technical books and periodicals, patented technical documents and scientific and technical documents sent by international bodies.
The grand people’s study house is a centre for public education in the DPRK.
Information, question and answer, recorded lecture are combined with the lecture which is the main in the grand people’s study house.
It regularly organizes lecture on the scientific and technical issues that are not taught in universities and colleges and it gives scientific and theoretical lecture, scientific and technical course, requested lecture, intensive course and foreign language course, etc. It informs expected lectures through radio and TV to serve convenience of the readers who consult the grand people’s study house.
It organizes in-service training on the trend of scientific and technical development and the latest scientific and technical issues for incumbent researchers and engineers several times every year.
It is a base of disseminating science and technology and a base for information.
It set up an E-library in keeping with its mission as a centre of information data bases and dissemination bases of the country. As a result, it explores data and create scientific and technical information to build over million items of data bases and form a network by computer with scientific research institutions, factories and enterprises in all parts of the country including Kim Il Sung University, the Central Science and Technology Information Agency and the Bureau of Invention to provide them with scientific and technical information data. It organizes various forms of reading and lending books, lending books by mail and itinerary library to fully satisfy the working people’s demand for book. It conducts such on-the-spot services as on-site lecture, information on a new technology, book lending in big factories, enterprises and construction sites to help the development of the country’s science and technology and the building of a thriving nation of socialism.
Lots of foreign scientific and technical data are translated every year in the grand people’s study house and they are recorded, video-taped and copied to be consulted. Modernization is activated in keeping and lending books.
It has the friendly and cooperative relationship with many libraries, museums, scientific research institutions and press organs of the world and briskly exchanges its publications.
Thanks to the warm love and wise guidance of President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il, the Grand People’s Study House demonstrates the majestic appearance to the world as a place for the Korean people’s learning.
