Opening ceremony held at Goa Community Child Center in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province
32 libraries established since 2024, with more than 33,000 books donated
![Attendees pose for a group photo at the opening ceremony of a Happy Dream Library held Sunday at the Goa Community Child Center in Goa-eup, Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province. From left: Jang Hong-rak, manager at Rean Space; Jang Seong-jun, eastern regional director at Save the Children Korea; Na Dae-hwal, secretary general of Gumi YMCA; Kim Hee-kwon, head of ESG business at Save the Children Korea; Eom Sang-hong, CSR team leader at SK Innovation; Jeong Jae-seung, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at KAIST; Yang Jin-young, brand communications team leader at Kyobo Book Centre; and Kwon Gyeong-ja, director of the Goa Community Child Center. [Provided by SK Innovation]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/11/10/news-p.v1.20261110.a90440dff014467cbe10bcc70c4f1cde_P1.jpg)
SK Innovation announced Tuesday that it has established Happy Dream Libraries at seven rural communities across the country this year.
The company held an opening ceremony Sunday at the Goa Community Child Center in Goa-eup, Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province. Jeong Jae-seung, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at KAIST, attended the event to mark the library's completion and delivered a special lecture. Jeong spoke about how advances in robotics and brain science will reshape daily life, and about the joy of discovering new worlds through books.
SK Innovation launched the Happy Dream Library project in 2024 to address educational inequality in rural areas and promote a culture of reading by building small libraries at community child centers and donating books. The company has now set up a total of 32 libraries, donating more than 33,000 books over the past three years and reaching around 2,000 children.
The project draws on a "1% Happy Sharing Fund" built from contributions of 1 percent of base salaries by SK Innovation affiliate employees. Books for the libraries are gathered through a joint effort by the company and the public. A two-month campaign called the "2026 Children's Book Dream Project," which ran from July, collected around 12,000 books donated by SK Innovation employees, members of the public and Kyobo Book Centre. This year, broadcaster Hong Hyeon-hee and author Lee Nak-jun appeared in a promotional video to encourage donations.
A survey of participating children conducted by Save the Children found that reading frequency rose 87 percent and interest in reading increased 160 percent compared with before the project. Library satisfaction averaged 4.5 out of 5, with children citing access to new titles and books they had long wanted to read as the main reasons. "We will continue to support rural children so they can encounter a wide variety of books close to home, build reading habits from an early age, and dream bigger," an SK Innovation official said.
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