A Book Link card does not automatically activate a second library or make every return cross-library. If a Book Ocean request is missing, identify whether it is waiting for home-library approval, provider confirmation, payment, arrival, or return before submitting another request.
Which service are you trying to use?
Book Link (책이음) lets a participating public library recognize a shared library card after that library imports the member record. It concerns access to participating libraries and their local lending rules.
Book Ocean (책바다) is an interlibrary request service. The reader applies through a home public library, and the requested material moves through approval, provider, payment, delivery, loan, and return states. A working Book Link card does not prove that Book Ocean enrollment or a particular request is complete.
Book Link: activate the second library first
The official Book Link service guide says that, on the first visit to another participating library, the reader presents the Book Link card at the desk so that library can import the member record. The guide says the second library’s desk and automated services cannot be used until that import is complete.
The network guide gives an aggregate limit of 30 borrowed items, while each library can apply its own local limit. Cross-library return is available only through some participating local systems. Before taking a book elsewhere, ask whether the lending and receiving libraries belong to the same return arrangement. A shared card by itself is not return-anywhere permission.
Book Ocean: confirm the home-library route
The official Book Ocean membership guide starts with membership at a participating home public library and a National Library integrated account. The application asks the reader to select Book Ocean, enter the home library and borrower-card number, complete mobile identity verification, and receive home-library approval.
The guide does not establish that an overseas number, passport, visitor status, English service, or every foreign resident will satisfy those checks. If mobile verification is blocked, ask the home library which route it accepts for the reader’s own case and whether the material is available locally. Do not use another person’s identity or account to bypass the check.
Track one request through its actual state
The Book Ocean procedure places home-library approval before provider confirmation. After a provider is assigned, the service sends a payment request notice; the 48-hour payment clock starts when that notice is received. University-library material is an exception: it requires prepayment before a provider is determined, and the guide states that payment is refunded if the material cannot be provided. It does not promise an instant refund or acceptance of a particular foreign card.
Open 신청내역확인 (request history) for the existing Book Ocean application. Keep one small request record:
- request number and title;
- home-library approval state;
- provider and payment-notice state;
- payment record, if any;
- arrival date and due date; and
- the home library’s current contact route.
If a notice is missing or payment cannot be completed, give the home library the existing request number and ask which state is incomplete. A second application can create a duplicate without resolving the first one.
The loan clock starts when the book arrives
The official loan and return guide says the 14-day loan period begins when the material arrives at the home library, not when the reader picks it up. Public-library material may be extended once by seven days if the request is made by the day before the due date. University material follows different late-fee and handling rules.
Material supplied by the National Library of Korea or the National Library for Children and Young Adults is a separate case: it is used in the home library’s reading room and returned there the same day. It is not a take-home loan.
What should you do when the state is unclear?
Use the service name first. For Book Link, ask the second library whether the member import is complete and whether the exact loan can be returned there. For Book Ocean, ask the home library to trace the existing request by its number, approval, provider, payment, arrival, and due-date states.
If identity verification or payment remains blocked, ask for the approved option for the reader’s own account or use material that the home library can actually provide. Do not assume a card shown in one library, a payment debit, or a missing message proves that the next step has completed.
Book Link and Book Ocean service guides checked October 6, 2026 KST. Recheck the participating library, request record, payment notice, arrival date, and due date before acting.