In 2010 there are 759 public libraries in Korea, and they have been increased constantly for the recent four to five years. In order to make them as cultural spaces in local communities, Korean government is now planning to increase the number of public libraries up to 900 and to build small to medium-sized multiple purpose libraries rather than large and single purpose ones. Especially in the case of public libraries in metropolitan cities, which are main libraries in those areas, they should be designed to play major functions of cultural experience, exhibition, and life-long education as well as to meet the basic needs of providing books for public reading and of building and developing branch libraries based on local characteristics. Above all, in order to make a public library as a center of local culture, a space planning focused on increasing utilization and satisfaction of the residents is required. It is essential to conduct a survey to understand the needs of the residential users and reflect their opinions. In this regard, our research process was constructed as follows. First, precedent studies on a certain densely populated area were reviewed. Second, a survey was conducted in Ulsan city to figure out the needs and the satisfaction level of the actual users. The purpose of this study is to propose a better space planning approach for public libraries in metropolitan cities based on the analysis.