Library: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Alternative meanings: Library (computer science), Library (biology)

In its traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. It can refer to an individual's private collection, but more often, it is a large collection that is funded and maintained by a city or institution, and is shared by many people who could not afford to purchase so many books by themselves.

However, with the collection or invention of media other than books for storing information, many libraries are now also repositories and/or access points for maps, prints or other artwork, microfilm, microfiche, audio tapes, CDs, LPs, video tapes and DVDs, and provide public facilities to access CD-ROM databases and the Internet.

Thus, modern libraries have been redefined as places to get access to information in any format, whether it is stored inside the building or not.

Etymology of the word

The word is derived from Latin liber, which means "book." Derivations from the Greek Bibliotheke (from Biblos, book) are used in at least German, French, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Dutch. Other languages, such as Icelandic, Finnish, Estonian and Persian, use words that derive from their own words for book (Bokasafn, Kirjasto, and Raamatukogu and Ketabkhaneh, respectively).

The modern library arose very directly from the historical fact that books were valuable possessions, were therefore likely to be stolen, and were far too expensive for most people to own. Its architecture derived from the need to chain these books, first to lecterns and later to armaria and shelves, in areas that were illuminated by sunlight. Early libraries were located in monastic cloisters associated with scriptoria and were collections of lecterns with books chained to them. Shelves built above and between back-to-back lecterns were the beginning of bookpresses. The chain was attached at the fore-edge of a book rather than to its spine. Book presses came to be arranged in carrels (perpendicular to the walls and therefore to the windows) in order to maximize lighting, with low bookcases in front of the windows. This stall system (fixed bookcases perpendicular to exterior walls pierced by closely spaced windows) was characteristic of English institutional libraries. In Continental libraries, bookcases were arranged parallel to and against the walls. This wall system was first introduced on a large scale in Spain's El Escorial.

As books became cheaper, the need for chaining them lessened, but as the number of books in libraries increased, so did the need for compact storage and access with adequate lighting, giving birth to the stack system, which involved keeping a library's collection of books in a space separate from the reading room, an arrangement which arose in the 19th century. Book stacks quickly evolved into a fairly standard form in which the cast-iron and steel frameworks supporting the bookshelves also supported the floors, which often were built of translucent blocks to permit the passage of light (but were not transparent, for reasons of modesty). With the introduction of electrical lighting, the use of glass floors was largely discontinued, though floors were still often composed of metal grating to allow air to circulate in multi-story stacks.

Ultimately, even more space was needed, and a method of moving shelves on tracks ("compact shelving") was introduced to cut down on otherwise wasted aisle space.

Libraries are divided (by librarians) into four categories:

• Academic libraries -- These libraries are located on the campuses of colleges and universities and serve primarily the students and faculty of that and other academic institutions.
• School libraries -- Most public and private primary and secondary schools have library designed to support the curriculum.
• Public libraries or public lending libraries -- These libraries provide service to the general public and make at least some of their books available for borrowing, so that readers may use them at home over a period of days or weeks.
• Special libraries -- All other libraries fall into this category by default. Many private businesses and public organizations, including hospitals, museums, research laboratories, law fims, and many government departments and agencies, maintain their own libraries for the use of their employees in doing specialized research related to their work. Special libraries may or may not be accessible to some identified part of the general public.

Also, the governments of most major countries support national libraries, one noteworthy example being the U.S. Library of Congress.

Libraries usually have nearly every item they own arranged in a specified order according to a library classification system, so that particular items may be located quickly and collections may be browsed efficiently. Libraries often feature a professional librarian working from a reference desk or other central location to help users find what they are looking for.

Many potential library patrons nevertheless do not know how to use a library effectively, often from lack of early exposure, or are anxious and fearful of displaying ignorance. These problems drove the emergence of the library instruction movement, which advocates library user education. Library instruction has been practiced in the U.S. since the 19th century. One of the leaders of the library instruction movement in the late 20th and early 21st centuries is Michael Lorenzen. Library instruction is closely related to the study of information literacy.

Libraries must inform the public of what materials are available in their collections, and the public must know how to access that information. Before the computer age, this was accomplished by the card catalog -- a piece of wooden or metal furniture containing many drawers, each filled with standard-sized index cards identifying books and other materials. In a large library, the card catalog units often filled a large room, or else lined most hallways in the building. The emergence of the Internet, however, has led to the adoption of electronic catalog databases (often referred to as "webcats" or as OPACs, for "online public access catalog"), which allow users to search the library's holdings from any location with Internet access. This style of catalog maintenance is compatible with new types of libraries, such as digital libraries and distributed libraries, as well as older libraries that have been retrofitted.

Basic tasks in library management include the planning of acquisitions (which materials the library should acquire, by purchase or otherwise), library classification of acquired materials, preservation of materials (especially rare and fragile archival materials such as manuscripts), patron borrowing of materials, and developing and administering library computer systems. More long-term issues include the planning of the construction of new libraries or extensions to existing ones, and the development and implementation of outreach services and reading-enchancement services (such as adult literacy and children's programming).

• Assurbanipal's library at Nineveh
• Egypt's ancient Library of Alexandria and modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina
• Persia's ancient Library of Gondishapur
• Library of Congress in Washington DC
• Library of Sir Thomas Browne
• British Library in London
• Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris
• Bodleian Library at Oxford University
• Cambridge University Library at Cambridge University
• Vatican Library in Vatican City
• Fisher Library at the University of Sydney (largest in the Southern Hemisphere)
• John Rylands Library in Manchester
• Royal Library in Copenhagen
• Carolina Rediviva at Uppsala University
• Garrison Library in Gibraltar
• New York Public Library in New York
• Free Library of Philadelphia in Philadelphia
• Staatsbibliothek in Berlin

Other libraries:

• The St. Phillips Church Parsonage Provincial Library, established in 1698 in Charleston, South Carolina, was the first public lending library in the American Colonies. See also Benjamin Franklin's free public library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Boston Public Library, an early public lending library in America, was established in 1848.
• Haskell Free Library and Opera House, "The only library in America with no books".
• St. Marys Church, Reigate, Surrey houses the first public lending library in England. Opened 14 March 1701.

Some libraries devoted to a single subject:

• Chess libraries
• Esperanto libraries
• Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, the world's largest genealogy library.

For more extensive lists, see

• List of libraries that are the subject of a Wikipedia article
• List of libraries
• List of national libraries