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Library. A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location, a virtual space, or both.
The history of libraries began with the first efforts to organize collections of documents.Topics of interest include accessibility of the collection, acquisition of materials, arrangement and finding tools, the book trade, the influence of the physical properties of the different writing materials, language distribution, role in education, rates of literacy, budgets, staffing, libraries for ...
Library science (often termed library studies and library economy) [note 1] is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and other areas to libraries; the collection, organization, preservation, and dissemination of information resources; and the political economy of information.
The culmination of centuries of advances in the printing press, moveable type, paper, ink, publishing, and distribution, combined with an ever-growing information-oriented middle class, increased commercial activity and consumption, new radical ideas, massive population growth and higher literacy rates forged the public library into the form that it is today.
The library's expansion eventually filled the library's Main Building, although it used shelving expansions in 1910 and 1927. The library needed to expand into a new structure. Congress acquired nearby land in 1928 and approved construction of the Annex Building (later known as the John Adams Building ) in 1930.
A research library is a library that contains an in-depth collection of material on one or several subjects. [1] A research library will generally include an in-depth selection of materials on a particular topic or set of topics and contain primary sources as well as secondary sources. Research libraries are established to meet research needs ...
Trends in library usage. With over 17,000 libraries and 2.5 billion materials circulated annually in the United States alone, libraries are a ubiquitous part of the American landscape. [ 1 ] However, as libraries modernize, they face an increasingly harsh budget environment, as well as technological disruption in media, scholarship, and ...
Library history is a subdiscipline within library science and library and information science focusing on the history of libraries and their role in societies and cultures. [ 1 ] Some see the field as a subset of information history. [ 2 ] Library history is an academic discipline and should not be confused with its object of study (history of ...