Types of Library

    

Public Library

A  Public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is generally funded from public sources (such as taxes) and operated by civil servants. Public libraries exist in many countries across the world and are often considered an essential part of having an educated and literate population. The most widely accepted definition of a public library was formulated by UNESCO in 1949, which was revised in 1972 and again revised in 1994, and is known as the UNESCO Public Library Manifesto. According to UNESCO, public libraries are the “local gateway to knowledge, provide basic condition for lifelong learning, independent decision-making and cultural development of the individual and social group.

Functions of Public Libraries:

• ·         Help the life-long self-education of one and all;
• ·         Furnish up-to-date facts and information on all subjects to one and all
• ·         Preserve the cultural heritage of the country
• ·         The care of a collection of books means protection and preservation of collection.
• ·         To make them accessible in real sense so that the right person can get right information at the right time.

   Examples :

Ø  Delhi Public Library, Delhi.

Ø  Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna

Ø  Connemara Public Library, Chennai

 Academic Library

Academic library is the library which is attached to academic institutions like schools, colleges and universities. An academic library serves more specifically the students, research scholars, teachers and staff of the academic institution. Main objective of an academic library is to give maximum learning materials to its clientele so that they may be fully educated in their respective level. Academic libraries are categorized into school libraries, college libraries and university libraries. An Academic Library has been defined as: “A library is associated or attached with any educational institution to support its educational programmes”.

Functions of Academic Library :

·         The library supports and facilitates faculty teaching activities.

·         The library helps undergraduates develop research and information literacy skills.

·         The library provides active support that helps increase the productivity of faculty research and scholarship.

·         The library pays for resources faculty members need, from academic journals to books to electronic databases

·         The library serves as a repository of resources; in other words, it archives, preserves, and keeps track of resources.

Examples :

Ø  Jawaharlal Nehru University Library

Ø  St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata

Ø  Delhi Public School Library, New Delhi

Special Libraries

Special libraries were intended to serve a particular institution that has a specific role to play and they were therefore mainly “one subject” libraries. Special libraries include corporate libraries, law libraries, medical libraries, museum libraries, news libraries, and non-profit libraries. Special libraries are also sometimes known as information centres.  Harrod’s Librarians’ Glossary of Terms defines that a, “Special library is a collection of books and other printed, graphic or recorded material dealing with a limited field of knowledge and provided by a learned society, research organization, industrial or commercial undertaking, government department or even an educational institution.

Functions of special Library :

·         Performs exhaustive literature search to compile comprehensive lists;

·         Selects, procures, organizes, stores and retrieves current information required by the users;

·         Analyses, synthesizes and evaluates available information;

·         It provides Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) service to the users as per their subject interest and requirement; 

Examples :

Ø  Research Organisations –

Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi

Ø  Libraries of Societies and Institutions –

U.P. Historical Society, Lucknow

 Government Library

Beginning from the twentieth century, the responsibility of governments increased in several areas of national growth and development for the welfare of the people. This again created the need for library support for various types of information to deal with the work of different ministries and departments of governments.

Functions of Govt. Libraries

·         government libraries have a responsibility to collect all government publications of their respective ministries and departments. They organise special services at short notice in supplying appropriate material to senior level officers and provide short and condensed reports for them.

Examples :

·         The Central Secretariat Library (CSL), founded in 1891 is one of the oldest government libraries of the country.

National Library 

A National Library is a library specifically established and funded by the government of a country to serve as the pre-eminent repository of information for that country. National libraries collect and preserve the nation’s literature. Most national libraries receive, by legal right (or copyright, or deposit), one free copy of each book and periodical printed in the country.

Functions of National Library :

·         It works as a national depository library for all literary work published in the country.

·         It freely collects copies of all published material in the country under legal provision or by law.

·         It compiles national bibliographies to disseminate information about literary output of the country.

·         It works as an apex body of the national library system and coordinates with other libraries in the country.

·         It also exchanges data and documents at national and international level.

Examples :

Ø  National Library of India-Kolkata,

Ø  British Library-London,

Ø  Library of Congress- Washington

 Physical Library

A physical library (aka traditional library) is a viewed as a learning place that houses collections of books, periodicals, newspapers and other publications in print media and used for education, learning and awareness. Physical libraries exist in various sizes ranging from single-room size library to multi-rooms, multi-floors, or multi-floors and multi-building libraries.

 Electronic Library

The Electronic Library System enables users to obtain open digitized data from anywhere in the world by online access. A library which comprises collections of ‘born-digital’ electronic resources is called an electronic library. The word ‘electronic’ connotes ‘electronic media’ - such as a computer disk, CD, DVD, magnetic tape. We use electronic media to store information in digital format. The Electronic Library System was developed on the basis of the following five concepts: Digital, Network, Interactive, Multimedia, Scalable.

 Digital Library

The term digital library is more inclusive; it covers mixed collections – collections of digitised materials which have physical counterpart plus electronic collections that are ‘born-digital’ – as well as digital services such as digitisation and electronic reference service. The term digital library was first popularized by the NSF/DARPA/NASA Digital Libraries Initiative in 1994. Digital libraries can vary immensely in size and scope, and can be maintained by individuals or organizations. An early example of a digital library is the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC).

Virtual Library

Virtual Library is another kind of Digital Library which provides portal to information that is available electronically elsewhere. This is referred so to emphasize that the Library does not itself hold content. Libraries in a virtual space using computers and computer networks. For example, subject gateways that search remote locations for information. Virtual library has no physical counterpart such as CD, DVD and computer disk. Virtual Libraries thus combine materials in electronic format with an electronic network which ensures access to and delivery of those materials. The Virtual Library was first conceived and run by Tim Berners-Lee.

Reference

• IGNOU. Library and Society. BLIS-01. Block 2. Unit 5-8.New Delhi: IGNOU, 1999. Print
• Isaac, K. A. Libraries and Librarianship. Madras: S Viswanathan Printers and Publishers Ltd, 1987. Print.
  
• http://www.lisbdnet.com/types-libraries-academic-public-nationalspecial-library/
  
• http://www.netugc.com/librarians-in-different-types-of-libraries