TYPES OF LIBRARIES

Library is the store-house of knowledge for posterior use. Human knowledge can be recorded
and preserved in different media. Some years back, documents written or printed in paper were
considered as the best medium. But with the development of science and technology today
electronic multimedia have been widely used for preservation of knowledge in the libraries of
any kind whether it may be public, academic, national or special library. Since the beginning of
civilization human beings have been putting emphasis on storing of information in different
ways. However, it must be admitted that libraries in ancient times were not like those of the
present days. Libraries are dynamic and grow along with human civilization. The urge of social,
economic, intellectual and cultural improvement necessitates the development of different kinds
of libraries.
Dissemination of right information to the right reader /user at the right time is the dictum of all
the library and information centers. In short library is an agency for dissemination of
information. The basic function of library is education. The purpose of a library in modern
society is to educate the community in a wider sense. Libraries play a very important role in the
educational process of formal and non-formal learning, in research and development, in cultural
activities, in spiritual and ideological realms, in recreation and entertainment etc.

LIBRARY
Library is derived from the Latin word “Liber” which means ‘A BOOK’. Earlier a library was
“a place where books were written or kept”. This term was frequently used as a “collection of
books” and a librarian as a keeper or guard of books. This word has taken centuries to become
central point of all social actions and has got recognition as a social institution.

TYPES OF LIBRARY
According to the mode of services rendered to the readers libraries are broadly divided into four
types:
1. Academic Library
2. Special Library / Research Library
3. Public Library
4. National Library
5. Private Library

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 which is associated or attached with any
educational institution to support its educational programmes”.
Academic library is an integral part of formal education system which provides time bound
education from primary school level to university level. An academic library works as a base for
teaching, learning, research etc. We can categorize academic libraries in to following three
categories-
1. School Library
2. College Library
3. University Library.

1. School Library: A school library is a learning laboratory, providing a variety of instructional

media, essential for optimum support of the education programme. The purpose of the school
library is to attain the objectives of the educational programme. It concerns with the development
of effective methods of thinking, inculcation of social attitudes, acquisition of important
information and promoting growth and development among the children.

DEFINITION
A library associated or connected with a school and used by the students, teachers and staff of
that school is called a School Library. To achieve the above said objectives a school library
performs the following functions-
▪ It provides suitable documents and information helpful in educational programmes and
extracurricular activities of the school.
▪ It makes available text books and other additional reading material for all subjects as per the
requirement of teachers and students.

▪ It procures latest teaching learning material in the form of books, CD, audio-visuals etc. to
improve the teaching skills of teachers.

▪ It keeps reference books, dictionaries, year books, directories, encyclopedias, travel books etc.
so that students and teachers can get help of these other than the text books.

▪ It makes available biographies, autobiographies of freedom fighters and other national and
international personalities to develop respect and love for nation and humanity.

▪ It procures magazines like Readers Digest etc., different newspapers, and other light reading
material like fiction books, general knowledge books, poetry books, short animated films,
documentaries etc. for healthy recreation and entertainment purpose of students, teachers and
school staff.

▪ It provides books of simple and meaningful stories of classics, animals and birds to give moral
values and ethics to children.

▪ It makes available biographies, autobiographies of freedom fighters and other national and
international personalities to develop respect and love for nation and humanity.

The function of the school library is to help the students in the process of their self-discovery, to
adopt high ideals in life, improve scholastic efficiency through self-study and to develop the
capacity for critical thinking.

COLLEGE LIBRARY
College performs an important function in educational process. A college without a library is like
a tree with no roots. The status of every college is measured through the position of the library
that it maintains. Hence every college library should become a teaching instrument in itself. A
college library is expected to support the objectives of the college. Thus, the basic function of a
college library is to assist its parent body to carry out its programmes.
FUNCTIONS
▪ In order to help in all educational and instructional programmes of the college it develops its
collection by acquiring different documents like textbooks, audiovisuals etc. related to various
courses offered by the college.

▪ It also procures a good amount of more advanced books other than text books on different
subjects to develop a habit of deep and advanced studies among college students.

▪ It acquires reference books such as encyclopedias and other books on each and every aspect of
different subjects to enhance the understanding of subjects among students on their own besides
class-room teaching and text-books.

▪ To prepare the students for different professions and occupations and to develop their skills it
procures self-learning material, competitive exam books etc. are provided by the library.

▪ It procures newspapers, weekly and monthly magazines on current events, general knowledge
books etc. to make aware its users about their surroundings.

▪ It subscribes useful journals, research bulletins on different subjects as per the

recommendations of faculty (teachers) for research work and to keep the teachers abreast with
the latest in their disciplines.

▪ If some document is not available in the library it brings it on inter-library loan on demand of
its users.

▪ It also provides light reading material like fiction, biographies, magazines, travel book guides,
audio-visuals etc. to give healthy leisure time to its users.

▪ It procures general reference books such as dictionaries, directories, encyclopedias, yearbooks

as well as some subject specific reference books.

▪ It provides orientation training to its new users to use the library and disseminate information
time to time regarding new library services and latest books.
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
A library is more important in a University, because a library can do without a University where
as a university cannot function without a library. It is also known as the heart of university. A
university library is an integral part of the institution. It is primarily maintained for the benefit of
students, officers, faculty members and for those who are engaged in research work. It plays a
very important role in the national life of the community by acquiring material for educational
use for the benefit of students and teaching departments. The major distinction between a college
library and university library that a university library lays emphasis mainly upon research. Thus,
we find that research is a major objective of a university library. In others words, it circulates
knowledge to generate new knowledge

FUNCTIONS:
The universally recognized basic functions performed by a University Library are:
▪ By procuring comprehensive range of documents including books, manuscripts, journals,
magazines, newspapers etc. on varied subjects, it conserves knowledge and ideas.

▪ By processing the procured documents with the help of classification, cataloguing, proper shelf
arrangements it gives easy and open access to knowledge to its users;

▪ In order to organize huge collection of documents it keeps them in different sections on the
basis of their categorization like text book section, reference section, journal section, thesis
section etc.

▪ It provides facility of inter-library loan to its users if document desired by user is not available
in the library.

▪ A modern university library interacts with different information networks to give easy access to
e-sources/ data to more users so that they could access the desired information even from their
workplace. For example, in India university libraries use the facility of INFLIBNET for the same
purpose.

▪ It also provides entertainment and healthy leisure to users by providing different newspapers,
magazines, short story books, fiction, internet facility etc.
▪ It gives the user orientation training to new enrolled users to make them feel at home and to
acquaint them with the library system so that they could make maximum use of library services.

▪ With the help of display of new arrivals, old book exhibitions, information bulletins about new
library services etc. it keeps the users updated with the library Activities.
▪ It provides reference service through reference section to establish a contact between the right
reader and the right document in a personal way to attract more users.

SPECIAL LIBRARY
Special library became popular since the beginning of 20th century. A special library is one
which serves a particular group of people, such as the employees of a firm of government
department, or the staff and members of a professional or research organization. Such a library
deals essentially in AGRIC information eg IITA)
In 20th century with the development of industrial, technological and scientific advances the
concept of special libraries came in to existence. The growing need for specialized information
for further development and research came to play a vital role in the expansion of special
libraries.

DEFINITION
According to American Library Association (ALA ) glossary of library and information science-
SPECIAL LIBRARY is “a library established, supported and administered by a business firm,
private corporation, association, government agency, or other special interest group or agency to
meet the information needs of its members or staff in pursuing the goals of the organization.
Scope of collections and services is limited to the subject interest of the host or parent
organization”.

FUNCTIONS:
A special library performs primarily the following functions:
▪ It selects and procures documents and other sources of relevant information. It processes the
procured information or documents with the help of classification, cataloguing, shelf
arrangements etc. to make them easily available for the users.
▪ It subscribes to a good number of journals related to its area.

▪ It provides indexing and abstracting services to the users to save their time.

▪ It provides reference services to the users by telephone, by post or by e-mail.

▪ It gives current awareness service (CAS) regarding new arrivals and latest services to the user.

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

▪ It also gives document delivery service to its users at their doorstep.

▪ It brings out library bulletins weekly/fortnightly/monthly to keep the users up to date with latest
information.

▪ It gives translation services to provide the desired information to the users in their convenient
language.

▪ It also provides intranet as well as internet facility to the users in order to access the library
collection and catalogues at their desktop.

▪ It responds to the reference queries and make retrospective search of literature as per the users’
demand.

▪ It compiles bibliographies, union catalogues, documentation lists, newspaper- clippings,

accession lists etc. to save the time of its users.

▪ It provides inter library loan (ILL) facility to the users.

▪ It gives user orientation training through personal interaction with users and by library brochure
and pamphlets to make the users familiar with the library collection and services.

PUBLIC LIBRARY
A public library (also called circulating library) is a library which is accessible by the public and
is generally funded from public sources (such as tax money) and may be operated by the civil
servants. Taxing bodies for public libraries may be at any level from local to national central
government level. The public library is an excellent model of government at its best. A locally
controlled public good, it serves every individual freely, in as much or as little depth as he or she
wants.

NATIONAL LIBRARY

A national library is a library specifically established by the government of a country to serve as

the preeminent repository of information for that country. Unlike public libraries, these rarely
allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, or significant
works. A National Library is that library which has the duty of collecting and preserving the
literature of the nation within and outside the country, Thus, National Library are those libraries
whose community is the nation at large.

NATIONAL LIBRARY keeps all documents of and about a nation under some legal provision
and thus represents publications of and about the whole nation.

FUNCTIONS:
Some basic functions performed by a national library are:
▪ 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 also procures foreign publications about the country and by the authors of Indian origin
living abroad.

▪ 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 develops and maintains different bibliographic data bases and works as a national
bibliographic center.

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