Academic libraries
are a type of
library
that focuses on education materials. They are usually part of a
university
or
college
.
Academic libraries need to choose carefully what items they should have, because it is not practical to try and have unlimited items in the library. Librarians can make this decision based on what students, faculty, and other people at the school need. Some academic libraries have special collections with original papers and rare items. Academic libraries can be very different from each other. They can be very different sizes, have different items, and do different things.
The
Harvard University Library
is the biggest academic library in the world,
[1]
but the
Danish Royal Library
(which is a
national library
and an academic library) has a larger collection.
[2]
The
University of the South Pacific
is another big lacademic library, it has libraries in twelve different countries.
[3]
The
University of California
has the largest academic library system in the world, with more than 40.8 million print volumes across 100 libraries on ten campuses.
[4]
Libraries have been around for a very long time. Two of the oldest libraries we know about are the
Library of Alexandria
and the Library of Nalanda University, which apparently burned for months because of the sheer number of manuscripts.
[5]
The first colleges in the United States were to train clergy members. These libraries mostly had donated books. In 1766,
Yale
had about 4,000 books, second only to
Harvard
.
[6]
Only faculty members and some students were allowed in these librarys and there was only one librarian.
[7]
The library's purpose was to protect books, not to let people read them.
End
In 1849, Yale was open 30 hours a week and the
University of Virginia
was open nine hours a week,
Columbia University
four, and
Bowdoin College
only three.
[8]
Because students could not use the libraries, they made literary societies and built small collection of usable books, usually more than what the library let them use.
[8]
The
American Library Association
(ALA) was formed in 1876 and libraries changed their purpose to let more people access their materials. This meant they got more money from the universities because people were using them more.
[9]
Academic libraries in Canada are not as old as other counties. The first academic library in Canada opened in 1789 in
Windsor, Nova Scotia
.
[10]
A
cademic libraries were very small until the 1950s, when Canadian academic libraries began to grow when people started to think education and research was more important.
[10]
In the 1960s, academic libraries grew a lot because of universities have more students, having more money, and people starting to admire libraries.
[11]
The Ontario New Universities Library Project started in the 1960s, and many libraries got extra money from the Canada Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, because they wanted to make the library's collections bigger.
[10]
After the 60s, library growth in Canada slowed down because they were being given less money.
[12]
Libraries had started interlibrary lending, and getting more resources, which cost more money.
[12]
Canadian academic libraries often didn't have supplies and weren't organised well.
[13]
Academic libraries in Canada managed to do well because they were helped by other organisations. The Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) was created in 1967 to help Canadian libraries work together better.
[14]
The Ontario College and University Library Association (OCULA) is conencted to the Ontario Library Association (OLA) and helps academic librarians with issues about academic libraries.
[15]
Some of the oldest academic libraries in Europe include the
Bodleian Library
at the
University of Oxford
, the Library of Trinity College Dublin, and the Vilnius University Library in Lithuania.
European libraries are similar to ones in Norther America. European libraries as less likely to use the
Dewey Decimal Classification
(DDC) asmany have their own way of organising materials.
[16]
Lot's of 21st century libraries have digital collections. Academic libraries today often let people have access to journals that are behind
paywalls
, and loan out eb
Academic libraries have transformed in the 21st century to focus less on physical collection development, information access, and digital resources. Today's academic libraries typically provide access to subscription-based online resources, including research databases and
ebooks
.
Academic libraries usually have space for students to work and study, in groups or by themself.They sometimes have "silent areas" for people who want to study in silence, and a help desk.
[17]
[18]
Some academic libraries lend out technology like video cameras, iPads, and calculators. Lot's of academic libraries focus on teaching people information literacy (how to read and understand material well).
[19]
In many academic libraries, librarians are considered faculty.
[20]
- ↑
Pezzi, Bryan (2000).
Massachusetts
. Weigl Publishers. p.
15
.
ISBN
978-1-930954-35-9
.
- ↑
"Arsberetning 2015"
(PDF)
(in Danish). 2015
. Retrieved
2017-08-28
.
- ↑
Curzon, Susan; Jennie Quinonez-Skinner (9 September 2009).
Academic Libraries
. pp. 11?22.
doi
:
10.1081/E-ELIS3-120044525
.
ISBN
978-0-8493-9712-7
. Retrieved
10 September
2013
– via Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences.
- ↑
Westbrook, Danielle Watters; Chua, Kristen.
"Facts and Figures ? UC Libraries"
.
UC Libraries
.
Archived
from the original on 1 December 2022
. Retrieved
20 February
2023
.
- ↑
"Nalanda?the lost beacon of knowledge"
.
Times of India Travel
. Retrieved
2022-11-14
.
- ↑
Budd, John M. (1998).
The Academic Library: Its Context, Its Purpose, and Its Operation
. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited. pp.
30?31
.
- ↑
McCabe, Gerard; Ruth J. Person (1995).
Academic Libraries: Their Rationale and Role in American Higher Education
. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp.
1
?3.
- ↑
8.0
8.1
Budd (1998), p. 34
- ↑
McCabe (1995), pp. 1-3.
- ↑
10.0
10.1
10.2
Beckman, M.; Dahms, M.; Lorne, B. (2010).
"Libraries"
. Archived from
the original
on 14 September 2012.
- ↑
Downs, R. B. (1967).
Resources of Canadian academic and research libraries
. Ottawa, ON.: Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. pp.
9
.
- ↑
12.0
12.1
University research libraries: Report of the consultative group on university research libraries
. Ottawa, ON: The Canada Council. 1978. p. 4.
- ↑
University research libraries: Report of the consultative group on university research libraries
. Ottawa, ON: The Canada Council. 1978. p. 2.
- ↑
"A History of Collaboration"
.
Ontario Council of University Libraries
. 2011. Archived from
the original
on 2012-08-26
. Retrieved
2017-02-17
.
- ↑
Ontario Library Association (n.d.).
"About OCULA"
. Archived from
the original
on 6 December 2011.
- ↑
"Library Resources Outside the U.S."
Brown University Library
. 2020
. Retrieved
2023-04-28
.
- ↑
"Changing Roles of Academic and Research Libraries"
.
Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL)
. 2018-05-30
. Retrieved
2019-07-12
.
- ↑
"Explore 5th Floor USF Libraries Tampa in 3D"
.
Matterport
. Retrieved
2023-09-20
.
- ↑
Research Planning and Review Committee, ACRL (5 June 2018).
"2018 top trends in academic libraries: A review of the trends and issues affecting academic libraries in higher education"
(PDF)
.
College & Research Libraries News
.
79
(6): 286.
doi
:
10.5860/crln.79.6.286
.
- ↑
"Academic Libraries"
.
Education & Careers
. American Library Association. 2016-07-21
. Retrieved
2019-07-12
.
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