أنواع المكتبات: الفصل الخامس

• The fifth chapter discusses types of libraries.

Types of Libraries

• Libraries started to take shape in the 20th century.
• Their functions evolved based on the services they provide to readers and researchers.
• Governments and scientific bodies have developed libraries accordingly, so their names have varied and multiplied.
• Libraries are generally divided into three types: Public, Private, and Specialized.

Public Libraries

• Serve an unrestricted audience of readers and focus on the average reader, may include a national library.

Private Libraries

• Serve a specific audience of beneficiaries or a specific organization.

Specialized Libraries

• Serve a specific specialty.
• This division may seem arbitrary but is only intended to enumerate types of libraries.

Public Libraries: Definition

• Established based on a special law or a previously issued law.
• Open to all classes and ages for free.
• Focus on using library materials and providing organized services.
• Usually funded by public funds.

Public Libraries: Services

• Provide culture and education to all groups, whether children, adults, educated, or beginners, contribute to literacy campaigns.
• Provide specific information and answer the questions of readers and researchers upon request.
• Encourage beneficial use of leisure time through reading for entertainment or amusement.
• Supply readers and researchers with knowledge and technical skills.
• Develop artistic sense in relation to appreciating arts, such as music and literature.
• Help spread ideas contained in their scientific materials, which encourages reviving old heritage, traditions, or the like.

Branch Libraries

• Usually affiliated with a main public library and established to serve a specific area that is far from the main library, thus bringing library service closer and making it easier.
• May be established to serve a specific environment (industrial, agricultural, etc.) that has its own circumstances and needs a specific type of service.
• Need elements that guarantee their success, so it is necessary to provide them with sets of publications that meet the needs of their readers.
• Must also be provided with qualified staff who can provide excellent special service.
• The better the reputation of the branch library, the more beneficial it will be to the main library.

Mobile Libraries

• Libraries that consist of a collection of books transported in specially equipped vehicles, fitted with shelves that can hold thousands of books or more.
• These libraries (vehicles) travel to rural areas that are deprived of library services or where library services are weak, so local libraries cannot meet special needs, such as the needs of the agricultural or industrial environment.
• Their services are organized to make it easier for readers to obtain the publications they need, and their routes are periodic.
• Services may be expanded to include visiting homes in remote or elevated areas.

Public Libraries for Children

• In addition to the services that public libraries provide to children, such as allocating a place for children or allocating specific groups for them, there are public libraries for children.
• This means that the beneficiaries are children only, without any other groups.
• The role of the public library for children is determined in directing children to read for pleasure and self-discovery, which is the difference between it and the school library.

National Library

• The national library in any country is the library responsible for collecting and preserving the written intellectual output of that country for the benefit of future generations.
• This basic responsibility is complemented by other responsibilities, which are summarized as follows:
  • Collects all publications, manuscripts, and related materials pertaining to the state, whether published domestically or abroad.
  • Serves as the legal deposit center, by virtue of the legal deposit law, which obliges the author, printer, and publisher to deposit specific copies (ten, for example) in the national library, from every publication that is published, otherwise they will be exposed to legal accountability.
  • Acquires and preserves materials related to human civilization and becomes the main source for supplying scientists and researchers with its sources.
  • Prepares the national bibliography.
  • May be a main center for lending between libraries at home and abroad.
  • May be a center for organizing the exchange of publications at home and abroad.
  • Can provide special services directly or indirectly to certain groups, such as the blind or sailors.
  • Offers consultations and technical services to libraries that request them, in the areas of organization and building design, and the like.
  • May organize the process of providing local libraries with the foreign publications they need in a cooperative manner to save some money and facilitate access to publications.
  • Provides special library services to legislative and executive bodies, such as the People's Assembly and the Presidency.

Special Libraries - School Library

• The services of the school library can be generally defined as follows:
  • Actively participates in the school curriculum.
  • Complements the school curriculum by sharpening thinking and expanding imagination.
  • Encourages the use of printed materials as a source of information.
  • Makes reading easier for entertainment purposes.
  • Trains children on the correct use of the library.
  • Instills good social habits, such as self-control, reliance, initiative, respect for the rights and property of others.
  • Helps faculty members by providing them with everything new in the field of education and learning.
• Given the differences in levels and stages of education, it has become necessary for the library to be appropriate to the educational stage of the school, and as a result, we now have three types of libraries: Elementary school library.

Elementary school library

• Serves beginner kids and the service is based on the following principles:
  • Provide a suitable place and furniture for children's bodies to help them sit and read in the library.
  • Acquire books with special printing and attractive drawings that are appropriate to the works and mentalities of the little ones and make it easier for them to read and understand and train them to visit the library.
  • Allows them to borrow externally.
  • Acquire simplified references.
  • Provide a librarian or librarians to help and guide elementary school students.

Preparatory school library

• Considered a relatively recent development and, given that the preparatory stage that follows the elementary stage begins with expansion in reading and absorption of more information related to social and scientific studies.
• It is necessary to provide students with diverse groups of references to open their minds to the moving world around them.
• Render the following services:
  • Serve school curricula.
  • Provide groups of different scientific materials for entertainment and free reading.
  • Acquire appropriate groups of reference books.
  • Provide groups of materials that help teachers in teaching.
  • Guides students to the best ways to use the library.
  • Guides students and directs them in what they read.

Secondary school library

• The secondary stage is considered for students a stage of discovering experiences and talents that determine the academic direction, so the function of the library must be compatible with these circumstances.
• In addition to the secondary school library supporting curricula, it assists teachers in the fields of new educational experiences, trends and modern developments in education and teaching methods and guidance of inclinations.
• Helps students in the fields of their studies on the one hand, and in the fields of their personal tendencies and talents that often become clear during the secondary study on the other hand.
• The success of the function of the secondary school library is governed by factors, the most important of which are the services provided by an efficient, dedicated librarian with the assistance of a team of teachers.

Special Libraries Serving Specific Organizations

• Serve an individual or independent institution.
• This type of libraries exists in some governmental or economic organizations or in the private sector, and the role of these libraries is limited to serving the workers in the organization.

Specialized Libraries

• Serve a specific specialty, and the beneficiaries of the library are the specialists in the field.
• Specialized libraries take many forms:
  • College libraries, which provide support to educational programs in educational and research aspects.
  • Presenting the means of research in the largest number of research fields according to specialization.
  • Allowing non-students to benefit from library services.
  • Cooperating with the university’s main library in training new librarians.
  • Some university libraries may perform some of the services of the national library if this is more conducive to ease, effectiveness and economy.

Factors For The Success Of A University college Library

• Availability of scientific sources that the library acquires for research and expansion.
• The efficiency of the device that performs library services.
• Organizing acquisitions.
• Reputation of the place and equipment fulfillment.
• The link between the library and educational and administrative policies.
• The harmony of book sets in the library and what exists in the libraries of the local environment.

Institute Libraries

• The difference between the college and the institute is not significant, it is represented in the fact that the scope of study at the institute is more specific than in the college.
• The number of students in the institute is much less than the number of students in the college, as some institutes have fewer years of study.
• In can be similar to the library in the college with regards to its function and success factors..

University Library

• The primary distinction between a library within a college or institute and a university library lies in the former's focus on acquiring resources essential for meeting the needs of the college at the undergraduate level.
• It does not prioritize research materials for advanced scholarly work, except to a limited extent given in second place importance.
• In contrast, a university library assumes expansive responsibilities that encompass all colleges and affiliated institutes within in the third or higher tier.

Specialized Libraries In Higher Institutes and Academies

• Libraries that are limited in scope to meet the needs of a very specific academic discipline.
• Typically patronized by scholars and researchers, and their services include:
  • Specializing in areas directly related to the discipline and its associated sciences.
  • Serving as a source of modern scientific information.
  • Having accountability to aid the body it serves with its information demands and may reach the general populous.
  • Libraries as a place of research for researchers.

Where Specialist Libraries May Be Located

• Technical library that serves a specialized body or industrial or economic environment concentrated in areas where a large percentage of workers are engaged in trade or industry.