Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A place in which reading materials, such as books, periodicals, and newspapers, and often other materials such as musical and video recordings, are kept for use or lending.
  • noun A collection of such materials, especially when systematically arranged.
  • noun A room in a private home for such a collection.
  • noun An institution or foundation maintaining such a collection.
  • noun A set of things similar to a library in appearance, function, or organization, especially.
  • noun A series of books issued by a publisher.
  • noun A collection of standard routines used in computer programs, usually stored as an executable file.
  • noun A collection of cloned DNA sequences whose location and identity can be established by mapping the genome of a particular organism.
  • noun A collection of proteins generated from the collected DNA sequences that express them, used for tracking metabolic functions of proteins in diseases such as cancer, for the synthesis of new drugs, and for other proteomics research.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A place set apart for the keeping and use of books and other literary material; a room, set of rooms, or a building in which a collection of books for reading or study is kept.
  • noun A collection of books, whether manuscript or printed, which may include also pamphlets, maps, and other literary material, intended for reading, study, or reference, as distinguished from a bookseller's stock, which is intended for sale.
  • noun See the adjectives.
  • noun Specifically, a collection or stock of books kept exclusively for lending out, as a private enterprise, either for a fixed payment on each or for a periodical subscription.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A considerable collection of books kept for use, and not as merchandise
  • noun A building or apartment appropriated for holding such a collection of books.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An institution which holds books and/or other forms of stored information for use by the public or qualified people. It is usual, but not a defining feature of a library, for it to be housed in rooms of a building, to lend items of its collection to members either with or without payment, and to provide various other services for its community of users.
  • noun A collection of books or other forms of stored information. An individual may refer to his collection of books and other items as his library.
  • noun An equivalent collection of analogous information in a non-printed form, e.g. record library
  • noun computer science A collection of software subprograms that provides functionality, to be incorporated into or used by a computer program.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a depository built to contain books and other materials for reading and study
  • noun a collection of literary documents or records kept for reference or borrowing
  • noun (computing) a collection of standard programs and subroutines that are stored and available for immediate use
  • noun a room where books are kept
  • noun a building that houses a collection of books and other materials

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English librarie, from Anglo-Norman, from Latin librārium, bookcase, from neuter of librārius, of books, from liber, libr-, inner bark of trees used as a writing material, book.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English librarie, from Anglo-Norman librarie, from Old French librairie, from Latin librarium ("bookcase, chest for books"), from librarius ("concerning books"), from liber ("the inner bark of trees, paper, parchment, book"), probably derived from a Proto-Indo-European base *leub(h) (“to strip, to peel”). Displaced native Middle English bochus, bochous ("library, bookhouse") (from Old English bōchūs ("library, bookhouse")).

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Examples

  • Sorry I've not yet read The Shifter; I don't have the money to splurge on it atm, and my library doesn't have it. *nags library*

    Re-Write Wednesday: The Frankendraft Janice Hardy 2010

  • The $3,000 grant will be awarded to a single library for the best public awareness campaign incorporating the 2010 National Library Week theme, 'Communities thrive @ your library®.'

    July 2009 2009

  • Libraries across the United States are invited to apply for the $3,000 Scholastic Library Publishing National Library Week Grant, which will be awarded to a single library for the best public awareness campaign incorporating the 2010 National Library Week theme, "Communities thrive @ your library®."

    ALA and Scholastic Library Publishing announce 2010 National Library Week Grant 2009

  • Libraries across the United States are invited to apply for the $3,000 Scholastic Library Publishing National Library Week Grant, which will be awarded to a single library for the best public awareness campaign incorporating the 2010 National Library Week theme, "Communities thrive @ your library®."

    June 2009 2009

  • The $3,000 grant will be awarded to a single library for the best public awareness campaign incorporating the 2010 National Library Week theme, 'Communities thrive @ your library®.'

    Apply now for the 2010 Scholastic Library Publishing National Library Week Grant 2009

  • Also, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Investor Education Foundation and the ALA announced Saturday nearly $882,000 in grants to public libraries and library networks across the country through the Smart investing@your library® initiative.

    American Library Association Recent Press Releases 2009

  • MUDFLAP Did some more research and found that AdmitMac doesn't like input managers, so I trashed all in the library/inputmanagers and ~library/inputmanagers folders.

    MacUpdate - Mac OS X 2009

  • -- separate cover image is optional the default location of the library is in Documents and settings\ [username] \Calibre library\ but this can be changed in the settings. calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books.

    Wilders Security Forums 2010

  • We were asked to consider whether the school library is a place, a concept, a function, or a learning commons; could we re-vision school as something happening within library?

    The Changing Landscape of School Libraries 2008

  • We were asked to consider whether the school library is a place, a concept, a function, or a learning commons; could we re-vision school as something happening within library?

    October 2008 2008

Comments

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  • A sampling of beautiful ones here.

    December 24, 2008

  • "A library is a looking-glass in which the owner's mind is reflected."-Dr. Holmes

    May 1, 2009