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Definition: Library |
LibraryNoun1. A room where books are kept; "they had brandy in the library". 2. A collection of literary documents or records kept for reference or borrowing. 3. A depository built to contain books and other materials for reading and study. 4. (computing) a collection of standard programs and subroutines that are stored and available for immediate use. 5. A building that houses a collection of books and other materials. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "library" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references) |
Etymology: Library \Li"bra*ry\ (l[imac]"br[asl]*r[y^]), noun; plural Libraries(-r[i^]z). [Old English librairie, French librairie bookseller's shop, book trade, formerly, a library, from libraire bookseller, Latin librarius, from liber book; compare to libraria bookseller's shop, librarium boo. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | Library |
19th Century Satire | From Fr. libre, meaning free, and proper name ANDY. Something free from Andy Carnegie. Source: Foolish Dictionary, 1904. |
Aerospace | In computer operations, a collection of programs, routines, and subroutines by which problems (and parts of problems) of many types can be solved. (references) |
Dream Interpretation | To dream that you are in a library, denotes that you will grow discontented with your environments and associations and seek companionship in study and the exploration of ancient customs. To find yourself in a library for other purpose than study, foretells that your conduct will deceive your friends, and where you would have them believe that you had literary aspirations, you will find illicit assignations. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Information | Any organized collection of printed books and periodicals or of any other graphic or audio-visual materials and the service of a staff to provide and facilitate the use of such materials as are required to meet the informational, research, educational or recreational needs of its users. Source: European Union. (references) |
Literature | Library One of the most approved materials for writing on, before the invention of paper, was the thin rind between the solid wood and the outside bark of certain trees. This substance is in Latin called liber, which came in time to signify also a "book." Hence our library, the place for books; librarian, the keeper of books; and the French livre, a book. Some interesting facts concerning books and libraries will be found in Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature. A circulating library. A library from which the books may be borrowed and taken by readers to their homes under certain restrictions. A living or walking library. Longinus, the philosopher and rhetorician, was so called. (213-273.) Public Libraries. Ancient. The first public library known was founded at Athens (B.C. 540) by Pisistratos. That of Alexandria, founded (B.C. 47) by the Ptolemies, contained 400,000 books. It was burnt by order of the Calif Omar, A.D. 641. The first public library of Rome was founded by Asinus Pollio; the second, called the Palatine, by Augustus. The royal library of the Fatimites of Egypt contained 100,000 manuscripts, splendidly bound. (Gibbon.) The library of the Ommiades of Spain contained 600,000 volumes, 44 of which were catalogues. (Gibbon.) There were seventy public libraries in the kingdom of Andalusia. (Gibbon.) When the monastery of Croydon was burnt, in 1091, its library consisted of 900 volumes, 300 of which were very large. (Ingulphus.) Modern. The British Museum library contains above 32 miles of book-shelves, 1,250,000 volumes, and 89,000 MSS. Some 40,000 additions are made yearly. The Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, founded by Louis XIV., is the largest library in the world. It contains above 1,400,000 volumes, 500,000 pamphlets, 175,000 manuscripts, 300,000 maps and charts, 150,000 coins and medals, 1,400,000 engravings, contained in 10,000 volumes, and 100,000 portraits. The Impériale, France, contains about 600,000 books, 500,000 pamphlets, and 85,000 manuscripts. The Munich Library contains about 600,000 books and 10,000 manuscripts. The Vienna, about 500,000 books and 20,000 manuscripts. The Vatican, about 200,000 books and 40,000 manuscripts. The Imperial Library of Russia, about 650,000 books and 21,000 manuscripts. The Copenhagen Library, about 500,000 books and 15,000 manuscripts. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
This article is about collections of books and other materials. For libraries used in computer software, see Library (computer science).In its most general sense a library is a collection of books and other reference materials. The term is usually used to refer to a public, school, or institutional library. Such a library is open to consultation by the public, students, or patrons or employees of an institution, and often features a reference desk. Many libraries (called lending libraries) make at least some of their books available for borrowing, so readers can use them at home, over a period of days or weeks. As well as books, many libraries are now repositories and/or access points for other media, such as maps, microfilm, microfiche, audio tapes, CDss, LPs, video tapes, CD-ROMs and DVDs, and have facilities to use the Internet.
Etymology of the word
The word is derived from Latin liber, which means "book." Derivations from the Greek Bibliotheke (from Biblos, book) are used in at least German, French, Spanish, Swedish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Dutch. Other languages, such as Icelandic, Finnish, and Estonian, use words that derive from their own words for book (Bokasafn, Kirjasto, and Raamatukogu, respectively).
Library management
Basic tasks in library management include the planning of acquisition (which materials should be acquired), library classification, preservation of materials (especially rare and fragile materials such as manuscripts), borrowing, and developing and administering library computer systems. More long-term issues include the planning of the construction of new libraries or extensions to existing ones.
Library instruction
Many users do not know how to use a library correctly. Fear and anxiety are common in some users. An entire movement has sprung up to advocate library user education. The common term is library instruction. For example, library instruction has been practiced in the USA since the 19th century. One of the leaders of the library instruction movement in the late 20th and early 21st centuries is Michael Lorenzen.
Some famous libraries
Most of the countries of the world have their own National Libraries:
- Egypt's ancient Library of Alexandria and modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina
- Library of Congress in Washington DC
- Library of Sir Thomas Browne
- British Library in London
- Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris
- Bodleian Library at Oxford University
- University Library at Cambridge University
- Fisher Library at the University of Sydney (largest in the Southern Hemisphere)
- John Rylands Library in Manchester
Other libraries:
- Canada - National Library of Canada - http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/index-e.html
- Germany - Die Deutsche Bibliothek - http://www.ddb.de/
- Netherlands - Koninklijke Bibliotheek - http://www.kb.nl/
- Sweden - Kungliga Biblioteket - http://www.kb.se/
Some libraries that specialize in one subject:
- The St. Phillips Church Parsonage Provincial Library, established in 1698 in Charleston, South Carolina, was the first public lending library in the American Colonies. See also Benjamin Franklin's free public library in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- Boston Public Library, an early public lending library in America, was established in 1848.
- Haskell Free Library and Opera House, "The only library in America with no books".
See also: Digital library, Library and information science, Literature, Public library, Catalog, slide library, Dewey Decimal Classification
- Chess libraries
- Esperanto libraries
- Family History Library in Salt Lake City, the largest genealogy library
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Library."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In computer science, a library is a collection of subprograms used to develop software. Libraries are distinguished from executables in that they are not independent programss; rather, they are "helper" code that provides services to some other independent program.
Well-known libraries include:
Library linking describes the inclusion of one or more of these software libraries into a new program. There are multiple types of linking: static linking and dynamic linking. These are described below.
- C standard library, whose implementations include glibc
- The Standard Template Library for C++
- Graphic libraries
Static Linking
Static linking is linking in which a library is embedded into the program executable at compile time by a linker. A linker is a separate utility which takes one or more libraries and object files (which are previously generated by a compiler or an assembler) and produces an actual executable file.
One of the biggest disadvantages of static linking is that the resulting executable file becomes larger and therefore consumes a larger amount of system resources and takes longer to load into memory.
Examples of libraries which are traditionally designed to be statically linked include the ANSI C standard library and the ALIB assembler library.
Dynamic Linking
Dynamic linking is linking in which a library is loaded by the operating system's loader separately from the executable file at loadtime or runtime.
Most operating systems resolve external dependencies like libraries (called imports) as part of the loading process. For these systems, the executables contain a table called an import directory which is a variable-length array of imports. Each element in the array contains a name of a library. The loader searches the hard disk for the needed library, loads it into memory at an unpredictable location and updates the executable with the library's location in memory. The executable then uses this information to call functions and access data stored in the library. This type of dynamic linking is called loadtime linking and is used by most operating systems including Windows and Linux. Loadtime linking is one of the most complex routines the loader performs while loading an application.
Other operating systems resolve dependencies at runtime. For these systems, the executable calls an operating system API, passing it the name of a library file, a function number within the library and the function's parameters. The operating system resolves the import immediately and calls the appropriate function on behalf of the application. This type of dynamic linking is called runtime linking. Because of the overhead added to each call, runtime linking is incredibly slow and negatively affects an executable's performance. As a result, runtime linking is rarely used by modern operating systems.
In dynamic linking the library, commonly referred to as a dynamic link library (DLL) or shared library, is a pre-compiled and linked executable file which is stored separately on the computer's hard disk. It is loaded only when needed by an application. In most cases, multiple applications can use the same copy of the library at the same time and there is no need for the operating system to load multiple instances of the library into memory concurrently. In these cases, the libraries are stateless. That is, any data which must be stored by the library is stored by the application(s) it is serving. For this reason, these dynamic libraries are considered in-process.
One of the largest disadvantages of dynamic linking is that the executables depend on the separately stored libraries in order to function properly. If the library is deleted, moved, renamed or replaced with an incompatible version, the executable could malfunction. This is commonly known as DLL-hell.
All Windows
*.DLLfiles are dynamically linked libraries.
Shared Library
Libraries can be linked dynamically. In Microsoft Windows, those are called dynamically linked library, or DLL. Conventional libraries are often called static library to distinguish from shared libraries.A DLL is a software library (often stored in a file) consisting of a collection of resources or routines that are available to other programs. A program that wants to use these routines is linked (see linker) with the DLL at the time it is actually started or later. Oppose this with a static library, the contents of which are copied into the program when the program is compiled and linked.
A program performing the former task is called a loader, while the latter task is accomplished by a linker. However, to link a program against a DLL, thus making the program request that a particular DLL be loaded when it is started, the linker also needs to look into the DLL to verify that all symbols (routines and variables) used by the program are actually provided by the DLL, thus leaving the impression that dynamic linking is performed at compile time, while it actually happens at run time (in most cases, at program start time).
The process of making resources available to other programs is called exporting. Most common forms of exports include procedures (functions, routines, subroutines), variables, and some sorts of static data, e.g. icons. Exported procedures are also called entry points, because invoking them is akin to "entering" the library. In order to allow access to them, the resources receive names, which are written down inside a table, also containing their offsets inside the file. These names (and sometimes, by analogy, the resources they represent) are called symbols. Similarly, the table is called symbol table.
In most modern operating systems, shared libraries can be of the same format as the "regular" executables. This allows two main advantages: first, it requires making only one loader for them, rather than two. Secondly, it allows the executables also to be used as DLLs, if they have a symbol table (see below). Typical executable/DLL formats are ELF (UNIX) and PE (Microsoft Windows). In Windows, the concept was taken one step further, even system resources such as fonts being bundled in the DLL file format.
Executables are less likely to have a symbol table (they are not mandatory and are usually stripped down to save space), as opposed to DLLs which need one to serve their purpose. Aside from that, from most other aspects, the difference between DLLs and executables in modern operating systems is mostly conventional, as the other data structures are shared between the two types of files. Both have a record pointing at a main entry point. While an executable's main entry point is used by the operating system to launch it, the operating system uses a DLL's main entry point only when it is loaded by some application, to initialize that DLL. In other words, the user of the operating system cannot directly cause the invokation of the main (or indeed any other) entry point of a DLL.
The term DLL is mostly used on Windows products. On the UNIX platform, the term shared library is more commonly used. In some cases, an operating system can become overloaded with different versions of DLLs, which impedes its performance and stability. Such a scenario is known as DLL-hell.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Library (computer science)."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Royal Library of Alexandria was once the largest in the Mediterranean world. It is usually assumed to have been founded at the beginning of the 3rd century BC during the reign of Ptolemy II of Egypt after his father had set up the Temple of the Muses or Museum. The initial organization is attributed to Demetrius Phalereus. Since most writings from the ancient world have been lost, most stories about the Library are gathered from bits and pieces of information in various histories and legends - because of this they are rarely reliable. The library is estimated to have stored at its peak 400,000 to 700,000 scrolls.One story holds that the Library was seeded, so to speak, with Aristotle's own private collection, through one of his students, Demetrius. Another concerns how its collection grew so large. By decree of Ptolemy III of Egypt, all visitors to the city were required to surrender all books and scrolls in their possession; these writings were then swiftly copied by official scribes. The originals were put into the Library, and the copies were delivered to the previous owners. While encroaching on the rights of the traveler or merchant, it also helped to create a reservoir of books in the relatively new city.
The Library's contents were likely distributed over several buildings, with the main library either located directly attached to or close to the oldest building, the Museum, and a daughter library in the younger Serapeum, also a temple dedicated to the God Serapis. Edward Parsons provides the following description of the main library based on the existing historical records:
- A covered marble colonnade connected the Museum with an adjacent stately building, also in white marble and stone, architecturally harmonious, indeed forming an integral part of the vast pile, dedicated to learning by the wisdom of the first Ptolemy in following the advice and genius of Demetrios of Phaleron. This was the famous Library of Alexandria, the "Mother" library of the Museum, the Alexandriana, truly the foremost wonder of the ancient world. Here in ten great Halls, whose ample walls were lined with spacious armaria, numbered and titled, were housed the myriad manuscripts containing the wisdom, knowledge, and information, accumulated by the genius of the Hellenic peoples. Each of the ten Halls was assigned to a separate department of learning embracing the assumed ten divisions of Hellenic knowledge as may have been found in the Catalogue of Callimachus of Greek Literature in the Alexandrian Library, the farfamed Pinakes. The Halls were used by the scholars for general research, although there were smaller separate rooms for individuals or groups engaged in special studies.
Destruction of the Great Library
One of the reasons so little is known about the Library is that it was probably burned to the ground centuries after its creation. All that is left of many of the volumes are tantalizing titles that hint at all the history lost from the building's destruction.
One of the stories about what caused the loss of the Library concerns Julius Caesar. Edward Parsons has analyzed this theory in his book The Alexandrian Library. His summary is:
The majority of ancient historians, even those who have tried to discredit Caesar with everything they could find, give no account of the alleged massive disaster. This is hardly surprising when we note that the library was not mentioned by any historians while it still existed either. We have only one contemporary reference to it and that is in the Jewish apographical work, the Letter of Aristeas. It is also inconcievable that Seneca, Plutarch, Aulus Gellius and Ammianus would be writing about the destruction of the library if it still existed! We cannot be sure it was destroyed by Caesar but we can be sure it no longer existed by about AD 100.
- A final summary is interesting: of the 16 writers, 10, Caesar himself, the author of the Alexandrian War, Cicero, Strabo, Livy (as far as we know), Lucan, Florus, Suctonius, Appian, and even Athenaeus apparently knew nothing of the burning of the Museum, of the Library, or of Books during Caesar's visit to Egypt; and 6 tell of the incident as follows:
- 1. Seneca (AD 49), the first writer to mention it (and that nearly 100 years after the alleged event), definitely says that 40,000 books were burned.
- 2. Plutarch (c. 117.) says that the fire destroyed the great Library.
- 3. Aulus Gellius (123 - 169) says that during the "sack" of Alexandria 700,000 volumes were all burned.
- 4. Dio Cassius (155 - 235) says that storehouses containing grain and books were burned, and that these books were of great number and excellence.
- 5. Ammianus Marcellinus (390) says that in the "sack" of the city 70,000 volumes were burned.
- 6. Orosius (c. 415), the last writer, singularly confirms Seneca as to number and the thing destroyed: 40,000 books.
It is also notable that Plutarch, who claimed the Great Library was destroyed (150 years after the alleged incident), in Life of Antony also describes the later transfer of the second largest library to Alexandria by Mark Antony as a gift to Cleopatra ("that he had given her the library of Pergamus, containing two hundred thousand distinct volumes"). We should note, however, that Plutarch himself states this story was propaganda by Antony's enemies and that the excavated library at Pergamum has room for only about 30,000 scrolls anyway.
The destruction of the library is attributed by some historians to a period of civil war in the late 3rd century AD -- but we know that the Museum, which was adjacent to the library, survived until the 4th century. Other theories involve the hand of Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, or the Caliph Omar, an early Muslim. "The Venerable Bede" argues that both of these accounts have many issues regarding their reliability. The account which indicts Theophilus, he claims, is simply incorrect on the time scale and location. The first writer to mention Christians destroying the Library was Edward Gibbon in the 18th century - no ancient sources say so at all. For Omar, he concludes that the theory seems to have begun in the Middle Ages as a Christian attack on the Muslims, and includes many indications of fabrication, such as the claim that the contents of the Library took six months to burn in Alexandria's public baths.
It is generally known that Theophilus did in fact destroy some pagan temples that existed in Alexandria in 391 AD, most famously the Serapeum, but it is uncertain whether the Serapeum still contained books at the time or whether those had been lost earlier. Ammianus, a pagan historian, says it did not. Socrates Scholasticus gives the following account of the destruction of the temples:
The following scroll from the early 5th century illustrates the destruction of the Serapeum by Theophilus (source: Christopher Haas: Alexandria in late antiquity, Baltimore 1997):
- "Demolition of the Idolatrous Temples at Alexandria, and the Consequent Conflict between the Pagans and Christians."
- "At the solicitation of Theophilus bishop of Alexandria the emperor issued an order at this time for the demolition of the heathen temples in that city; commanding also that it should be put in execution under the direction of Theophilus. Seizing this opportunity, Theophilus exerted himself to the utmost to expose the pagan mysteries to contempt. And to begin with, he caused the Mithreum to be cleaned out, and exhibited to public view the tokens of its bloody mysteries. Then he destroyed the Serapeum, and the bloody rights of the Mithreum he publicly caricatured; the Serapeum also he showed full of extravagant superstitions, and he had the phalli of Priapus carried through the midst of the forum. [...] Thus this disturbance having been terminated, the governor of Alexandria, and the commander-in-chief of the troops in Egypt, assisted Theophilus in demolishing the heathen temples. These were therefore razed to the ground, and the images of their gods molten into pots and other convenient utensils for the use of the Alexandrian church; for the emperor had instructed Theophilus to distribute them for the relief of the poor. All the images were accordingly broken to pieces, except one statue of the god before mentioned, which Theophilus preserved and set up in a public place; `Lest,' said he, `at a future time the heathens should deny that they had ever worshiped such gods.'"
To commemorate the ancient library, the government of Egypt has built a major library and museum complex at Alexandria, called the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Its website is available at http://www.bibalex.gov.eg.
References
- Edward Parsons: The Alexandrian Library. London, 1952. Relevant online excerpt.
- Ellen N. Brundige: "The Library of Alexandria", http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/GreekScience/Students/Ellen/Museum.html
- "The Venerable Bede": "The Mysterious Fate of the Great Library of Alexandria", http://www.bede.org.uk/library.htm
- Mostafa El-Abbadi: Life and fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria. Paris: UNESCO, 1992 (second, revised edition) ISBN 92-3-102632-1
- Luciano Canfora: The Vanished Library. A Wonder of the Ancient World, trans. Martin Ryle. University of California Press. Berkeley, 1989 ISBN 0-520-07255-3
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Library of Alexandria."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| LIB | English | Standard Parts Library | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: LibrarySynonyms: depository library (n), program library (n), subroutine library (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Book | Library, bibliotheca. |
Experiment | Literature search, library research. |
Receptacle | Chamber, apartment, room, cabin; office, court, hall, atrium; suite of rooms, apartment, flat, story; saloon, salon, parlor; by-room, cubicle; presence chamber; sitting room, best room, keeping room, drawing room, reception room, state room; gallery, cabinet, closet; pew, box; boudoir; adytum, sanctum; bedroom, dormitory; refectory, dining room, salle-a-manger; nursery, schoolroom; library, study; studio; billiard room, smoking room; den; stateroom, tablinum, tenement. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | When you get divorced you turn in your library card (The Big Lebowski; writing credit: Ethan Coen; Joel Coen) You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for a buck fifty in late charges at the public library. (Good Will Hunting; writing credit: Matt Damon; Ben Affleck) What little I knew about seial killers I learned in a university library. The only thing I knew for certain was that people didn't kill each other in libraries (Kalifornia; writing credit: Tim Metcalfe. Starring Brad Pitt as Early Grayce, Juliette Lewis as Adele Corners, David Duchovny as Brian Kessler, and Michelle Forbes as Carrie Laughlin.) Hey, hey, this is not a lending library. If you're not going to buy that thing put it down or I'll blow your heads off (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) The Library of Congress (Bachelor Party; writing credit: Bob Israel; Neal Israel) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Let's Be Good Citizens at the Library (1954) Library of Congress (1945) Portrait of a Library (1940) The Lady in the Library (1917) A Lady in the Library (1916) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References | |||
Books |
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Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Shows interior wide shot of Central Cancer Research Lab library. A woman sits at the table with a book. (1931). Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |  | Shows photo of a man and woman scientist working in soil microbe library. (Pfizer?). Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |
 | Old location of National Library of Medicine, Washington, D.C. Credit: CDC. |  | National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland. Credit: CDC. |
 | Jacket of "The Virgin Islands Our New Possessions and the British Islands", by Theodoor De Booy and John T. Faris, 1918. J. B. Lippincott and Company, Philadelphia. Library Call Number C/hc100 V81 B. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Title page: "The Virgin Islands Our New Possessions and the British Islands", by Theodoor De Booy and John T. Faris, 1918. J. B. Lippincott and Company, Philadelphia. Library Call Number C/hc100 V81 B. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | "The Start of a Blizzard from the South; Drift Coming around Mount Erebus." In: "The Heart of the Antarctic", Volume II, by E. H. Shackleton, 1909. P. 80. Library Call Number G149 S52. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |  | "A Blizzard on the Barrier". In: "The Heart of the Antarctic", Volume II, by E. H. Shackleton, 1909. P. 82. Library Call Number G149 S52. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |
 | Text accompanying Plate I. In: "Report on the Florida Reefs", 1880, by Louis Agassiz. Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, Vol. VII, No. 1. Plate I. NOAA Central Library Call No. QE565.A263 1880 These plates help document the oldest studies of the Florida Reefs. Credit: The Coral Kingdom. |  | The CHALLENGER at Cumberland Bay, Juan Fernandez Island. In: "The Voyage of H. M. S. CHALLENGER Narrative", Chemistry and Physics, Vol. II, Section IV, p. 177. Library Call Number Q115.C4 1880 v.1 (Physics and Chemistry). Credit: Sailing for Science - the NOAA Fleet Then and Now. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Metro library walkway" by Mantis Wong Commentary: "The walkway to the metro library." | "Library Series 1" by Alex Furr Commentary: "Short series of library shots done for a University Education Promo. Share share share!." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Play | Caption |
 | Flip; flap; flapping; flipping; read; reading; paper; paging; library. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Cicero | To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul. |
Count Axel Gustafsson Oxenstierna | The quantity of books in a person's library, is often a cloud of witnesses to the ignorance of the owner. |
Desiderius Erasmus | Your library is your paradise. |
Henry Ward Beecher | A library is but the soul's burying ground. It is a land of shadows. |
Oliver Wendell Holmes | Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads. |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | A man's library is a sort of harem. |
Samuel Johnson | No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library. |
Victor Hugo | A library implies an act of faith. |
William Shakespeare | My library was dukedom large enough. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Treaty of Versailles | 1919 | Germany undertakes to furnish to the University of Louvain, within three months after a request made by it and transmitted through the intervention of the Reparation Commission, manuscripts, incunabula, printed books, maps and objects of collection corresponding in number and value to those destroyed in the burning by Germany of the Library of Louvain. (reference) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | His library was small but well selected |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | When they passed through the passage beside the royal Irish academy they found many students sheltering under the arcade of the library. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | A library provides reference service. (references) | |
PubMed Central aims to become a world-class library of the digital age. (references) | ||
The following is the NLM's list plus hyperlinks to each library Web site. (references) | ||
Business | National Taiwan University owns the largest university library. (references) | |
Embassy, which includes a large conference room, demonstration kitchen, library and visitor office. (references) | ||
Taiwan’s National Central Library is the island’s largest library, serving the substantial informational needs of the national government. (references) | ||
Civil Liberties | Yemen | Officials at the National Library must read and endorse the text. (references) |
Cuba | The owner of the library, Ricardo Gonzalez, was detained early in the morning and released that evening. (references) | |
Cuba | On February 15, police prevented a conference on ethics in journalism in the context of a nascent civil society sponsored by the Moderate Reflection Group in the independent library Jorge Manach. (references) | |
Economic History | New Zealand | There is also a comprehensive library of specifications from overseas countries. (references) |
Singapore | Every school and every public library is equipped with PCs with broadband access. (references) | |
France | Applicants can consult INPI's library to check for the existence of similar inventions prior to filing. (references) | |
Human Rights | Cuba | The dissidents were unable to open officially the independent library. (references) |
Congo | A newly refurbished "Law Library and Information Center" was opened to the public during the year. (references) | |
Cuba | On December 25, police, state security officers, and members of the RRB forcefully prevented the opening of an independent library focusing on Christian books in Florida, in the province of Camaguey. (references) | |
Political Economy | JORDAN | Copyrights must be registered at the National Library, part of the Ministry of Culture. (references) |
EL SALVADOR | El Salvador is signatory of the Geneva Phonograms, Paris Industrial Property and the Berne Artistic and Library Works Conventions. (references) | |
Guinea | The United States Department of State operates an American Cultural Center, which includes a library, Internet cafe, and hosts a lecture series on a variety of topics. (references) | |
Trade | Japan | In addition, the Japan Standards Association maintains a library of information about JIS requirements. (references) |
Travel | Thailand | The common professional workweek in Thailand is 40 hours per week consisting of five, 8-hour days, Monday through Friday . Office hours in Bangkok vary to accommodate flex-time travel through the city's notoriously heavy traffic . Common office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m . Most business offices are closed on Saturdays and Sundays although most commercial establishments remain open . The U.S. Commercial Service Bangkok's hours are 7:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday . The Commercial Library is open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m . The office is closed during lunch from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m . (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | RELIQUARY, n. A receptacle for such sacred objects as pieces of the true cross, short-ribs of the saints, the ears of Balaam's ass, the lung of the cock that called Peter to repentance and so forth. Reliquaries are commonly of metal, and provided with a lock to prevent the contents from coming out and performing miracles at unseasonable times. A feather from the wing of the Angel of the Annunciation once escaped during a sermon in Saint Peter's and so tickled the noses of the congregation that they woke and sneezed with great vehemence three times each. It is related in the "Gesta Sanctorum" that a sacristan in the Canterbury cathedral surprised the head of Saint Dennis in the library. Reprimanded by its stern custodian, it explained that it was seeking a body of doctrine. This unseemly levity so raged the diocesan that the offender was publicly anathematized, thrown into the Stour and replaced by another head of Saint Dennis, brought from Rome. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Gennifer Flowers | Let me tell you this, if I had wanted to have a library of audio and videotapes of Bill Clinton, I could have had that. And after I was accused of being a liar, I wished that I had of. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | The knowledge and power of the Information Age will be within reach not just of the few, but of every classroom, every library, every child. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Library" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.70% of the time. "Library" is used about 8,222 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.7% | 8,197 | 1,179 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.3% | 25 | 69,787 |
| Total | 100.00% | 8,222 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Country | Name |
| USA | Internet Law Library, Inc. |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
1. Library, PA |
Expressions using "library": arrayed library ♦ bachelor of Arts in Library Science ♦ braille library ♦ british Library Method ♦ camelot Library ♦ cassette library ♦ circulating library ♦ class library ♦ combinatorial chemistry library ♦ depository library ♦ digital Library Initiative ♦ dynamic link library ♦ dynamically Linked Library ♦ Dynix Automated Library Systems ♦ Eurocell Library and Interfaces ♦ film library ♦ free library ♦ Gene Library ♦ Genomic Library ♦ gnu C Library ♦ information Technology Infrastructure Library ♦ internet Public Library ♦ learned library ♦ lending library ♦ Library Administration ♦ Library Automation ♦ library book ♦ library card ♦ Library Collection Development ♦ library edition ♦ library fine ♦ Library Literature ♦ Library Materials ♦ library of data ♦ library of Efficient Data types and Algorithms ♦ library of programs ♦ library paste ♦ library program ♦ library programme ♦ library research ♦ library routine ♦ Library Schools ♦ Library Science ♦ Library Services ♦ Library Surveys ♦ Library Technical Services ♦ library ticket ♦ master of Arts in Library Science ♦ master of Library Science ♦ mobile library ♦ National Library of Medicine (U.S.) ♦ open Graphics Library ♦ Peptide Library ♦ photograph library ♦ program library ♦ public library ♦ record library ♦ reference library ♦ rental library ♦ research library ♦ scheme Library ♦ scholarly library ♦ software development library ♦ software library ♦ sound library ♦ standard Instrument Control Library ♦ storage library ♦ subroutine library ♦ tape library ♦ toy library ♦ travelling library ♦ university of Michigan Digital Library Project ♦ video library ♦ visual Component Library ♦ walking library. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "library": library-based, library-by-library, Library-college, Library-collegians, library-focused, library-living, library-oriented, library-produced, library-related, library-sponsored, library-trained, library-type, library-user. | |
Ending with "library": ex-library, inter-library, non-library. | |
Containing "library": inter-library loan. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "library"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | biblioteek. (various references) | |
Albanian | bibliotekë. (various references) | |
Arabic | مكتبة عامة (public library), مكتبة (bookshop, bookstore), مجموعة كتب بالمكتبة, سلسلة كتيب متماثلة. (various references) | |
Asturian | biblioteca. (various references) | |
Basque | liburutegi. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | работен кабинет (study), от библиотека, библиотечен, библиотека (athenaeum). (various references) | |
Catalan | biblioteca. (various references) | |
Cebuano | libreriya. (various references) | |
Chinese | 圖書館 , 图书馆 (Libraries). (various references) | |
Cornish | lyverjy. (various references) | |
Czech | knihovna (bookcase). (various references) | |
Danish | bibliotek (libraries). (various references) | |
Dutch | bibliotheek (book collection). (various references) | |
Esperanto | librejo, biblioteko. (various references) | |
Faeroese | bókasavn (book collection). (various references) | |
Farsi | کتابفروشی (Bookstore), کتابخانه , قراءتخانه . (various references) | |
Finnish | kirjasto (libraries). (various references) | |
French | bibliothèque. (various references) | |
Frisian | boekerij, bibleteek. (various references) | |
German | Bibliothek, Bücherei, sammlung (assemblage, collection, compilation, composure, gathering, Miscellanea, miscellany, rally, set), bibilothek. (various references) | |
Greek | βιβλιοθήκη (athenaeum, bookcase, whatnot). (various references) | |
Hawaiian | bibliotekë. (various references) | |
Hebrew | בית ספרים, ספריה. (various references) | |
Hungarian | könyvtár. (various references) | |
Indonesian | perpustakaan. (various references) | |
Inuktitut | uqalimaagaqaqvik. (various references) | |
Italian | biblioteca (athenaeum), libreria (bookcase, bookshop, bookstore). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 総書 (series), 双書 (series), ライフル銃 (Leipzig, librarian, life-work, lilac, lime, limelight, live, live house, live recording, live show, rhyme, ribosome, rifle), 文庫 (book collection), 書房 (bookstore), 叢書 (series), 図書館 , 図書館 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ライブラリー , ライブラリ , そうしょ (cursive script, series), しょぼう (bookstore), ぶんこ (book collection), としょかん. (various references) | |
Kongo | nzo a nkanda. (various references) | |
Korean | 도서관 (Libraries). (various references) | |
Macedonian | biblioteka. (various references) | |
Manx | thie lioaragh, shamyr lioaragh (athenaeum), lioarlan, lioar-hasht. (various references) | |
Maori | whare pukapuka. (various references) | |
Norwegian | bibliotek. (various references) | |
Occitan | libièr, bibliotèca. (various references) | |
Papiamen | biblioteka. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ibrarylay.(various references) | |
Polish | biblioteka. (various references) | |
Portuguese | biblioteca. (various references) | |
Portuguese Brazilian | biblioteca. (various references) | |
Provencal | bibliotèca. (various references) | |
Romanian | birou (bureau, cabinet, chamber, chambers, davenport, desk, office, studio, study, writing desk, writing table, writing-desk), bibliotecã (bookcase). (various references) | |
Romansch | biblioteca. (various references) | |
Russian | библиотека (athenaeum). (various references) | |
Samoan | faletusi. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | koji pripada biblioteci, biblioteka (bookcase). (various references) | |
Spanish | biblioteca (bookcase). (various references) | |
Swedish | bibliotek (libraries). (various references) | |
Tagalog | aklátan. (various references) | |
Thai | ห้องสมุดเคลื่อนที่ (mobile library). (various references) | |
Turkish | kitaplık (bookcase, bookshelf), kütüphane (athenaeum, Bibliotheca, bookcase), çalışma odası (snuggery, study). (various references) | |
Turkmen | kitaphana. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | набір кніг, бібліотека. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | thư viện. (various references) | |
Welsh | llyfrgell. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | bibliothecam, bibliothecis, librariis, librarium, museum. (various references) |
| Old French | 900-1400 | librairie. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "library": interlibrary, nonlibrary. (additional references) | |
| |
"Library" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: libarary, libary, libeary, liberary, libirary, Librair, libraire, librar, librare, libreri, libriary, libriry, libruary, lisbay. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "library" (pronounced lī"bre'rē) |
| 4 | -r e' r ē | arbitrary. |
| 3 | -e' r ē | actuary, adversary, ancillary, apothecary, aviary, beneficiary, bicentenary, Blackberry, blueberry, budgetary, capillary, cardiopulmonary, Cassowary, cautionary, cemetery, centenary, cometary, commentary, commissary, concessionary, confectionary, confectionery, Constabulary, contemporary, corollary, coronary, counterrevolutionary, cranberry, culinary, customary, deflationary, depositary, Dewberry, dictionary, dietary, dignitary, disciplinary, discretionary, disinflationary, itinerary, judiciary, lapidary, diversionary, Dogberry, dromedary, dysentery, emissary, epistolary, estuary, evolutionary, exclusionary, expansionary, expeditionary, extraordinary, fiduciary, formulary, fragmentary, functionary, funerary, gooseberry, hackberry, hereditary, honorary, Huckleberry, illusionary, imaginary, inflationary, interdisciplinary, interplanetary, involuntary, legendary, literary, luminary, mercenary, military, missionary, momentary, monastery, monetary, mortuary, mulberry, necessary, noninflationary, nonmilitary, obituary, ordinary, paramilitary, pecuniary, pituitary, planetary, preliminary, primary, probationary, proprietary, pulmonary, quaternary, raspberry, reactionary, recessionary, revolutionary, Rosemary, salutary, sanctuary, sanitary, savagery, secondary, secretary, sedentary, semilegendary, seminary, solitary, stationary, stationery, statuary, strawberry, subsidiary, temporary, Tilbury, topiary, tributary, undersecretary, unitary, unnecessary, unsanitary, urinary, veterinary, visionary, vocabulary. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-i-l-r-r-y" | |
-1 letter: briary. | |
-2 letters: bialy, brail, briar, libra, riyal. | |
-3 letters: ably, abri, airy, aril, aryl, bail, birl, birr, bray, byrl, lair, lari, liar, lira, rail, rial, yirr. | |
-4 letters: aby, ail, air, alb, arb, bal, bar, bay, bra, brr, lab, lar, lay, lib, ray, ria, rib, rya, yar. | |
-5 letters: ab, ai, al, ar, ay, ba, bi, by, la. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-i-l-r-r-y" | |
+1 letter: ribaldry. | |
+2 letters: bizarrely, irritably, libratory. | |
+3 letters: bricklayer, nonlibrary, rubrically. | |
+4 letters: arbitrarily, bricklayers, irradicably, irrecusably, irrefutably, irremovably, irreparably, irrevocably, orbicularly, subliterary. | |
+5 letters: antiburglary, barbarically, interlibrary, irredeemably, irrefragably, irremediably, irritability, myofibrillar, presbyterial, proverbially. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Sounds 10. Quotations: Familiar 11. Quotations: Historic 12. Quotations: Fiction | 13. Quotations: Non-fiction 14. Quotations: Spoken 15. Quotations: Speeches 16. Usage Frequency | 17. Names: Company Usage 18. Cities 19. Expressions 20. Expressions: Internet | 21. Translations: Modern 22. Translations: Ancient 23. Abbreviations 24. Acronyms | 25. Derivations 26. Rhymes 27. Anagrams 28. Bibliography |
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