Types of Library

Types of Library (ies)

According to Mbashir (2012), the types of services of any library depend on the purpose of the establishment and running of such library, as soon as libraries are classified according to the types of services and the patron they served. These different categories of libraries are the Academics, public, schools, special, private and National libraries. The focus of this study is on academic library, however the categories shall be considered:

1. Public Libraries: – These are established for the purpose of serving the generality of the society through tax: supports and they are without bias to sex, age, race or religion.

2. Academic Libraries:-These are libraries institution of higher learning like University, College of Education, College of technology and Polytechnics etc for impacting knowledge and research. They are meant to serve the communities of their respective institutions.

3. School Libraries:-These are libraries founded for the students and their teachers, the purpose of the libraries are almost the same with academic libraries but without any emphasizes on research and documentation.

4. Special Libraries:- These are libraries established by a particular organization who specializes in certain production, services or research, such as firm, banks, professional associations, government agencies, research institutes, media organization.

5. National Libraries:- These could be said to be special type of public library that are established and maintained by National government for some specialized functions like:

1. Serve as a legal deposit of all publication emanating from the country.
2. Issue of the National bibliography and national union catalogue
3. Stock collection of foreign publications
4. Issuing of ( ISBN) and (ISSN) numbers
5. Coordination of the activities of other types of libraries within the country.

6. Private libraries: – Libraries established by individuals are known as private libraries they are more restricted in use than any other type of libraries. Because, the owner determines who to use them.
7. Mobile libraries: A mobile library is a vehicle designed for use as a library. It is designed to hold books on shelves in such a way that when the vehicle is parked they can be accessed by readers. Mobile libraries are often used to provide library services to villages and city suburbs that have no library buildings.