The document discusses several key points about library classification systems: 1) Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan introduced the Colon Classification system which classifies knowledge into broad concepts called facets, distinguished using colons. 2) Specialized libraries may develop their own customized systems, like the Mathematics Subject Classification. 3) The National Library of Medicine classification was adopted by most US medical libraries, using the letter W for medicine and parts of class Q for science. 4) Subject headings allow libraries to assign multiple terms to works covering multiple topics, improving searchability.

1. Indian librarian Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan introduced the Colon Classification
system, which classifies all knowledge into broad, fundamental concepts. The Colon
system then divides these concepts into several distinguishing characteristics, which
Ranganathan called facets. The classification system uses colons (:) to distinguish
between the various facets in a single notation. The name of the Colon Classification
system is derived from its use of the colon in its notation scheme. Although use of the
Colon Classification system is limited to a few Indian libraries, Ranganathan’s concept of
facet analysis in classifying knowledge has been widely influential. Some of its key
concepts have been adopted by subsequent editions of the Dewey and Universal systems,
among others.
Libraries that serve users in very specialized fields of knowledge may also develop their
own classification systems. They are especially likely to do so if the major library
classifications do not adequately provide for the organization of the literature they
collect. For example, organizations specializing in the study of mathematics developed
the Mathematics Subject Classification to categorize material on advanced mathematical
theory covered in specialized academic journals. The Mathematics Subject Classification
allows mathematicians to classify works to a much greater degree of specificity than any
of the major systems would allow.
Numerous classification systems have been created for use in other special libraries as
well. The National Library of Medicine classification system, for example, has been
adopted by most major medical libraries in the United States. That system, which is
structured like the Library of Congress Classification, uses the letter W (unused by the
Library of Congress system) for medical works. It also takes advantage of unused parts of
the Library of Congress Classification class Q, for science. For other subject areas, the
National Library of Medicine system applies the Library of Congress Classification
unchanged.
Subject Headings
Many single works in a library deal with multiple subjects. These works may be difficult
to classify using traditional classification systems such as Dewey Decimal Classification
or Library of Congress Classification, because these systems typically assign only one
classification number to each item. As a result, only one subject is represented, and the
work’s other topics are not expressed in the classification number. Users searching the
library’s catalog under one of the alternate topics would never find that particular work.
To avoid this problem, most libraries also identify their materials with subject headings,
which assign multiple index terms to a work. This enables users to find works using any
of a number of different search terms. Subject headings may be single words, compound
words, or phrases that describe the subjects of a given document. Subject headings are
particularly useful for executing online searches, which allow for a high degree of
flexibility in identifying search terms.
In the United States, the two most frequently used systems for creating subject headings
are those developed by the Library of Congress (LC) and the Sears List. The LC subject

2. headings, first introduced in 1914, provide detailed terms for a vast number of topics. The
LC headings are used in academic libraries, medium-sized to large public libraries, and
many special libraries. The Sears List, developed in 1923 by American librarian Minnie
Earl Sears, consists of a much smaller set of terms and is designed primarily for public
and school libraries. The two lists are not entirely compatible and cannot be used in the
same catalog.
Unlike index entries in an individual book, subject headings are generally used only if a
major portion of the work deals with that particular subject. Under Library of Congress
guidelines, at least 20 percent of a document must address a given subject for a
subheading on that subject to be assigned to the book. Examples of LC subject headings
include:
Rivers
Functional literacy
Group homes for children
Education, Preschool
Burnout (Psychology)
All of the works in a library’s collection that deal with rivers in general would be listed in
the catalog under the “Rivers” subject heading. Works dealing with a specific river, such
the Mississippi River, would be indexed under the name of that river. “Rivers” is a
relatively straightforward subject; subject headings may also represent complex concepts
for works dealing with more than one theme. In order to express complex subjects,
catalogers add subdivisions to the basic headings. These subdivisions can indicate, for
example, specific time frames (20th century, 1860s, Middle Ages), geographical areas
(Cairo, Pennsylvania, Canada), or the form of the document (bibliography, dictionary,
fiction). Subdivisions may be added to the basic heading or combined with other
subdivisions. They are usually separated from the subject heading by dashes. For
example, the book National Dreams: Myth, Memory, and Canadian History (1997), by
Daniel Francis, is listed under the following LC subject headings. Users could find the
book by searching under any one of these headings:
Group identity—Canada
Popular culture—Canada
Canada—History
Online computer catalogs provide far greater power for subject searching than do book or
card catalogs. Most online catalogs allow users to execute keyword searches by using one
or more of the important words in the subject-heading string. In keyword searching,
library users can locate the subject heading “Universities and colleges—Graduate work—
Examinations” simply by entering the words universities and examinations. This will
retrieve catalog entries for all the library’s works on that subject. The keyword approach
results in larger, less-targeted retrievals, often requiring the catalog user to review many
records to find the works desired. The great advantage of keyword searching is that
catalog users do not have to be familiar with the exact wording of the subject heading to

3. locate desired items. In addition, they can easily browse large numbers of related works
without having to physically locate the items on the shelves.
D.
Locating Library
Materials
Visitors to a library can locate materials in different ways, depending on their own
particular needs and interests. Someone looking for recreational reading material may
wish to simply browse through the library’s selection of recently published best-sellers.
Libraries typically maintain a section that showcases these popular materials. Most users,
however, come to the library in search of information about a particular subject. The
reference desk is often the best place for these users to start their search, because
reference librarians are trained to help library users locate the materials they need.
However, users must also learn how to search for information themselves if they are to
make the best use of the resources the library has to offer.
Searching for and locating relevant information requires careful thought and strategy.
Users can often find answers to their questions by first looking through general reference
sources, such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, and other materials that are usually
located near the library’s reference desk. These sources can provide overviews of the
subject that may lead to more-detailed sources of information. Users looking for a wide
range of literature on a particular subject can search through the library’s catalog, which
provides an index of the library’s collection. In addition, users can search through various
other indexes, abstracts, and databases. These sources provide references to relevant
magazine and journal articles. The Internet can also be a useful source of information.
1
. Searching the Catalog
Library users can generally find the information they need by searching the library’s
catalog, which is an index to all the materials in the library’s collection. Catalog entries
typically list each item’s author, its title, its subjects, the date it was published, the name
of its publisher, and for some materials, the names of editors, illustrators, or translators.
Users can search for items in most online catalogs by entering keywords in any of these
categories. Users of specialized collections might have the option of searching for other
characteristics of library materials as well. A rare-book collection, for example, might
allow users to search for materials by the name of the printer or binder of the book.
By searching through the catalog, users can easily determine whether the library owns
works by a particular author or whether it has a work with a specific title. For example,
consider a user searching for the book What Is Natural: Coral Reef Crisis (1999), by Jan
Sapp. This user could simply conduct a title search of the catalog by typing in What Is

4. Natural: Coral Reef Crisis. Or, by searching under the last name of the author, Sapp, the
user could see whether the library has this book or other works by that author.
Searching for materials on a particular subject can be more difficult than searching for
materials by authors or title. Before beginning a subject search, the user should first
carefully consider various aspects of the information needed, identifying keywords and
significant concepts associated with the given subject. These words and concepts can
function as possible search terms. If searching under one term turns up too many possible
works to realistically examine, a more specific term might be more useful. Likewise, if a
search term reveals too few items, the user might achieve more productive results by
searching under a more general term.
Some libraries feature union catalogs, which list the holdings of multiple libraries. Users
can search union catalogs for materials that are unavailable at their local library but that
may be accessible through interlibrary loan. For more information on library catalogs, see
the subsection Catalogs in the Organization of Resources section of this article.
2
. Searching Indexes, Abstracts, and Databases
Even though library catalogs contain listings for every item in a given library’s
collection, catalogs do not list individual articles in the library’s magazines and scholarly
journals. To find details of articles on a given subject, library users must consult indexes,
abstracts, or databases. These resources provide information on articles contained in
periodicals, which are publications such as newspapers, magazines, and journals that are
issued at regular intervals. Each index, abstract, or database typically focuses on a
particular subject or range of related subjects. For example, some indexes list information
about articles on art, whereas others contain information about articles on medical issues.
An index of periodicals lists citations containing bibliographic information about each
article, including article title, author, publication title, and date of publication. An abstract
contains the same information that a periodical index contains, as well as a paragraph or
even a few paragraphs summarizing the article. Library databases are indexes and
abstracts organized for easy access on a computer. Library databases are typically stored
on CD-ROM or accessed via the Internet. Nearly all libraries have printed abstracts and
indexes of periodical literature, but periodical information at most libraries is more
complete on computer databases.
The Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature is the best-known print index to English-
language periodicals of general interest. Published twice per month, the Reader’s Guide
lists articles in more than 150 magazines commonly subscribed to by public and school
libraries. It arranges its listings alphabetically by author and subject, but not by title. The
Reader’s Guide generally lists six pieces of information in each citation: article title,
author, publication title, volume number, page number(s), and date of publication. The
Reader’s Guide is cumulated regularly. This means that listings in the latest issues are

5. merged with the previous issue, so that to find recent articles, users need to consult only
two or three issues of the Reader’s Guide. Each of the older, bound volumes of the
Reader’s Guide covers a two-year period. Some smaller libraries subscribe only to the
Abridged Reader’s Guide, which indexes about 45 magazines. The Reader’s Guide series
contains listings as far back as 1890. An earlier index, Poole’s Index, provides reference
information for English-language articles published from 1802 to 1890. Although the
Reader’s Guide is still available in public and school libraries, most library patrons now
use computer databases to find magazine and journal articles.
Computer databases typically cover a particular subject or range of subjects. For
example, the PsychLIT database contains bibliographic information on articles in the
field of psychology. The Modern Language Association Bibliography contains citations
for articles in the arts and humanities. The Educational Resources Information Center
(ERIC) maintains a database of articles from education journals. Most databases offer
only indexed or abstracted information, but some databases, known as full-text databases,
provide the entire text of articles. Searching strategies can vary considerably from one
database to the next, but most databases give tips to guide users in searching the
particular database. In addition, reference librarians are specially trained to assist users in
searching through databases.
Many public, academic, and school libraries have compendiums of computer databases,
such as the InfoTrac catalogs of databases. Introduced in 1985, InfoTrac catalogs
integrate many different kinds of databases into a single collection that can be accessed
on CD-ROM or via the Internet. For example, patrons of public or academic libraries can
use a single InfoTrac catalog to search computer databases of general interest magazines,
government publications, academic journals, legal publications, and health-related
periodicals. InfoTrac catalogs in school libraries may be tailored to support classroom
assignments at various grade levels. These catalogs typically include computer databases
containing the full text of articles in leading magazines, newspapers, and reference books.
3
. Finding Materials on the Library Shelves
Catalog citations indicate each item’s call number, which classifies the subject of the
work and also identifies the item’s location on the library shelves. After finding an item
in the catalog, a user can refer to maps in the library indicating the general placement of
works within a wide range of call numbers. For example, a library using the Library of
Congress Classification system might place together on one floor all of its works with
call numbers ranging from H (social sciences) through P (languages and literature).
Another floor might hold the library’s works with call numbers ranging from Q (science)
through Z (library science). Signs on each row of shelves indicate the more specific range
of materials located there. For example, one row of shelves might contain works with
Library of Congress call numbers from PS3511 through PS3523. Each book in the
library’s collection will display the call number on the book’s spine or on the outside of
the back cover. Because call numbers indicate the subject content of a given work as well

6. as its location, once a user finds one relevant item on the shelf, he or she may find other
useful items simply by browsing through the materials in the same location.
Finding periodicals in the library is similar to finding books. After a user finds a useful
article citation in a library database, abstract, or index, he or she must determine whether
the library owns the periodical in which the article appears. The user can determine
whether the library owns the publication by conducting a search of the library’s catalog
by publication title. Most libraries arrange all of their periodicals in one general location
in the library. Therefore, if the library subscribes to the periodical in question, the user
can generally find the publication by searching for the magazine or journal title on the
shelves of the periodical section. Some libraries also maintain periodical archives on
microfilm (a small roll of film printed with rows of very small images that can be viewed
using a library’s microfilm viewer), microfiche (similar to microfilm, but printed on a
small sheet), and CD-ROM.
The shelves on which a library’s materials are arranged are known as stacks. Open stacks
are accessible to patrons for selecting their own books and other materials. Some libraries
have such large collections that many books have to be kept in closed stacks, which are
not open to the public. To obtain books from closed stacks, the patron fills out a call slip,
writing on it the call number, author, and title of the requested book. A librarian then
gives the patron a number, which is also written on the slip. A library assistant finds the
book in the closed stacks. In large libraries the number given to the patron may be flashed
on a lighted board when the book is ready to be picked up.
V.
BORROWING LIBRARY MATERIALS
The great majority of libraries allow users to borrow materials from their collections, and
many public libraries consider this their most important service to users. Libraries that
lend their materials to users are known as circulating libraries or lending libraries. Users
borrow library materials from the circulation department, which keeps track of the
library’s collections. The circulation desk is typically located near the entrance of the
library. To ensure equitable distribution of materials among different users, libraries
establish policies about who can borrow items, which items may be borrowed, for how
long they may be borrowed, and what happens when an item is not returned on time.
A.
Registration
To borrow library materials, a user must be registered with the library’s circulation
department. The registration procedure involves recording the user’s name, address,
telephone number, and other basic information. Upon registration, the library usually
provides users with a library circulation card in addition to a printed handout with

7. information about the library’s hours, any fines charged for overdue books, descriptions
of various library services, and other information. Most public libraries limit registration
to residents of the area served by the library. Public libraries generally allow children to
borrow materials, but parents or guardians usually must sign the registration form to
verify their consent and to assume responsibility for any borrowed items. College,
university, school, and special libraries generally require users to be affiliated with the
parent institution to borrow library materials. Libraries of all types usually exclude those
who have abused the library’s circulation policies in the past by failing to return items.
B.
Circulating and Noncirculating Items
In most lending libraries, selected items of the collection are unavailable for circulation.
For example, libraries generally do not lend general reference books, in order that these
popular items are available to all users at any given time. Libraries also rarely lend
current issues of magazines and journals, although some libraries bind older issues
together and allow users to borrow them. In addition, libraries usually do not lend rare,
fragile, or expensive items that they could not afford to replace if the items were lost or
damaged.
C.
Circulation
Systems
Automated Library
Circulation
In the past, a lending library attached pocket envelopes containing circulation cards to
each circulating item in its collection. When a user wished to check out a book from the
library, the circulation desk would record the due date and the user’s name on the card.
Libraries used the information printed on these cards to monitor and control the
circulation of their collections. Libraries would also replace the card with a slip of paper
indicating the due date for the user. To remind users of the borrowing period, the
circulation desk also generally stamped a due date on a slip attached to the item.
Today, most libraries use optical scanners to read and record information on barcode
labels attached to library materials and on user identification cards. Using this automated
system, libraries can quickly and accurately determine the status of borrowed items,
monitor overdue materials, and inventory library collections. As in the past, however,
circulation desks continue to record the due date on a slip attached to each borrowed
item.

8. D.
Borrowing
Periods
Most public libraries allow users to borrow materials for two to four weeks. However,
some libraries establish shorter borrowing periods for selected popular items—such as
new best-selling novels, popular nonfiction, and videos—so that greater numbers of users
may have access to them. Libraries also try to provide greater access to popular materials
by stocking multiple copies of these items, so that even if one or two copies are lent out,
additional copies may remain for other users. Public libraries often allow users to borrow
fine art, such as framed prints or photographs, for longer periods, sometimes as long as
six months.
Most libraries allow users to reserve or place holds on items already borrowed by another
user. When a user places a hold on a particular item, the library adds her name to a list of
people waiting for that same item. When the item becomes available, the library contacts
the user by phone, mail, or e-mail. Most libraries allow users to renew borrowed
materials for another complete borrowing period if there are no other users waiting for
the same items. Libraries with automated circulation systems typically allow users to
renew their borrowed materials over the telephone or through e-mail.
E.
Overdue Policies
When borrowed items become overdue, libraries send users an overdue notice,
sometimes followed by a telephone call. If the item is still not returned after a time
established by the library’s circulation policies, the library sends the borrower a final
overdue notice or a bill listing any fines the user has incurred. Most libraries suspend a
user’s borrowing privileges after the user fails to return items. An increasing number of
libraries also have a policy of using collection agencies or credit bureaus to collect fines
for long-overdue materials.
F.
Interlibrary Loans
Most circulation departments provide interlibrary loan services, which allow users to
request items from other libraries that participate in interlibrary loan networks.
Interlibrary loans give users access to resources not available in their own libraries.
However, most libraries limit the kinds of materials that are available in an interlibrary
loan. For example, videos, sound recordings, and computer software are often not
available through interlibrary loan even though they may be borrowed directly from the
library that maintains these items. In large library systems, the circulation department at

9. the central library generally coordinates interlibrary distribution of library materials to
users of the various branches who request these items.
Library users typically request interlibrary loan materials at the circulation desk of their
local library. Users with connections to the Internet can access the catalogs of remote
libraries online. That way the users can determine whether these libraries own desired
material and whether that material is available through interlibrary loan. In addition,
online users can often request items directly from a remote library that participates in an
interlibrary loan network with the user’s local library. When users request materials
through an interlibrary loan program, the materials from the remote library are usually
delivered to the user’s local library through mail or delivery services. Increasingly,
however, libraries share copies of materials using the Internet or facsimile transmissions
(faxes). This enables libraries to share subscriptions to expensive journals, reduce
institutional costs, and save space on library shelves while providing access to many
more titles than any one library can afford.
VI. REFERENCE
Reference Librarian
Full Size
Because libraries provide access to ever-expanding sources of knowledge, finding
specific pieces of information is often a complex procedure. To assist users in finding
information, most academic and large public libraries employ professional reference
librarians who have special training in research techniques and information retrieval.
Reference librarians help individuals and organizations find information and make

10. effective use of library resources. Reference librarians are also available to recommend
notable works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as videos and sound recordings.
Materials in the library’s reference section include items such as encyclopedias,
dictionaries, atlases, and handbooks. These materials are generally stored next to the
library’s reference desk. They are typically unavailable for circulation so that all users
can access them at any given time. Some public libraries offer quick reference services
over the telephone. For questions that require more extensive research, a reference
librarian will often refer users to staff members who specialize in a particular subject, or
they will consult online databases. At some public and academic libraries, reference
librarians charge a small fee to perform research using online resources.
Large public libraries may employ reference librarians who specialize in children’s
materials. Because children are often relatively inexperienced in library use, they
frequently turn to reference librarians for assistance in finding materials. Many children
ask questions related to their school work, but they also request information about
hobbies, popular culture, and social issues that interest them. Parents, guardians, and
child-care providers also turn to children’s reference librarians for assistance in finding
information on issues such as child development, education, nutrition, and health.
Reference work requires skill in interpersonal communication, familiarity with the
expanding array of information sources, and a command of general knowledge.
Reference librarians attempt to anticipate users’ questions and to improve the quality of
library services by preparing guides, brochures, multimedia presentations, and self-
tutorials on effective library use. In many academic institutions, reference librarians offer
courses in library use and research strategies.
VII.
CAREERS IN LIBRARY WORK
Librarianship—the science of managing the operations of a library—did not emerge as a
distinct and separate profession until the end of the 19th century. Until then, the
individuals who oversaw library operations usually combined these duties with their
work in other professions. For example, in the Middle Ages priests or university
professors often assumed the responsibilities of managing library operations. As
education for librarians became standardized during the 20th century, the profession
eventually became well established. Librarianship developed further as professional
librarians established networks and associations through which they shared a body of
knowledge, published professional journals, and instituted codes of ethics.
A.
Librarians and Library
Staff

11. The typical library staff consists of three levels of employees: professional librarians,
support staff, and part-time assistants. The proportion of each of these in any given
institution depends on the type of library, its budget, and the types of users it serves.
Professional librarians usually constitute the smallest number of a library’s employees.
Most professional librarians have earned at least a master’s degree in library science or
information science, the study of information and the manner in which it is generated,
recorded, stored, retrieved, transmitted, and used. Some professional librarians have
earned additional graduate degrees as well. Professional librarians require a wide range of
skills and talents. They must have solid bibliographic and technological skills, as well as
strong communication and interpersonal abilities. Advances in library technologies have
also led to a high demand for professional skills such as database searching and
competence in using the Internet and other computer networks and systems.
The librarian in charge of administering the entire institution is usually referred to as the
director. Other professional librarians typically administer the library’s various
departments. In small libraries, however, the director may be solely responsible for
managing all of the library’s departments. In addition to their managerial work,
professional librarians assume primary responsibility for providing reference assistance,
developing and managing the collections, and overseeing cataloging.
Nonprofessional support staff commonly assume most of the responsibility for directly
serving library users. Their activities include essential functions such as inputting,
coding, and verifying bibliographic and other data; ordering library materials; assisting
with catalog development; performing circulation duties such as checking out books to
users; and performing other services vital to the library’s daily operation.
Most libraries employ part-time staff members in addition to full-time professional and
support staff. Part-time staff members typically shelve books, perform low-level clerical
duties, and carry out other relatively simple but essential tasks. In academic libraries,
large numbers of part-time student-assistants play a critical role in the day-to-day
functioning of the library. Public libraries also hire so-called library pages to help
perform tasks that require no professional training, such as shelving books and
periodicals. In addition, many public libraries make use of community volunteers to assist
library staff in simple tasks. Many professional librarians were first attracted to the
profession while they were working as library assistants, pages, or volunteers.
In small libraries, librarians might perform a range of tasks, with one or two librarians
and possibly a clerk handling all of the activities of the library. Because of the small size
of the staff, a single librarian might combine clerical and professional tasks. In large
libraries, the support staff have taken on many of the tasks previously performed by
professionals. Much of this transfer of responsibility has been made possible by the
introduction of relatively simple and efficient computer technology, which has permitted
support staff to accomplish large portions of cataloging that were once done by
professionals. Additionally, while professional librarians usually manage library

12. functions such as circulation and acquisition, support staff or part-time workers often
perform the bulk of the actual tasks in these departments.
The patterns of library staffing vary from country to country. In general, libraries in more
developed countries distinguish clearly between the tasks done by professional and
nonprofessional staff. In less developed countries, the smaller size of staffs and a lack of
new, efficient computer technology have made this separation more difficult.
B.
Education of Librarians
For centuries, young people learned to be librarians while on the job with more
experienced practitioners. Librarians often performed difficult tasks, but their duties
usually did not require specialized professional training. Since the late 19th century,
however, the tasks performed by librarians have become more complex and more
dependent on technology. As a result, the study of library science has moved from the
work setting to professional schools in universities.
In the United States and Canada, education designed for the professional librarian is at
the postgraduate level. Prospective librarians attend one- or two-year professional
education programs leading to a master’s degree in library science or its equivalent, such
as information science. Traditionally, professional librarians studied subjects in the
liberal arts, such as literature or history, before beginning their professional education.
An increasing number of librarians now have undergraduate degrees in the natural
sciences, computer science, business, or other related areas.
1
. Growth of Library Education
Programs
American librarian Melvil Dewey began the first formal education program for the
training of librarians in 1887 at Columbia College (now Columbia University) in New
York, where he was librarian. The program moved to the New York State Library in
Albany when Dewey became director there in 1889. The success of Dewey’s program in
training highly skilled professional librarians soon led other universities, institutes of
technology, and large public libraries to establish their own professional degree programs
in library science.
Early library schools largely based their teaching on providing students with experience
in actual libraries. However, this practice began to change in 1923 with the publication of
Training for Library Service, a book by economist Charles Williamson. The so-called
Williamson Report advocated continuing the trend of moving library-science programs to
university settings. It also called for an increase in educational theory for librarianship,

13. the development of professional journals and other literature on the profession, and the
employment of full-time faculty as instructors of library science.
Over time, universities implemented the changes called for in the Williamson Report, and
the quality of education for librarianship gradually increased. In the first part of the 20th
century, graduates of these schools received bachelor’s degrees in library science. These
degrees designated completion of four years of undergraduate work and an additional
yearlong course of study in library science. In the 1950s universities began making
library science a professional degree, generally called a master’s degree of library
science, or M.L.S. degree.
2
. Modern Programs
The skills and specialized knowledge demanded of librarians have continued to increase,
and schools of library science have adjusted their curriculums accordingly. Most schools
of librarianship have responded to the heightened use of technology by increasing the
number of courses in information science. Information science combines aspects of
librarianship with technical elements such as computer programming,
telecommunications, database management, and computer graphics. It also includes the
study of ways in which humans process information and ways in which people interact
with machines. Information science programs integrate study from the fields of
communication, computer science, cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence,
mathematics, philosophy, engineering, business, and others. This interdisciplinary
background gives graduates a broad knowledge of library automation, systems, budgets,
online searching, research, and cataloging. Since the 1980s, most schools of library
science have become schools of library and information science or simply schools of
information science.
Many schools permit or require students to gain some practical training in a library before
applying for their first job as a librarian. A growing number of schools also require
courses in research methods. To have sufficient time to teach the new skills needed by
librarians without sacrificing any of the traditional bibliographic skills, a number of
schools have increased the amount of class hours required for a degree.
All programs to educate librarians share certain characteristics. They provide courses in
cataloging and classification, reference, management, and collections development.
Programs typically offer courses in the history of books and librarianship to give students
a background in the profession’s past. Students in most schools of library and information
science have the opportunity to develop at least some degree of specialization. Some may
take advanced courses in a particular library function, such as reference work, while
others may take courses related to a particular type of library, such as a course in medical
librarianship or public librarianship.

14. Few four-year colleges and universities offer programs specifically for the training of
library support staff. Because the range of work done by support staff varies so greatly,
there is no uniform educational system for these nonprofessional positions. Many support
staff have a four-year college degree, and some have graduate degrees. Others have only
a high school education or a two-year associate degree from a community college.
Library support staff often have no training specifically designed to prepare them for
work in a library except for the training they receive on the job. In the United States and
Canada, some library support staff are graduates of formal library training programs
offered by two-year community colleges.
Library employees at every level benefit from ongoing study in continuing education
programs. At one time it was possible for new employees to come to the job knowing
almost everything they would need for a lifetime of employment, but that is not the case
today. All library systems are continually changing, and employees need to update their
education and training to keep abreast of these developments. Most schools of library and
information science offer a range of continuing education courses designed for library
employees who wish to modernize or expand their skills. In addition, various professional
associations offer continuing education courses for library employees.
C.
Professional Associations
Like members of other professions, librarians have banded together in professional
associations to solve common problems and to advance the profession. These
professional associations address issues such as financial support for libraries, censorship,
and cooperative acquisition of library materials. They also attempt to influence legislation
that affects libraries, establish policies and standards relating to libraries and librarians,
and support continuing education for librarians. Almost all of these organizations publish
journals or monographs relating to their particular areas of interest. Professional library
associations hold conferences on a regular basis so that librarians may come together
with colleagues to develop policy and share ideas.
Professional associations for librarians operate at the local, regional, national, and
international levels. Most professional librarians belong to at least one professional
organization. This section of the article lists some of the largest and most influential
library associations. For more information about library associations worldwide, see the
Libraries of the World section of this article.
The American Library Association (ALA), founded by Melvil Dewey and others in 1876,
is the oldest and largest library association in the world. Headquartered in Chicago,
Illinois, the ALA’s membership comprises librarians from all types of libraries. The ALA
holds a large annual conference each summer, as well as a midwinter meeting each year.
The association is highly influential in the publishing field and in lobbying on behalf of
librarians.

15. The Canadian Library Association (CLA), founded in 1946, is the national library
association of Canada. Like other national library associations, it holds an annual
conference featuring workshops, exhibits, and awards ceremonies to present research
grants and scholarships. It has its headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario.
The Library Association is the national library association of the United Kingdom.
Founded in 1877, the Library Association consists of members throughout the United
Kingdom and in more than 100 countries around the world. It maintains headquarters in
London, England.
The Special Libraries Association (SLA), founded in 1909, has a large membership
drawn from various types of special libraries. It offers continuing education courses and
publishes a range of professional materials for special librarians. The SLA has its
headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), founded in
1915, is the professional association for faculty members in schools of library and
information science. Its purpose is to promote excellence in education for library and
information science. The ALISE maintains headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
The American Society for Information Science (ASIS) was founded in 1937 as the
American Documentation Institute, and changed its name to its present one in 1967. Its
members work to develop new and better theories, techniques, and technologies to
improve access to information. It has its headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), founded in 1932, represents the libraries of
North American research institutions. The organization addresses issues common to
research libraries, such as teaching, research, community service, and scholarship. It
maintains headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The Society of American Archivists (SAA), begun in 1936, is an association of
archivists, librarians, record managers, historians, and manuscript curators. Located in
Chicago, Illinois, it provides leadership to help ensure the identification, preservation,
and use of the nation’s historical records.
D.
International Library
Programs
Several professional organizations and private foundations around the world work to
promote international cooperation in establishing new libraries and in improving service
at existing libraries. These organizations also provide librarians with international forums
in which they can exchange ideas, develop networks for sharing resources, and create
compatible standards and protocols for various library procedures. Some of the most
prominent international library programs are those sponsored by the International
Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA); the United Nations

16. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); the International
Federation for Documentation and Information (FID); the International Council on
Archives (ICA); the British Council; the United States Department of State; and the
International Association of School Librarianship (IASL). Private foundations also
promote increased and improved library services around the world.
The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is an
independent association that represents libraries and library associations around the
world. The organization maintains headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands. It advises
libraries on matters such as interlibrary loan practices, copyright laws, library building
design, and development of legal deposit regulations that entitle national libraries to
receive copies of every work registered for copyright in their respective countries. It also
stimulates cooperation among writers, scholars, publishers, and libraries, and it assists
librarians in promoting literacy and universal access to knowledge. In addition, IFLA
advocates the formation of a worldwide information network.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
promotes international cooperation in the areas of education, science, culture, and
communication. As part of this mission, UNESCO funds programs for the construction of
libraries around the world and for the improvement of existing library services. For
example, its support has enabled countries in the Middle East to establish the Arab
Information Systems Network, through which member libraries can share collections and
services. UNESCO maintains headquarters in Paris, France.
The International Federation for Documentation and Information (known as FID) is one
of the world’s oldest and most influential international library organizations. FID was
founded in 1895 in Brussels, Belgium, by bibliographers Henri LaFontaine and Paul
Otlet, who first developed the Universal Decimal Classification system. Today, FID
maintains headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands. Over the years, FID has been
responsible for creating standards for microfiche reproduction; conducting research on
the theoretical aspects of information; and promoting research on the impact of
information, communications, and knowledge on national economies and society.
The International Council on Archives (ICA) is an alliance of archival institutions,
professional associations, and individual professional archivists. Founded in 1948, the
ICA is concerned with the management of records and archives in all media and formats
throughout their life cycle. The council also facilitates and promotes the use of records
and archives by scholars and the general public. Areas of ongoing interest include
maintenance of electronic archives, disaster preparedness planning, and automation of
archival resources. The ICA has its headquarters in Paris, France.
The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international network for education, culture,
and development services. It has established libraries in many countries of Latin
America, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa, all managed by local staff. It has also
developed an online library based in Helsinki, Finland, that is available to other libraries

17. around the world. The British Council has headquarters in London and Manchester,
England.
The U.S. Department of State, through its Office of International Information Programs,
maintains about 150 information resource centers in more than 110 countries. These
centers were administered by the United States Information Agency until 1999, when the
agency was abolished and its functions transferred to the State Department. The centers
feature electronic equipment that can rapidly deliver information promoting U.S. interests
to foreign governments, media, and educational institutions. In developing countries, the
State Department supports public libraries that encourage study and understanding of
American society and institutions. The department has its headquarters in Washington,
D.C.
The International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) encourages the
development of school libraries and library programs throughout the world. Founded in
1971, the IASL also promotes collaboration among libraries in all countries, including the
lending and exchanging of library materials. The organization maintains headquarters in
Seattle, Washington.
Private philanthropic organizations also provide leadership in the establishment and
maintenance of libraries around the world. In the early 20th century the Carnegie
Corporation of New York was instrumental in establishing free public libraries in Africa,
Latin America, and the South Pacific, but the organization stopped this program in 1917.
Today the Ford Foundation, based in New York City, provides vital financial support for
libraries in the developing nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
VIII.
TRENDS AND CHALLENGES
Libraries of all types are experiencing a period of radical change. Technological and
social developments that began in the late 20th century have fundamentally altered the
ways libraries accomplish their traditional missions of selecting, organizing, preserving,
and providing access to information.
A.
Growth of Information and
Technology
Library Computer Services

18. Library Computer Services
Susan Vogel/Liaison Agency

19. Electronic sources of information and low-cost microcomputers have introduced
unprecedented changes to the services and operations of modern libraries. Computing
trends that began in the 1980s have enabled low-cost digital storage of information, rapid
transmission of data across computer networks, and sophisticated retrieval and processing
of electronic documents and information. These changes—especially the rapid spread of
the Internet—have reshaped the feasibility and economics of information distribution so
radically that they have permanently altered the ways in which librarians perform their
work. Against this background of increased information availability and technological
innovation, libraries are developing new, at times revolutionary, methods of providing
users with access to an ever-expanding amount of information.
1
. Automation of Library
Functions
Libraries first sought to automate their internal operations in the 1960s. The Machine-
Readable Catalog (MARC) project, begun in 1966 by 16 American libraries, established
a standard format for electronic versions of the card catalog. Because a number of
libraries collaborated to form the MARC standard, they shared the enormous burden of
creating records for the electronic catalog. By 1972 libraries around the world were using
and contributing to the development of the revised MARC standard, known as MARC II.
The potential of saving tremendous amounts of time and money through shared
cataloging led to many other cooperative projects among libraries. In the United States
and Canada, several regional organizations grew out of these efforts, including the Ohio
College Library Center (OCLC), a computer network for Ohio’s college and university
libraries; the Research Library Information Network (RLIN) of the Research Libraries
Group, a consortium of libraries founded by Columbia, Harvard, and Yale universities
and the New York Public Library; and the University of Toronto Library Automation
System (UTLAS). In addition to the initial goal of providing shared cataloging, regional
organizations offer an array of services to libraries, including online acquisitions services
and interlibrary loan systems.
Many of these regional organizations evolved to become national and international
networks. Large organizations that share catalogs with one another are known as
bibliographic utilities. Their massive catalogs compile materials from many member
libraries, creating a vast resource for catalogers and researchers alike. For example,
OCLC eventually grew to become the Online Computer Library Center, which serves as
an international library computer service, bibliographic utility, and research center that by
the 1990s contained more than 41 million records in its union catalog, known as
WorldCat. Similarly, the UTLAS consortium of Canadian libraries was purchased by the
U.S. firm Auto-Graphics, which set up a subsidiary in Canada to run this shared catalog
of Canadian library databases. The new name of this service is AG Canada.
In the early 1980s some libraries began to feature online public access catalogs (OPACs),
which allow users to access the libraries’ catalogs via computer. Previously, the high cost

20. of acquiring the new computer technology and the difficulty in using the first software
programs meant that libraries had to restrict use of online catalogs to a few specially
trained librarians. By the 1980s, however, advances in technology and reductions in cost
allowed libraries to begin offering public access to online catalogs. For example, the
University of California system introduced its massive online public access catalog,
MELVYL, in 1981.
Today, online public access catalogs are a common feature of all types of libraries. They
have replaced and integrated four separate card catalogs: one each for author, title, and
subject, as well as a card for the call-number shelf list. Online catalogs allow for rapid
searching in each of these designated fields, as well as in some fields—such as the type
of publication or the language in which a work was written—that were not searchable in
the past. Since they were first introduced, online catalogs have been enhanced by the
addition of keyword searching, which allows a user to search for works using any word in
a given field. Online catalogs also typically allow users to determine whether a given
item has been checked out by another user, and if so, when the item is due back in the
library.
2
. Automated Research
As early as the 1960s some researchers gained improved access to information with the
introduction of electronic databases that contain abstracts and indexes of library holdings.
These databases—known as abstracting and indexing (A&I) databases—contain
publishing data for articles and books as well as abstracts that summarize each work’s
content. By the early 1970s, commercial online services provided researchers with ways
to remotely search through large databases, such as the Dialog Information Retrieval
Service (DIALOG), the National Library of Medicine’s Medical Literature Analysis and
Retrieval System (MEDLARS), and the Educational Resources Information Center
(ERIC) database published by the U.S. Department of Education. Several other
commercial databases now provide researchers with access to an enormous amount of
information. For example, the DIALOG Corp., Dow Jones Interactive (a division of Dow
Jones & Company), and Lexis-Nexis (a division of Reed Elsevier) all enable researchers
to search for a single word or phrase in the full text of millions of articles published over
many years.
The first abstracting and indexing databases—like the first online library catalogs—were
very expensive and difficult to use. They generally required a trained researcher who
worked as an intermediary for library patrons searching for information. Beginning in the
mid-1980s, however, commercial vendors began publishing databases on CD-ROM.
These databases were less expensive to produce and easier to use. The new format
allowed users to quickly search databases with relatively little assistance from trained
professionals.

21. 3. The Internet
Sidebars
POINT/COUNTERPOINT
Should the Government Subsidize Internet Access?
The explosive growth of the Internet has raised concerns about the creation of a “digital
divide” between those who can afford Internet access and those who cannot. Will the
poor be left behind as jobs and other opportunities in the United States economy
increasingly shift to Internet-related businesses? Will those with Internet access enjoy
educational advantages over those without such access? Should the government step in to
help? In this Point/Counterpoint Sidebar, attorney Mark Schwartz argues that free-market
forces are lowering costs and expanding access more quickly and efficiently than any
government action could. Tony Wilhelm, director of the Benton Foundation’s
Communications Policy Program, counters that the government needs to intervene to
guarantee access for all citizens.
open sidebar
The Internet, a computer-based worldwide information network, has had an enormous
impact on libraries. Librarians use the Internet and its multimedia component, the World
Wide Web, to answer reference questions and to provide access to materials not
previously available to their patrons. When the Internet was first introduced in the 1960s,
access to computer networks was limited almost exclusively to government and scientific
communities. In the 1980s and 1990s, however, the speed and availability of computer
networks and data communications lines increased tremendously, and greater numbers of
people gained access to the Internet. On university campuses, investment in personal
computers and high-speed local area networks (LANs) provided students and faculty with
the ability to access vast new sources of information via the Internet.
Americans who cannot afford access to the Internet have increasingly turned to public
libraries to bridge the information gap between rich and poor. Many public libraries have
attempted to meet that challenge by making Internet access a top priority. As a result,
libraries have extended their traditional roles of facilitating self-education and individual
enrichment by providing low-cost or free computer access to online resources such as
government, consumer, medical, and legal information. In 1996 fewer than 28 percent of
public libraries in the United States offered their users access to the Internet. By 1999 that
figure had climbed to more than 72 percent. For more information, see the subsection
Intellectual Freedom in the Trends and Challenges section of this article.
B.
Funding
Beginning in the late 1980s, an economic recession in the United States led to dramatic
cuts in funding for all kinds of libraries. These cuts were especially damaging to public
libraries and to libraries in public schools. With their budgets severely reduced, public
library systems across the country began closing many of their branches. Many

22. communities—such as Worcester, Massachusetts, and Merced County, California—were
forced to close their entire public library systems, including the central library and all of
its branches. Public libraries that remained open often could not afford to update their
collections with new books and magazine subscriptions. Even after the U.S. economy
rebounded in the mid-1990s, public libraries continued to struggle in their efforts to meet
increased public demand for information while facing rising costs for staff training,
materials, and equipment.
Public schools also face budget shortfalls for their libraries. For example, demand for
Internet access strains most school library budgets, often at the expense of traditional
library materials such as books and magazine subscriptions. The National Center for
Education Statistics estimates that U.S. school library expenditures on books dropped
from a peak of $478 million in 1974 to $266 million in the school year of 1992-93. Much
of this reduction in expenditures on books is the result of costs associated with providing
computers, Internet access, CD-ROMs, and other new technologies. Related costs include
several thousands of dollars each year on staff training, computer maintenance, software
upgrades, online reference subscriptions, and computer supplies such as printer paper and
toner cartridges.
For more information about funding in public libraries, see the subsection Public
Libraries: Funding in the Types of Libraries section of this article. For information about
the history of funding public libraries in the United States and Canada, see the subsection
United States and Canada: Public Libraries in the History of Libraries section of this
article.
C.
Theft of Library Materials
When libraries allow users to physically handle their materials and to borrow them for
periods of time, these materials inevitably are vulnerable to theft. Some experts have
estimated that public libraries in the United States lose as much as 2 percent of circulated
materials when users fail to return borrowed items. Some users steal library materials to
illegally resell them, while others simply take the materials home for their private use and
fail to return them.
Libraries of all types primarily lose items not through premeditated theft, but when users
openly check out materials and ignore pleas to return them. Many states have laws that
allow libraries to turn users’ overdue accounts over to collection agencies. Libraries that
catch users stealing their materials cancel the thieves’ borrowing privileges and often
prosecute the thieves under the law.
Libraries usually monitor their collections by tagging materials with magnetic strips.
These strips will trigger alarms if users try to carry the materials through electronic gates
at library exits without properly checking out the items at the circulation desk. Some
libraries also limit access to valuable or popular items that they consider more likely to be

23. stolen. For example, libraries may require users to leave an identification card with
library staff members in order to read certain materials. Research libraries usually require
users to read noncirculating materials only in designated reading rooms. Many libraries
also install security cameras or have security officers who patrol reading rooms and
stacks.
D.
Preservation of Library Materials
Libraries have always struggled against the physical destruction of their collections.
Fires, floods, earthquakes, and wars have damaged the holdings of countless libraries,
destroying forever much of the recorded history of human civilization. But library
materials also fall victim to slow decay caused by acid content in paper, insect
infestation, improper storage or handling, and excessive heat, mildew, humidity, and air
pollution. The slow decomposition of library materials is a universal problem, occurring
on a massive scale in developing and industrialized countries alike. In 1990 the
Association of Research Libraries estimated that in the United States as much as 25
percent of the materials in research libraries were at risk of serious decomposition. The
situation is even worse in developing countries, which typically have much smaller
budgets to direct toward the maintenance and preservation of library materials. To ensure
that library materials remain available to present and future generations of library users,
libraries engage in a variety of preservation efforts. These efforts include the
conservation of original materials and the transfer of information from original materials
to more durable formats.
1
. Paper-Based Materials
One of the greatest threats to library materials stems from the acid content of paper in
books, manuscripts, and other materials. Until the mid-19th century, nearly all the paper
used for written or printed materials was made from cotton or linen rags. This type of
paper could last several hundred years without decomposition. Since then, however, the
vast majority of paper has been made from wood pulp treated with acidic chemicals. The
residual acid slowly decomposes the paper, causing it to become extremely brittle. The
rate of decomposition depends on the original quality of the paper and on the
environmental conditions under which the materials have been stored. Acid-based paper
is especially susceptible to light, heat, humidity, and pollution, all of which accelerate the
decomposition of library materials. After a period of 50 to 100 years, books made with
acid-based paper decompose to the point where they can crumble with any handling at
all.
Libraries and archives can stop the harmful effects of acid in paper by using a
deacidification process, which retards the embrittlement of paper, greatly prolonging the

24. life span of paper-based library materials. In early deacidification efforts, library
conservationists dipped highly valuable pages, one sheet at a time, into a water-based
alkaline solution that neutralized the acid in the paper. Because this was an extremely
time-consuming and expensive process, only the most valuable pages of library materials
could be preserved. However, in 1996 the Library of Congress began implementing a
mass deacidification process that can neutralize the acid of several thousand books at a
time by using a gaseous mixture. The Library of Congress estimates that deacidification
can prolong the life span of paper-based library materials by 250 to 300 years.
Some research libraries and archives, especially at colleges and universities, preserve
their highly valuable collections by storing them in specially designed facilities that
strictly control the levels of light, heat, and humidity. The facilities also feature air-
circulation systems that filter out damaging airborne pollutants. Access to the storage
areas is often limited to trained staff members. The staff members retrieve the materials
and deliver them to patrons for use in reading rooms, where proper handling procedures
can be ensured.
Publishers can contribute to future preservation efforts by following the guidelines of the
American Library Association and other library organizations, which advise publishers to
use acid-free paper when printing new books considered to have enduring value. Despite
wide acceptance of the value of these guidelines, fewer than 20 percent of hardcover
books in the United States are printed on acid-free paper. Even fewer paperback books
are printed on acid-free paper.
Aside from conserving original materials through processes such as deacidification,
libraries transfer the information from some fragile materials to newer, more durable
formats. For example, to preserve the information contained in newspapers, books, and
other paper-based materials, libraries photographically reproduce the pages onto
microfilm or microfiche, miniature transparencies that users can magnify for viewing or
printing with special equipment. Microfilm and microfiche significantly increase the
longevity of library content. They also enable libraries to store bulky, paper-based
documents in much smaller spaces.
2
. Audio and Visual Materials
Not only paper-based materials risk deterioration on library shelves. Similar dangers
confront audio and visual library materials, such as sound recordings, photographs, films,
and videotapes. For example, nitrate-based film stock was the only available format for
motion-picture production until 1951, but the nitrate in this type of film causes it to decay
very quickly, even in controlled settings. Today, half of the 21,000 feature-length films
made in the United States before 1951 no longer exist. Many have been lost or destroyed,
but a vast number have simply decomposed beyond repair. Libraries and archives
preserve nitrate-based films by transferring the images to a more resilient, acetate-based
film stock. They preserve other audio and visual materials in similar ways. For example,

25. original sound recordings are preserved by transferring them from delicate and unstable
wax cylinders or magnetic tapes to newer digital formats such as CD-ROMs.
In addition to preserving their materials from deterioration, libraries must guard against
the obsolescence of machine-readable materials—materials that are read and interpreted
by machines. Many valuable documents in machine-readable materials were first
recorded in formats that have now become obsolete. Machines able to play back the
recordings either no longer exist or are so rare that they are not practical for use in
libraries or even for storage in archives. For example, U.S. president Richard Nixon used
Sony Model 800 machines to record the famous White House tapes that eventually
incriminated him in the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s. Today these tape machines
are obsolete, and only a few still exist to play back the original White House tapes. To
allow historians, scholars, and interested citizens to hear these recordings, the National
Archives and Records Administration transferred them to newer formats, such as CD-
ROMs.
3
. Computer Data
Computer software and hardware introduce additional problems to the preservation
efforts of libraries and archives. Because common standards for computer software and
hardware change so quickly, vast amounts of information stored in obsolete computers
can no longer be accessed using modern equipment. As a result, libraries and archives
risk forever losing access to valuable computer documents such as government statistical
data and geological surveys. To ensure that original computer data remain accessible
using contemporary equipment, libraries and archives must continually transfer these data
to new formats. For example, every ten years the National Archives and Records
Administration transfers all computer data and other electronic records to new formats.
Because transferring electronic records can be an extremely costly and time-consuming
process, most library conservators and archivists can transfer and preserve only those
materials that they determine are of enduring value. As the quantity of computer-based
records increases each year, the task of identifying which electronic materials warrant
preservation becomes increasingly difficult.
E.
Intellectual Freedom
Libraries attempt to acquire, create, and provide access to all types of information,
including information that is potentially controversial. In the United States, librarians
have steadfastly defended this practice, which is known as intellectual freedom.
Intellectual freedom encompasses a broad set of principles that support freedom of
speech and freedom of the press. The most widely endorsed expression of intellectual
freedom is the Library Bill of Rights, first drafted by the American Library Association

26. (ALA) in 1939. In recent years, the availability of controversial information over the
Internet has presented new challenges to the principles of intellectual freedom.
1
. The Library Bill of Rights
Since the mid-20th century, the American Library Association has presented the most
persistent and influential defense of the library’s role in protecting intellectual freedom.
The ALA’s Library Bill of Rights is a basic policy statement on access to libraries and
library materials. It asserts that all libraries are forums of information and ideas, and that
libraries should not exclude certain materials because of the origin, background, or views
of the author or others involved in the creation of the materials.
Americans first expressed their ideas about intellectual freedom by condemning the
censorship of specific publications. In 1939 certain libraries around the country began
censoring the novel The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck. Some
librarians removed the book from their shelves because they considered it immoral, but
most who censored the novel opposed the social and political views advanced by the
author. The ALA responded to the censorship of The Grapes of Wrath and other books by
adopting in 1939 the first draft of the Library Bill of Rights. Since then, the ALA has
revised, amended, and interpreted the document several times, often in response to
pressures against specific publications or library practices.
Over the years, the ALA has broadened the scope of the Library Bill of Rights beyond
opposition to censorship. The ALA now encourages libraries to ensure that every
member of the community has free access to library materials, regardless of an
individual’s origin, age, background, or views about society or politics. In addition, the
ALA asserts that libraries must strive to protect the confidentiality of patrons’ circulation
records to ensure that every individual may freely use all library materials without fear of
reprisal. The ALA also encourages libraries to protect their librarians’ own intellectual
freedom by guaranteeing them rights to free expression without fear of professional
reprisal. Finally, the ALA suggests that libraries should carefully determine whether they
may advocate social or political causes without compromising their objectivity in the
selection of materials.
2
. Intellectual Freedom and the Internet
The Internet has introduced unique challenges to libraries’ defense of intellectual
freedom. Since the Internet emerged as a mainstream communications medium in the
mid-1990s, libraries have provided Internet access in an effort to expand the scope of
information available to users. However, many people feel that some content available on
the Internet, particularly pornography, should not be available for viewing in libraries.

27. These people are particularly concerned that children will gain access to sexually explicit
materials through Internet computer terminals in libraries.
Citing free-speech protections, U.S. federal courts have repeatedly blocked laws designed
to protect children from accessing pornography on the Internet, and libraries are paying
close attention to these rulings. In a unanimous decision in 1997, the United States
Supreme Court struck down the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 law that made it a
crime to make “indecent” or “patently offensive” material available to minors over
computer networks. In the Court’s decision, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that “the
interest in encouraging freedom of expression in a democratic society outweighs any
theoretical but unproven benefit of censorship.” Lawmakers responded in 1998 by
passing a narrower antipornography bill, the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). This
law required commercial World Wide Web sites to ensure that children could not access
material deemed “harmful to minors.” In 1999 a federal judge blocked that bill as well,
ruling that it too would dangerously restrict constitutionally protected free speech.
Despite legislative and community efforts to limit children’s access to particular sites on
the Internet, the ALA maintains that, in accordance with the Library Bill of Rights,
libraries must support access to information on all subjects that serve the needs or
interests of each user, regardless of the user’s age or the content of the material.
Accordingly, the ALA opposes efforts to block library users’ access to specific types of
content on the Internet, including efforts to block access to pornographic content.
Furthermore, it argues that providing connections to the Internet and other electronic
networks is not the same as selecting and purchasing material for a library’s collection.
The ALA therefore maintains that users themselves must assume responsibility for
determining what material is appropriate. Likewise, the ALA argues that parents and
legal guardians who are concerned about their children’s use of electronic resources
should provide guidance to their own children rather than requiring libraries to do so.
However, the ALA does acknowledge that some information accessed electronically may
not meet a library’s standards for the content of its own collection.
Many parent advocacy groups have expressed concern that the ALA’s defense of
intellectual freedom has had the unintended effect of allowing children to view
pornographic materials on the library’s computers. Some local public libraries have
responded to these concerns by reserving specific Internet terminals for children. The
libraries have equipped these computers with special software designed to filter out any
pornographic material while allowing access to all other materials. Critics of filtering
software claim that it blocks access to numerous sites that have nothing to do with
pornography or sexually explicit material.
In 1997 the ALA issued a strong statement against the use of filtering software by
libraries, affirming that the use of such software to block access to constitutionally
protected speech violates the Library Bill of Rights. The ALA joined civil liberties
groups in opposing the Children’s Internet Protection Act, a 2000 law that required all
public schools and libraries receiving federal technology funds to install filtering
software. In 2002 a panel of three federal judges unanimously struck down the law,

28. finding that the filtering software suppressed Web sites whose content was
constitutionally protected. However, in 2003 the Supreme Court reversed that decision
and declared the law constitutional. Just as libraries have the right to exclude
pornography from their print collections, the Court said, so too may they exclude
inappropriate material from their Internet terminals. Concerns about infringement of free
speech are misplaced, the Court ruled, because the law allows libraries to permit access to
blocked sites at the request of patrons for “bona fide research or other lawful purposes.”
The burden placed on these library patrons, the Court said, was “comparatively small”
when weighed against the legitimate interest of the government in shielding children
from inappropriate sexual material.
Until the 1960s very few libraries offered services specifically designed for people with
disabilities. Since then, however, many libraries have made significant modifications to
their buildings and to their collections in an effort to provide the disabled community
with access to library resources and services. For instance, libraries now serve the needs
of the visually impaired with reading materials printed in the Braille system (a system of
raised dots that can be read by touch), books on tape (audio recordings of books,
commonly known as talking books), and large-print magazines and books for users with
limited sight.
In the United States, the passage in 1990 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
led to significantly greater access to library resources for people with disabilities. The
ADA provided disabled persons with protection against discrimination and guaranteed
them access to public services and accommodations. Libraries complied with the law by,
among other things, adding entrance ramps and elevators to provide wheelchair users
greater access to library buildings. They also widened aisles in the book stacks to allow
these same patrons easier access to library materials.
The Library of Congress’s National Library Service for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped issues a catalog of recordings on compact disc and cassette. It also lists
books available in large-print and Braille editions. A cooperative network of libraries
throughout the country circulates these materials to make them available to as many users
as possible. Libraries in the United States have also assisted with the development of
Radio Information Service, a closed-circuit radio reading service for people who are
visually impaired. Volunteers for this service read newspapers, books, novels, and short
stories for users via closed-circuit radio.
Modern technology has expanded library services for people with impaired vision and
hearing. For example, some libraries have introduced computers with the Versa Braille
system, which translates what is appearing on a computer screen into Braille characters.
Some libraries also feature a device called an Optacon, which converts print or computer
output into a tactile form. To read, the user moves the Optacon camera across a line of
print while interpreting the movements of the tactile forms with the index finger of the
other hand. The Kurzweil Reading Machine is another computer device that libraries
provide for visually impaired users. It scans a book, magazine, or other printed material
and then reads it aloud using a synthesized voice. The Reading Edge Scanner can also

29. convert printed text into speech. Some libraries are equipped with Braille printers, which
allow blind and visually impaired patrons to make Braille copies of computer-generated
material. For people with limited vision, some libraries provide computers with large
keyboards, oversized keys, and monitors that automatically enlarge the letters that appear
on the screen.
Some libraries provide specialized telecommunications devices for the deaf and the
hearing impaired, known variously as TTs (text telephones), TDDs (telecommunications
devices for the deaf), and TTYs (teletypewriters). TTY is the most widely used of these
abbreviations. TTYs consist of display monitors and keyboards that allow hearing
impaired users to type messages and send them via telephone lines to people with TTY
displays in other locations. A deaf or hearing impaired person can also place a call to
someone who does not have a TTY by sending a message through an operator at a relay
service. The operator calls the intended party on the telephone and relays messages word
for word during the conversation. Many libraries also have other special aids and
materials for the deaf and the hearing impaired, including closed-captioned videos, which
print written dialog on the television screen as it is being spoken.
IX.
HISTORY OF
LIBRARIES
Libraries are nearly as old as the written word. The earliest known body of written
materials was assembled in Mesopotamia (in present-day Iraq and Syria) more than 5,000
years ago. Ever since then, cultures have established libraries whenever social, political,
and economic developments have enabled them to record and collect knowledge. The
formation of libraries required the support of political or religious leaders who recognized
that historical records were necessary to document, protect, and promote their society’s
achievements. Libraries also could not have developed without readers—a core group of
literate, educated people who had enough leisure time and motivation to use the new
resource.
The Sumerians, an ancient Mesopotamian civilization, collected written records of legal
contracts, tax assessments, and bills of sale. They recorded these documents in
cuneiform, a system of writing in which scribes (writers or copiers) cut wedges of
varying size, shape, and depth into damp clay tablets. For permanent storage, the
Sumerians then baked the tablets and placed them in central locations. These collections
of cuneiform tablets functioned as libraries for use by community leaders, who generally
were the only literate members of the society. Archaeological evidence shows that scores
of cuneiform library collections existed more than 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamian
urban centers.
Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian of the 1st century BC, described a library of sacred
texts at Thebes in the mortuary temple of Egyptian king Ramses II (ruler from 1290 to
1224 BC). However, modern archaeologists have found no evidence of such a library in
explorations of the temple ruins.

30. The palace library of Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, built in the city of Nineveh on the
Tigris River in present-day Iraq in the 600s BC, offers the earliest detailed evidence of an
ancient library’s composition. Ashurbanipal’s palace scribes produced the religious,
literary, historical, legal, and business documents that made up the library’s collection.
They produced these documents as clay, wood, and sometimes wax tablets. Over time,
the scribes developed a complex system to organize and classify the library’s collection,
using tablets of different shapes for different types of records. For example, they used
four-sided tablets to record loan transactions and round tablets to record agricultural
production. They then placed different types of documents into containers of different
shapes and designated separate rooms for the storage of records concerning government,
history, geography, law, taxes, astronomy, and other subjects. The scribes further refined
their bibliographic system with organizational aids such as colored markings, colophons
(explanations of a document’s production), and a subject classification scheme that used
keywords in the text’s first line. Estimates place the contents of Ashurbanipal’s library at
the time of his death at over 25,000 tablets written in several languages.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece was the first known civilization to establish libraries for use by the
popular classes as well as for members of the ruling elite. In the 500s BC Pisistratus, who
ruled Athens, and Polycrates, the ruler of Sámos, both began constructing what could be
considered public libraries. Most people still could not read, however, so in practice these
libraries served only a small percentage of the total population. In addition to the
government-owned libraries, wealthy Greeks and members of the professional class
established private libraries, as well as specialized libraries in medicine, philosophy, and
other disciplines. The philosopher Aristotle had an extensive library that scholars
consulted, although historians have found no actual listing of the titles in his collection.
Greek scholars Euripides, Plato, Thucydides, and Herodotus also owned significant
personal libraries.
To organize and inventory the library’s thousands of scrolls, Alexandrian poet and
scholar Callimachus developed the Pinakes, a 120-volume catalog of the library’s
holdings organized into at least ten main subject categories. Within these broad subject
categories, Callimachus listed authors alphabetically by first name. A mob destroyed the
library of Alexandria in the 2nd century AD, but by that time it had already demonstrated
the economic and cultural value of amassing large research collections and forging a set
of practices to organize and classify them.
For hundreds of years the only library to rival the library of Alexandria in the size and
scope of its collection was the library in the kingdom of Pergamum, in western Asia
Minor (now Turkey). Archaeological research indicates that the Pergamum library
contained as many as 160,000 scrolls, and like the Alexandrian library it had a catalog to
simplify access to the collections. The library was founded by Attalus I, who reigned
from 241 to 197 BC. His son, Eumenes II, who reigned from 197 to about 160 BC,
significantly expanded the library. Attalus III, who became ruler of Pergamum in 138 BC,
bequeathed his kingdom and its library to the Romans in 133 BC.

31. According to legend, Alexandrian ruler Ptolemy II banned the export of papyrus from
Egypt because he was jealous of the competing library in Pergamum. This ban forced
scribes at the Pergamum library to use an alternative writing material, and they eventually
began to transcribe many of their library’s texts onto parchment, a material made from
animal skins. Ironically, the parchment turned out to be more durable than papyrus,
particularly when several sheets were sewn together to form books. Because of its
increased durability, by 400 AD parchment had replaced papyrus throughout Europe as
the principle writing material.
D.
Ancient Rome
After conquering Macedonia in 146 BC, the Roman Empire acquired large collections of
literature from the Greek libraries scattered throughout the region. Roman officials often
carried this literature back to their private villas as spoils of war. As the Roman Empire
grew in wealth and power, Romans considered it fashionable to surround themselves with
books as a mark of social distinction. By 50 BC many wealthy Roman families had
developed extensive private libraries.
Although Roman emperor Julius Caesar commissioned a public library for Rome before
he died in 44 BC, Roman libraries open to members of the public did not exist until 28 BC,
when the emperor Augustus dedicated two collections attached to the Temple of Apollo.
Like Ashurbanipal’s library and the library of Alexandria, however, only a fraction of the
local population was permitted access to Roman “public” libraries. Those who did have
access were permitted to use the libraries primarily for official purposes. By the end of
the 3rd century AD, Rome boasted nearly 30 quasi-public libraries, most attached to
temples. These libraries divided their scroll collections by language into Greek and Latin
sections, organizing them by subject and then alphabetically by author. Although housed
in impressive buildings, the collections of Roman libraries were small in size and
vulnerable to fire, insect damage, and other hazards.
The Ulpian library was one of the greatest quasi-public libraries in Rome. Founded by
Emperor Trajan in AD 114, the Ulpian library, like many Roman libraries, was divided
into Greek and Latin sections. Roman emperor Hadrian also built a considerable private
library for his palatial residence outside of Rome at Tivoli.
By the 4th century AD, Rome was in decline as the world’s political and cultural center,
and, as attacks by invaders intensified, Rome’s strong library tradition began to
disintegrate. The center of the fading Roman Empire during this period of decline moved
eastward to Constantinople (present-day İstanbul), and the Byzantine Empire became a
haven for many great book collections. Emperor Constantine the Great copied the Roman
pattern of dividing collections by language when he established his own palace library in
330 AD. In subsequent centuries Constantinople’s churches accumulated small libraries of
liturgical manuscripts, while some of its monasteries built impressive collections
numbering nearly 10,000 items.

32. Christians dispersed (and in many cases destroyed) Roman library collections when they
defeated Roman paganism during the 4th century AD. However, early Christians believed
in using books and libraries to disseminate and preserve their religious writings.
Christians carried on the Roman concept of the library in collections established by
several Christian leaders, such as Saint Damascus I in the 4th century and Saint Gregory I
in the 6th century.
In the 6th century Catholic bishops in Europe began taking control of all church property,
including manuscript collections in libraries. Thereafter, library collections became
communal church possessions that could be copied and distributed relatively freely. For
about the next 1,000 years during the Middle Ages (which lasted from the 5th century to
the 15th century), medieval libraries in Europe acquired, copied, and disseminated texts
by relying on correspondence between monasteries. Eventually, these libraries developed
a system of procedures to organize and classify their collections. From this mix of
activities emerged a highly decentralized system of libraries scattered throughout Europe.
By the beginning of the Middle Ages, the papyrus scroll was no longer the common text
format. It had been replaced by the parchment codex, an early form of book consisting of
bundles of folded parchment sheets inscribed on both sides. These sheets were stitched
together and placed between protective covers. In codex form these manuscripts carried
more text in less space, and they were easier to transport and read than were papyrus
scrolls. In addition, their bindings were easier to decorate, and their compactness allowed
church officials to move them in and out of closed storage spaces within walls, where
manuscripts were kept with other treasures. The church clergy stored less-valued texts in
armaria, or book cupboards, which were generally situated in more-accessible church
locations.
To enhance quality and quantity of manuscript production, a church official often
established a separate room, called a scriptorium, in which a carefully selected group of
skilled clergy—known as monastic scribes—copied valuable religious texts. The scribes
almost invariably wrote their manuscripts in Latin, which allowed speakers of different
vernacular (local) languages to understand and communicate in a single, universal mode
of expression. They used quill pens to copy the Bible, liturgical books, Latin grammars
(books containing rules and principles of the Latin language), and small numbers of
secular books onto parchment. Because medieval libraries did not follow the directives of
any centralized authority, they frequently developed special techniques in the production
of manuscripts. For example, certain scribes became experts at creating elaborate texts
known as illuminated manuscripts, which were embellished with beautiful color
illustrations and were often bound with fine leather set with jewels.
By the middle of the 6th century, leaders of the Christian monastic order known as the
Benedictines were requiring their monks to read daily. Thus, as missionary monks
traveled throughout rural Europe to establish relatively isolated monasteries, they made
sure to include space for libraries. For example, the monasteries of Saint Gall in
Switzerland, Holy Island in England, Fulda in Germany, and Bobbio in Italy all
maintained outstanding libraries. Many of these rural monasteries provided secure

33. quarters for collections of sacred manuscripts that urban church libraries could no longer
provide. In the mid-7th century, for example, Benedict Biscop, an English abbot, traveled
five times to Rome, returning with pack animals loaded with valuable books. In the late
8th century the English scholar Alcuin established two libraries in Aachen in what is now
Germany—one for the court of Charlemagne, king of the Franks, the other for the palace
school. In addition, Alcuin built a library at Tours in France after he became bishop there.
By contemporary standards, monastery libraries were small. Before 1200 most
monasteries housed fewer than 100 books and manuscripts. Very few monastery
collections exceeded 300, in large part because, on average, the approximately 40 scribes
at work in each monastery scriptorium could reproduce no more than two manuscripts
per year. Nonetheless, the copying and distribution of books and manuscripts spread
Latin culture to monasteries located throughout rural Europe. By perpetuating copying
practices, over time monastic scribes also helped standardize orthography (the art or
study of correct spelling), calligraphy (the art or study of handwriting), and punctuation.
Europe and its libraries changed substantially during the High Middle Ages, which lasted
from the mid-11th century through the 13th century. Europeans had increased contact
with distant civilizations through the efforts of explorers such as Marco Polo and through
the wars fought by soldiers in the Crusades. Europe also experienced increased
production and consumption within an emerging money-based economy. This began to
generate surplus wealth that could be used for patronage and investment. In addition,
throughout Europe religious reforms began to take hold and monarchies began to
develop. All of these factors combined to shift the locus of learning from rural
monasteries to schools within urban cathedrals. Some of these schools eventually
developed large and influential libraries.
Cathedrals served as the headquarters for the church’s bishops and archbishops; they also
served as schools where religious training—and some secular training—for priests took
place. Unlike monastic libraries, the libraries in cathedrals and cathedral schools were
designed for educational rather than inspirational reading. For this reason they contained
more secular books than did monastic collections. Universities grew out of these
cathedral schools and nurtured the rise of professions such as law and medicine. They
also answered the needs of a growing and increasingly literate middle class that
demanded greater access to books and information. Members of the new middle class
also advocated a wider acceptance of local, vernacular literatures in addition to the
universal, Latin-based literature.
Libraries responded to these public demands by increasing the size and scope of their
collections. The library at the Sorbonne reflected many of these changes. The Sorbonne
was established by French theologian Robert de Sorbon in about 1257 as a college of
theology for students at the University of Paris. By 1289 its library had issued a catalog
containing listings for 1,000 volumes, and many of these volumes contained separately
titled works. All but four titles in the catalog were in Latin. The library at the Sorbonne
also instituted a set of rules and regulations for library use. To ensure protection for its
valuable books, it chained about 20 percent of its collection to shelves that were tilted

34. toward readers at an angle. There, several standing patrons could consult one manuscript
at a time, or one patron could consult several manuscripts at a time. By the end of the
15th century the Sorbonne’s collection had grown to 2,500 volumes, increasing numbers
of which were in vernacular languages. Elsewhere in Europe, library managers also
implemented new measures to secure, house, and arrange collections that in many cases
had grown to several thousand volumes.
F.
The Renaissance and Reformation
Gutenberg Bible

35. Gutenberg Bible
The Gutenberg Bible is the first book known to have been created with movable
metal type. It was printed by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, between
1450 and 1455. The advent of movable type increased the efficiency of printing and
the number of books that could be produced. More books and a more literate
population, in turn, enhanced the spread of libraries throughout Europe.
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36. European libraries changed significantly after 1450, when German printer Johannes
Gutenberg first began printing with movable type in the city of Mainz. Printing spread so
rapidly throughout western Europe that by 1600 new presses had issued approximately
30,000 separate titles totaling about 20 million books. For a time, libraries—like their
patrons—continued to favor hand-copied Latin manuscripts. However, between 1450 and
1600 Europe experienced a series of power shifts that greatly influenced the
dissemination of printed books to libraries throughout the continent. In addition, many of
these books were written in vernacular languages rather than in Latin.
During the Renaissance, from about the mid-14th century to the latter part of the 16th
century, scholars produced a flood of literature expressing new beliefs about society,
religion, government, art, culture, and other subjects. Books and libraries played a central
role in the revival of interest in the intellectual heritage of ancient Greece and Rome.
Scholars and poets in Italy such as Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio sparked these
developments in the 14th century by actively seeking out long-forgotten manuscripts of
classical authors and by building small private libraries. However, libraries established
during the Renaissance usually contained works from all periods, classical, medieval, and
contemporary.
Sistine Hall of Vatican Library

37. Sistine Hall of Vatican Library
The Vatican Library was designed by Italian architect Domenico Fontana between
1587 and 1590. An impressive example of Renaissance architecture, the library has
one of the finest collections of books and manuscripts in the world.
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