Organized collection of books and information resources made accessible for the public

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public library</span>

Public library

<p>A <b>public library</b> is a <a href="/en/Library" title="Library" class="wl">library</a> that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by <a href="/en/Librarian" title="Librarian" class="wl">librarians</a> and library <a href="/en/Paraprofessional" title="Paraprofessional" class="wl">paraprofessionals</a>, who are also <a href="/en/Civil_service" title="Civil service" class="wl">civil servants</a>.</p>

<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none" about="#mwt1">Organized collection of books and information resources made accessible for the public</div>
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<figure class="mw-default-size wiki-thumb"><a href="/en/File:NYC_-_New_York_City_Library_-_1723.jpg" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:NYC_-_New_York_City_Library_-_1723.jpg"><img loading="lazy" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/NYC_-_New_York_City_Library_-_1723.jpg/310px-NYC_-_New_York_City_Library_-_1723.jpg" decoding="async" data-file-width="3457" data-file-height="2267" data-file-type="bitmap" height="203" width="310" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/NYC_-_New_York_City_Library_-_1723.jpg/465px-NYC_-_New_York_City_Library_-_1723.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/NYC_-_New_York_City_Library_-_1723.jpg/620px-NYC_-_New_York_City_Library_-_1723.jpg 2x" alt="NYC_-_New_York_City_Library_-_1723.jpg"></a><figcaption>Patrons at the <a href="/en/New_York_Public_Library_Main_Branch" title="New York Public Library Main Branch" class="wl">New York Public Library Main Branch</a>, 2005</figcaption></figure>
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.sidebar-content-with-subgroup{padding:0.1em 0.4em 0.2em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-above,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-below{padding:0.3em 0.8em;font-weight:bold}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-collapse .sidebar-above,.mw-parser-output .sidebar-collapse .sidebar-below{border-top:1px solid #aaa;border-bottom:1px solid #aaa}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-navbar{text-align:right;font-size:115%;padding:0 0.4em 0.4em}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-list-title{padding:0 0.4em;text-align:left;font-weight:bold;line-height:1.6em;font-size:105%}.mw-parser-output .sidebar-list-title-c{padding:0 0.4em;text-align:center;margin:0 3.3em}@media(max-width:720px){body.mediawiki .mw-parser-output .sidebar{width:100%!important;clear:both;float:none!important;margin-left:0!important;margin-right:0!important}}</style><table class="sidebar sidebar-collapse nomobile nowraplinks hlist"><tbody><tr><td class="sidebar-pretitle">Part of a series on</td></tr><tr><th class="sidebar-title-with-pretitle"><a href="/en/Library_and_information_science" title="Library and information science" class="wl">Library and information science</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-image"><span class="mw-image-border"><a href="/en/File:LIS_SidebarPicture.png" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:LIS_SidebarPicture.png"><img loading="lazy" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/LIS_SidebarPicture.png/250px-LIS_SidebarPicture.png" decoding="async" data-file-width="2544" data-file-height="1644" data-file-type="bitmap" height="162" width="250" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/LIS_SidebarPicture.png/375px-LIS_SidebarPicture.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/LIS_SidebarPicture.png/500px-LIS_SidebarPicture.png 2x" alt="LIS_SidebarPicture.png"></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-above" style="padding-bottom:0.35em;">
<ul><li><a href="/en/Outline_of_library_and_information_science" title="Outline of library and information science" class="wl">Outline</a></li>
<li><a href="/en/Glossary_of_library_and_information_science" title="Glossary of library and information science" class="wl">Glossary</a></li></ul></td></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding-top:0.2em;">
<div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title notheme" style="background:#ddddff; text-align:center;">Histories</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content"><a href="/en/History_of_libraries" title="History of libraries" class="wl">Libraries</a> - <a href="/en/Information_history" title="Information history" class="wl">Information</a></div></div></td>
</tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding-top:0.2em;">
<div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title notheme" style="background:#ddddff; text-align:center;">Focus</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content"><a href="/en/Archives_management" title="Archives management" class="wl">Archives management</a> - <a href="/en/Collections_management" title="Collections management" class="wl">Collections management</a> (<a href="/en/Preservation_(library_and_archive)" title="Preservation (library and archive)" class="wl">Preservation</a>) - <a href="/en/Data_management" title="Data management" class="wl">Data management</a> - <a href="/en/Information_management" title="Information management" class="wl">Information management</a> (<a href="/en/Cataloging_(library_science)" title="Cataloging (library science)" class="wl">cataloguing</a>) - <a href="/en/Knowledge_management" title="Knowledge management" class="wl">Knowledge management</a> - <a href="/en/Library_management" title="Library management" class="wl">Library management</a></div></div></td>
</tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding-top:0.2em;">
<div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title notheme" style="background:#ddddff; text-align:center;">Curation</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content"><a href="/en/Data" title="Data" class="wl">Data</a> - <a href="/en/Metadata" title="Metadata" class="wl">Metadata</a> - <a href="/en/Information" title="Information" class="wl">Information</a> - <a href="/en/Document" title="Document" class="wl">Documents</a> - <a href="/en/Cultural_artifact" title="Cultural artifact" class="wl">Artefacts</a> - <a href="/en/Knowledge" title="Knowledge" class="wl">Knowledge</a></div></div></td>
</tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding-top:0.2em;">
<div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title notheme" style="background:#ddddff; text-align:center;">Interdisciplinary fields</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content"><a href="/en/Archival_science" title="Archival science" class="wl">Archival science</a> - <a href="/en/Communication_studies" title="Communication studies" class="wl">Communication studies</a> - <a href="/en/Computer_science" title="Computer science" class="wl">Computer science</a> - <a href="/en/Data_science" title="Data science" class="wl">Data science</a> - <a href="/en/Documentation_science" title="Documentation science" class="wl">Documentation science</a> - <a href="/en/Epistemology" title="Epistemology" class="wl">Epistemology</a> - <a href="/en/Library_science" title="Library science" class="wl">Library science</a> - <a href="/en/Information_science" title="Information science" class="wl">Information science</a> - <a href="/en/Science_and_technology_studies" title="Science and technology studies" class="wl">Science and technology studies</a></div></div></td>
</tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding-top:0.2em;">
<div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title notheme" style="background:#ddddff; text-align:center;">Areas</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content"><a href="/en/Academic_library" title="Academic library" class="wl">Academic</a> - <a href="/en/Archive" title="Archive" class="wl">Archival</a> - <a href="/en/Law_library" title="Law library" class="wl">Legal</a> - <a href="/en/Medical_library" title="Medical library" class="wl">Health</a> - <a href="/en/Private_library" title="Private library" class="wl">Private</a> - <a href="/en/Public_library" title="Public library" class="wl">Public</a> - <a href="/en/School_library" title="School library" class="wl">School</a> - <a href="/en/Special_library" title="Special library" class="wl">Special</a></div></div></td>
</tr><tr><td class="sidebar-below" style="border-top:1px solid #aaa;border-bottom:1px solid #aaa;">
<ul><li><a href="/en/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Libraries" title="Wikipedia:WikiProject Libraries" class="wl">WikiProject</a></li>
<li><span class="nowrap"><span class="noviewer"><span><img loading="lazy" alt="Symbol_category_class.svg" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/16px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png" decoding="async" data-file-width="180" data-file-height="185" data-file-type="drawing" height="16" width="16" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/23px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/31px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png 2x"></span></span><span>&nbsp;</span><a href="/en/Category:Library_and_information_science" title="Category:Library and information science" class="wl">Category</a></span></li></ul></td></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-navbar"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1063604349" typeof="mw:Extension/templatestyles">.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:inline;font-size:88%;font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .navbar-collapse{float:left;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .navbar-boxtext{word-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .navbar ul{display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;line-height:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::before{margin-right:-0.125em;content:"[ "}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::after{margin-left:-0.125em;content:" ]"}.mw-parser-output .navbar li{word-spacing:-0.125em}.mw-parser-output .navbar a>span,.mw-parser-output .navbar a>abbr{text-decoration:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-mini abbr{font-variant:small-caps;border-bottom:none;text-decoration:none;cursor:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-full{font-size:114%;margin:0 7em}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-mini{font-size:114%;margin:0 4em}</style><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/en/Template:LibraryandInformation-TopicSidebar" title="Template:LibraryandInformation-TopicSidebar" class="wl"><abbr>v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><span class="new"><abbr>t</abbr></span></li><li class="nv-edit"><a rel="mw:ExtLink" href="//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:LibraryandInformation-TopicSidebar&amp;action=edit" class="external text" target="_blank"><abbr>e</abbr></a></li></ul></div></td></tr></tbody></table>

<p>There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries: they are generally supported by taxes (usually local, though any level of government can and may contribute); they are governed by a board to serve the public interest; they are open to all, and every community member can access the collection; they are entirely voluntary, no one is ever forced to use the services provided and they provide library and information services without charge.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-1"><a href="#cite_note-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[1]</span></a></span></p>

<p>Public libraries exist in many countries across the world and are often considered an essential part of having an educated and literate population. Public libraries are distinct from <a href="/en/Research_library" title="Research library" class="wl">research libraries</a>, <a href="/en/School_library" title="School library" class="wl">school libraries</a>, <a href="/en/Academic_library" title="Academic library" class="wl">academic libraries</a> and other <a href="/en/Special_library" title="Special library" class="wl">special libraries</a>. Their mandate is to serve the general public's information needs rather than the needs of a particular school, institution, or research population. Public libraries also provide free services such as preschool story times to encourage early literacy among children. They also provide a quiet study and learning areas for students and professionals and foster the formation of book clubs to encourage the appreciation of literature by the young and adults. Public libraries typically allow users to borrow books and other materials outside the library premises temporarily, usually for a given period of time. They also have non-circulating <a href="/en/Reference" title="Reference" class="wl">reference</a> collections and provide computer and Internet access to their patrons.</p>



A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries: they are generally supported by taxes ; they are governed by a board to serve the public interest; they are open to all, and every community member can access the collection; they are entirely voluntary, no one is ever forced to use the services provided and they provide library and information services without charge. Public libraries exist in many countries across the world and are often considered an essential part of having an educated and literate population. Public libraries are distinct from research libraries, school libraries, academic libraries and other special libraries. Their mandate is to serve the general public's information needs rather than the needs of a particular school, institution, or research population. Public libraries also provide free services such as preschool story times to encourage early literacy among children. They also provide a quiet study and learning areas for students and professionals and foster the formation of book clubs to encourage the appreciation of literature by the young and adults. Public libraries typically allow users to borrow books and other materials outside the library premises temporarily, usually for a given period of time. They also have non-circulating reference collections and provide computer and Internet access to their patrons. 