Importance of Library in our Life

[tamannabiva]

_{Importance of Library in our Life}

The word library is derived from a French word "Librairie"; Latin "liber" = book. The library plays an important role in our academic and social lives. Library is an organized collection of information resources made accessible to a defined community for reference or borrowing and this collection of information may be in the form of books, newspapers, CD's, journals and research papers etc. library provides us physical or digital access to material, and may be a physical building or room, or a virtual space, or both containing collection of informative material. A library can be of different types like, school library, college library, office library or community library etc. and collection in a library may vary from books, periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts, films, maps, prints, documents, microform, CDs, cassettes, videotapes, DVDs, Blue-ray Discs, e-books, audio books, databases, and other formats. Libraries range in size from a few shelves of books to several million items.

Libraries offer free education and entertainment to the masses which can be a student, a work professional or a common person of a community. It doesn't matter what your economic status is, you can come in and have free access to books that can inform and transform you. Though the use of school/college and research libraries is limited only to the students of that particular school/college but state and community libraries are open for all and anyone can avail the benefits of these during working hours. It would not be wrong to say that a library is the store-house for books of all kinds and on all subjects under the one roof. A good modern library usually subscribes to practically all the important newspapers and periodicals so that these are made available to all those interested in these information sources.

Books, newspapers and periodicals are the main features of a library and they represent the endeavours, achievements and glory of writers, statesmen, scientists, philosophers and saints and one can learn a lot from these. A library can act as a local museum of sorts, displaying the type of information which simply can't be experienced on an online library through a computer or an I-pad. A library is not just a source for reading books and newspapers, in fact, it means a lot more than that. It should be a repository for local history, currently collected in a haphazard and voluntary manner by local groups who often lack the facilities to do so adequately. A library is a soul-nourishing place for people of any age, and a natural focal point for the meeting of minds.