TYPES OF LIBRARIES

IMD111-INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION SKILLS

LIBRARIES

 Organized collections of documents, films, maps, sound-

recordings and other form of media, and are designed to
meet the informational, educational and recreational
needs of a given user population

 They include media centers, information, documentation

and referral centers, and educational resource centers.
 Basic Aims of Libraries

 To provide information to users by obtaining, organizing,

making available and preserving print and non-print
materials required to meet user needs
 Methods used by libraries to fulfill these aims will
depend on:
- the type of library
- user needs
- types of material held
- organizational constraints such as, staff, finance,
space, other resources
Types of Libraries

There are five main types of libraries serve the differing

information needs of the community
 National Libraries

 Public Libraries

 Academic Libraries

 Special Libraries

 School Libraries
National Libraries

 In most countries there is a national library maintained by

national resources, usually bearing responsibility for
publishing a national bibliography and for maintaining a
national bibliographical information center
 National libraries strive principally to collect and preserve
the nation’s literature, though they try to be a
international in the range of their collection as possible.
 Eg. Library of Congress, Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia,
British Library, etc.
ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

 Serve students and faculty in community colleges,

undergraduate college or university
 The collections and services of these libraries are
designed to match the needs of their users. Needs
that range from basic support of the curriculum to the
advanced research requirements of doctoral students
and faculty at major research universities.
 Eg: Perpustakaan Tun Abdul Razak, Perpustakaan
Sultanah Zanariah, Perpustakaan Tun Seri Lanang
 Attached to institutions of higher learning – universities;
university colleges; training institutes; colleges
 Maintained through the institutions budget
 Collections – print, non-print and electronic sources,
reflective of the academic programs and curricula of the
institution. According to the needs of the various level of
study of its users.
 Users
 Staff – academic and support staff of the institution

 Student – diploma, undergraduate, post graduate of the

institution
 Others – on ad-hoc / on application basis

 Services
 Lending and borrowing

 Reference

 Serials

 Photocopying etc…

 Inter-library loan
 Inter-library loan [no library is an island, no library can
fulfill its users needs]
 Popular among academic libraries

 Borrowing facilities between libraries

 One library will borrow books that are not in their

collection, from another library

 Loan duration, usually a month [depends on lending

library, but not more than a month]

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

 Designed to serve the entire community and to provide

lending and reference services to a broad range of
professional and non professional users.
 Purpose – fulfill recreational needs; vocational needs;
educational needs; or informational needs of the
community
 Eg: Perpustakaan Raja Tun Uda, Perpustakan Sultan
Ismail, Perbadanan Perpustakaan Awam Melaka, etc.
 Users --- anybody’ from school-going children to the
professionals; able and healthy person to the infirm and
the handicapped person; those that are free and those
that institutionalized; those living in urban areas and
those that are remotely located.
 Handicapped – physical and visual
 Institutionalized – inmates of prisons or rehabilitation
centers, patients at hospitals
 Collection
 No specific subject area, mostly storybooks/ novels, light
reading materials.
 Collection in language of community
 Special collection for special type of user e.g Braille books;
talking books; Ulverscroft series.
 Services.
 Lending and borrowing

 Reference

 Mobile library

 Bulk loan

 etc….
SPECIAL LIBRARIES

 They may range from business organizations to societies

and research institutes.
 The scope and use of special library collections vary
widely as well.
 Collection --- reflects the business interest/ activities of
the parent organization
 Users --- members of the organization/ association
 Eg: SIRIM Library, RISDA Library, PETRONAS Library,
ASTRO Library, etc.
SCHOOL LIBRARIES

 Designed to serve the needs of secondary and

elementary school students, to some degree, their
teachers.
 Their collection were designed to supplement the basic
curriculum
 Eg: Perpustakaan Sekolah Kebangsaan Raja Muda,
Perpustakaan Sekolah Menengah Derma, Perpustakaan
Sekolah Kebangsaan Putra, etc.
FUNCTIONAL DESIGN IN LIBRARIES

LIBRARY
MANAGER

INFORMATION TECHNICAL READER

ADMINISTRATION
TECHNOLOGY SERVICES SERVICES

ACQUISITIONS CATALOGING CIRCULATION REFERENCE

Information Technology
 Responsible regarding the system, software,
hardware, and any problem that arise regarding the
system in the library
Technical Services
 Acquire and organize material
 Each section treats an aspect of processing the material
eg acquisition, cataloging, collection maintenance.
 Acquisition
 Responsible for acquiring library materials
 Library materials e.g. books, maps, models, pamphlets,

 3 forms of acquisition
 Purchase
 Gifts and exchange
 Donation
 [Legal deposit]
 Cataloging
This section maintains bibliographic control of the library’s
collection
 Provides access points for easy retrieval of materials
 Classifies materials --- group books of same subject
together
 Tools used --- Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, Sears
List of Subject Headings, Library of Congress Subject
Headings, Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme (DDC),
Library of Congress Classification Scheme (LCC),
Universal Decimal Classification Scheme (UDC)
 Administration

 In this section, it include the administrative duties such as:

 Management

 Policy decisions

 Budget control

 Staff supervision

 Personnel matters

 Staff training

 Liaison within the organization

 Liaison with other organizations

 Providing advice

 Planning and information technology (IT) support

Reader Services
 Deal directly with the needs of clients.
 Circulation
 Lending and borrowing of library materials

 Registration of users

 Formulate membership policy, borrowing policy, fines

policy.
 Arrangement of library materials
• Reference
 Acts as users guide >>> conduct library tour [guided
tour of library facilities and services]
 Acts as readers advisor

 Handles Inter-library loan