library

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

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Library (disambiguation)

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O'Fallon, Illinois
Public library

[edit] English

Wikipedia has an article on:

Library

Wikipedia

[edit] Etymology

Middle English librarie from Anglo-Norman librarie, from Old French librairie, from Latin librarius (“‘concerning books’”), from librarium (“‘bookcase, chest for books’”), from liber (“‘the inner bark of trees", "paper", "parchment", "book’”), probably derived from a Proto-IE base * (leub(h)), “‘to strip", "to peel’”). Displaced native Middle English bochus, bochous "library, bookhouse" (from Old English bōchūs "library, bookhouse").

[edit] Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈlaɪbɹəɹɪ/, SAMPA: /"laIbr@ri/
• (US) IPA: /ˈlaɪ.bɹɛɹ.i/, SAMPA: /"laIbrEri/
•  Audio (US)^{help, file}

[edit] Noun

library (plural libraries)

1. An institution which holds books and/or other forms of stored information for use by the public or qualified people. It is usual, but not a defining feature of a library, for it to be housed in rooms of a building, to lend items of its collection to members either with or without payment, and to provide various other services for its community of users.
2. A collection of books or other forms of stored information. An individual may refer to his collection of books and other items as his library.
3. An equivalent collection of analogous information in a non-printed form, e.g. record library
4. (computer science) A collection of subprograms used to develop software.

[edit] Derived terms

[edit] Translations

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[edit] See also

• bookshop, bookstore