What Is a Library? What Do Libraries Do?

Libraries have served many roles in different places and times

One way to think about libraries is that they gather and provide access to collections.

• These may be collections of knowledge and information, such as are found in books, media, and even people.
• These may be collections of other kinds of resources and things—such as technological devices, the sharing of information in different forms, and creative and material resources (games, puzzles, kits, etc).
• Libraries also frequently provide collections of services for their community, including technological and workforce support, events in service of community engagement and knowledge, and educational and informational outreach. 
• Libraries may also be understood to provide the resource of space—for gathering, studying, and being. 

There are different types of libraries

Ultimately, Libraries of all types may collect, preserve, and make materials, resources, spaces, and stories available to their communities. One reason for doing this is to enable library users to engage with information, knowledge, and resources that may help us to understand our histories, ourselves, and others. 

For a very brief introduction to libraries in general, including (but not limited to)  public libraries, see this excerpt from The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation with Mo Rocca on YouTube. 

• Public Libraries

  • Sometimes also called "lending libraries" or "free libraries." These libraries are open to the public and to patrons of all backgrounds and ages, so access and borrowing options typically span wide demographic ranges, interests, and needs. Services, spaces, and events may be designed to meet the needs and interests of local communities of wide audiences. 
  • Here's a visual story depicting how public libraries have come to be, with connections made to funding sources, activism, and extension of services to all.
  • Here's information on a documentary film via PBS: Free for All: The Public Library

• School Libraries

  • As the title suggests, these are libraries within and for K-12 schools. They often have instructional and curricular aims, may emphasize digital literacy, and, where possible, may provide spaces to support student well-being. They may also coordinate with other learning or outreach services, such as in support of individual student learning needs and research projects. 

  • You can take a look at an Infographic from the American Association of School Librarians: "Strong School Libraries Build Strong Students." 

• ​​​​​Special Libraries

  • These libraries may hold highly specific collections, serve very specialized groups (such as legal or museum collection's researchers, or those in other highly unique settings), and may or may not be "open" to external visitors. Medical libraries, for example, may aim to have a wide reach of access, while corporate libraries with a lot of proprietary information may not. 
  • The School of Information Studies at McGill provides a list from the Special Libraries Association of 26 different types of emphases in special librarianship.

• Academic Libraries

  • The Jim Dan Hill Library at the University of Wisconsin-Superior is an academic library, featuring subject liaison librarians, reference services, and information literacy instruction. 
  • Academic libraries serve the various communities of their academic institution. They may also engage with additional communities, such as local residents or specialized researchers. They may facilitate or otherwise provide support in publishing, bibliometrics, and open educational resources. They may offer additional supportive services in coordination with other offices, such as in facilitating the study of teaching and learning, test proctoring, or maintaining institutional data, records and/or archives. 
  • In 2021, EveryLibrary published a short primer on Academic and Public Libraries.
  • San José State University goes even further, breaking out subtypes of Academic Libraries.

Libraries Offer Services to The Members of Their Community

Broadly, Libraries exist as part of and in service to their community. A report issued in 2018 from The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) asserts that: "Libraries form an important part of the public service infrastructure . . . They frequently have an explicit mission to serve all members of the community, in particular the vulnerable, and are associated with educational opportunity."

Preservation

Within an international and historical context, libraries of various types may be broadly understood to support the preservation of knowledge, of expression, and of cultural heritage.

• Libraries' preservation of cultural heritage, such as through materials that feature stories of peoples, histories, and experiences, can serve multiple purposes, including education and remembering, such as is discussed by this school librarian from the United Arab Emirates. 
• Sometimes, preservation and inclusion of materials representing specific data, perspectives, peoples, or histories—whether historical or contemporary—may be perceived as contentious or as political. In an international context, examples include, for instance, attention to the role of libraries in promoting peace education In Nigeria, and international responses to Cultural Heritage and Library activities in Ukraine. 

Access

Libraries take accessibility—literally the ability for library community members to access spaces and materials—seriously. 

• A cohort of Canadian academic and public libraries has compiled resources to support accessible libraries. 
• The United Nations News features a profile from 2024 of library outreach in prisons in the Philippines with an objective of reducing prison overcrowding. This initiative is supported by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. 
• The Biblioburro, or Donkey Libraries, of Colombia, are an example of a library service for rural patrons, as featured in a short video from the British Broadcasting Corporation. 
• In the United States during the years of the Great Depression, Librarians in Kentucky rode horses into rural areas to provide access to books, as featured in Smithsonian Magazine. This outreach was supported by federal U.S. dollars dispersed as part of the Works Progress Administration. (UW-Superior patrons can access a fictional depiction of this history in ebook and audiobook format)
• Restrictions such as book bans and other forms of censorship can be of concern to libraries. Such actions may be understood to impede access and to impose on the freedoms of thought and of expression.
  • Academic libraries, according to an Ithaka report, are not immune from some of the broader conversations around censorship. 
  • However, given the nature of their support of academic inquiry, critical thinking, and intellectual freedom, academic libraries have generally seen far fewer direct impacts than have public and school libraries, with some examples of the latter provided by PBS News and Harvard Ed. magazine, respectively.

Space

Libraries provide communities with places to be, to study, to gather, and to share. In the 2018 IFLA report cited above, it is also noted that in some settings the library may provide "the only public indoor space in the community."

• In school settings, an Australian librarian has noted that libraries can support student well being, in part by offering a kind of a space of refuge.
• In public settings, the importance of space can be seen, for example, in times of civil unrest and under extreme weather conditions: 
  • In 2014 the importance of library spaces was illustrated in Ferguson, MO, with ABC News noting: "The Ferguson Library Becomes Refuge for Adults and Children Amid Strife," while NBC News featured an article on the same topic entitled: "'In This Together': Ferguson Library Stays Open Amid Violence."
  • Following tornado damage and affiliate issues in 2024, a public library in Ohio was a community resource for air conditioning, electricity, and Wi-Fi, per ABC News, Cleveland. Previously, in 2019, an article in Library Journal noted an increase in public libraries serving as cooling centers. In Wisconsin, meanwhile, public libraries are listed amongst those public resources available for warming during conditions of extreme cold. 
• This emphasis on the library as space has also had an impact on academic libraries and even library architecture, in service of academic community needs and developments, as noted in an article for the Council on Library & Information Resources. 

Libraries Collaborate and Integrate Resources to Serve Their Users

To serve their communities, Libraries of all types may engage with publishers, vendors, and different technologies to offer services and resources to their patrons for low or no cost to the users. For example: 

• Libraries may provide access to technologies and digital tools.
  • This may include tools designed to aid users in locating materials, including computer stations.
  • It may include provision of tools for users to use at low or no cost in order to access or create their own content (e.g. document and spreadsheet softwares, printing services, etc.). 
• Libraries may subscribe to content through digital platforms for their users to access.
  • Subscriptions may be a result of a direct relationship with a publisher.
  • Subscriptions may be a result of working with a vendor that provides materials from multiple publishers and content owners.
  • Subscriptions may provide a way for the library to offer a particular "kind" of resource (such as ebook, audiobook, film, etc.).  

Libraries also collaborate with one another to extend their ability to serve their communities. This kind of "crowdsourcing" can help to expand library services and may reduce expenditures on individual library budgets. 

• For example, while some subscriptions to content may be independent (and available only to or through one library), other subscriptions may be achieved and shared through a consortium or collective of libraries (such as in a given region, or in affiliation with a given institution). 
• In addition to digital resources, Libraries may also use something called "resource sharing" or participate in interlibrary loan services, so that patrons in one location can obtain physical materials on loan from another.

Libraries Rely on Private and Public Funding

Libraries provide services and resources to their communities. To further their reach and to stretch often very limited budgets, Libraries often rely on external funding.

Private Philanthropy

• A fall 2024 article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy  noted that the Carnegie Corporation pledged $4 million to New York City area libraries in order to "provide English language and work-force training classes for adults as well as civics and college- and career-prep courses for teenagers." The article notes that in this action, "Carnegie Returns to its Roots." 
• Allowing for communities to access the library and borrow library materials for free is an idea that took hold strongly in the middle of the 19th century. Aims for public libraries in the United States at this time included teaching English to new Americans, supporting an informed and educated society (and voting public), and providing secular public spaces aimed at a social good. 
  • In line with these aims, private philanthropic funds, especially from Carnegie, have helped to shape libraries as many think of them today, as is demonstrated in this lesson plan from the National Park Service.
  • National Public Radio associates 1,689 public libraries across the United States with Carnegie's support. The Wisconsin Historical Society has some historic photos of the Superior Public Library Carnegie building on Hammond Ave. 
• Under segregation, not all public libraries in the United States provided services to African Americans.
  • According to the Digital Public Library of America, the "first free public library for African American readers staffed and operated entirely by African Americans" was opened in Louisville, KY, in 1905.
  • In 2018, Greg Landgraf published features of and discussions with "five leading African-American librarians about their careers." 
  • In 2021, in The Right to Read: The Fight to Desegregate Southern U.S. Public Libraries, Laura Wertz asserts the importance of the awareness of this history, in part, to help libraries fulfill their mission of service.

Friends Groups

Some libraries may have private "friends" groups that serve as a fundraising wing. Such groups may host used book sales, for instance, or support specific needs—including through volunteer work. Examples include: 

• Friends of the [Superior Public] Library
• Friends of the Duluth Public Library
• Friends of the UW-Madison Libraries

Public Funding

Libraries provide public services, including but not limited to information resources. Thus, city, state, and federal monies provide key supports for library initiatives. 

• City Departments: A 2022 blog post from a school librarian in New York—the first librarian at the school in ten years—notes that this library was able to grow their book collections and to serve students who had never before encountered or used a library, in part due to grant funding support from the city's Department of Education. 
• State Initiatives: In Wisconsin, the Common School Fund has been an important (and in some cases, possibly only) source of support for material purchases by school libraries, according to a 2019 article in The Superior Telegram (UW-Superior patrons can access through U.S. Newsstream). These materials may include physical books as well as library research database subscriptions for student use. 
• Federal Services: In a 2020 blog post that remains live as of this posting, the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) featured a description of IMLS federal grant programs designed to bring Wi-Fi to underserved communities through partnerships with public libraries. This included but was not limited to libraries in Arizona and South Carolina. Expansions in digital access were also supported in Wisconsin, as described by the Bridges Library System. 

Libraries May Contribute to and Reflect Social Change: Examples from the 1950s and 1960s United States

Libraries and Librarians are a part of their society and of their time and place. Consider these examples from the middle of the twentieth century: 

• In 1950, Ruth Brown, Director of the Bartlesville (Oklahoma) Public Library, was dismissed from her position after thirty-one years of service.
  • One argument of the time was that under Brown's leadership, the library held allegedly subversive (Socialist) materials.
  • Notably, Brown advocated for Black patrons to have access to library spaces and services in ways not permitted under the segregation laws of the time, though this was not emphasized in the film depicting her. 
  • Louise S. Robbins (former director of the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Library and Information Studies) has set Brown's dismissal within a framework of Cold War politics while also connecting  Brown's dismissal to her efforts for racial justice and civil rights (Robbins' book is available to UW-Superior patrons  through Resource Sharing).
• "Our books are not here to gather dust on the shelves; library service is not denied to anyone in Florida if the service is within the limits of our budget."
  • This quote is attributed by the State Library and Archives of Florida to Florida State Librarian (and the first Archivist of the State of Florida), Dorothy Dodd, in 1962. 
  • In the same context, Dodd is recalled by Santa Fe College as one of the "Fearless Women of Florida," in part for her extension of library services to "prison inmates." 
  • Yet Dodd is perhaps most remembered for what has been thought of as her call for Florida public libraries to remove titles including Tarzan and The Wizard of Oz (both of which were part of a larger series) from shelves. 
    • A January 1959 newsletter issued under Dodd asserted that "the presence of books of this type on the library shelves indicate waste of time and money on the part of the librarian and lack of interest in the welfare of the children of the community." 
    • There was quickly a clear difference of opinion shared in a variety of ways, including in an editorial published in Life Magazine. 
    • The newsletter text attributed to Dodd appears to align with that depicted in the March 1959 Newsletter of the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee Association. 
      • This association's newsletter attributes the general premise and even the wording not to Dodd and not to Florida, but to the Library of South Carolina.
      • It also seems sympathetic to what it situates as Dodd's broader point, which is that it is challenging for libraries to select books (and perhaps especially complete series of books) guaranteed to be of long-lasting value.
• These examples illustrate that libraries and librarians have long sought to provide their entire communities with library resources and services to meet identified needs. They demonstrate the importance of professional ethics.
• The example of Dodd, in part, illustrates how fraught the book selection process can be for libraries and librarians,* and how public responses can take on a life of their own—even going so far as to single out individuals (and perhaps not always with complete information).
• These examples can also help us to see that book bans and concerns about and challenges to library holdings are far from new. In fact, The Wizard of Oz was a contested title for decades (UW-Superior patrons can see a brief entry on this topic in a May 8 2000 issue of the Chicago Tribune).  More broadly, PEN America traces the "first" book ban in the U.S. all the way to 1637! 
• Collectively, the examples may be understood to demonstrate some of the challenges librarians must face in navigating conflicting values and perspectives. These examples also show that libraries, in their service to their communities, may be impacted by changes in broader social values.

*For an example of  how some of this has been understood to work in library and information sciences, consider "Not Censorship But Selection," by Lester Asheim, and first published in 1953