[Points: What it is—general usefulness—different kinds: lending, school and college, travelling, special organization—usefulness of reports issued by libraries.]
A library is a collection of books; but it is generally used in the sense of the place where such collection is kept for use by the public. The number of men who can buy the books they require for their cul ture is very small. Libraries meet this urgent intellectual heed, and have, therefore, come to be regarded as almost indispensable institu tions for every society. Not only are more and more libraries being founded everywhere; their organisation also has been made a branch of scientific study, resulting in considerable improvement in their use fulness.
There are libraries of different kinds. Some are meant for the public. The books here are issued for study at home to anybody who becomes a member on payment of a fixed monthly subscription. There is provision also for free reading rooms where a variety of papers and journals is laid on the table for free study by everybody.
School and College libraries are meant only for the teachers and students of the respective institutions.
There are also travelling libraries here and there, which means that selected collections of books belonging to a big central library are circulated by turn from place to place. This enables even remote, backward villages that cannot afford to have any libraries of their own to get the benefits of a central library at a distant place.
There are also special libraries that particularise in special subjects, such as the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad.
The organisation of the library has been greatly improved in recent years. The old system of indexing books has been replaced in most big libraries by the system of card-indexing, which enables the librarian to locate any book at a moment's notice. Every member is given a distinct card and when he takes away a book, he has to leave his card and the name of the book with the librarian. There is also the open shelf system in some places.
Modern libraries also issue occasional reports on the number of books of different kinds taken out. This proves a valuable index to the people's taste, and enables the authorities to regulate the system of issue and check the degeneration of the library through an excessive use of light literature.
