The celebrated library at Alexandria in Egypt contained the greatest collection of literature in the ancient world. Founded at the end of the 4th Century B.C., it had the objective of collecting in one place a copy of every important Greek text ever written. Ever since, a compulsion to compile just such a comprehensive collection of literature has been a feature of every major civilized culture: the British Library, the Library of Congress, the Bibliothèque Nationale, all were founded with similar aims, and now maintain massive collections of books and journals.
The scale of such undertakings, even in times when comparatively few written works were produced, was vast: writ large in these endeavours are exactly the problems of storage, retrieval and security which modern data-processing managers wrestle with. The history of the Alexandrian Library itself offers one of the earliest object lessons in the importance of following effective data security procedures: Plutarch records that in 47 B.C. part of the library caught fire, and many unique books were lost forever that might otherwise have survived.
In computer science, a collection of subroutines and functions stored in one or more files, usually in compiled form, for linking with other programs. Libraries are one of the earliest forms of organised code reuse. They are often supplied by the operating system or software development environment to be used in many different programs. The routines in a library may be general purpose or designed for some specific function such as graphics.
Libraries are linked with the user's program to form a complete executable. The linking may be static linking or dynamic linking.
It is good manners to keep your voice down to a low level, as people may well be studying for exams or researching some vital PhD paper.
Libraries often become geek magnets, due to the vast collection of knowledge available in paper, magnetic and meat form. However, the computers also attract other users who want to see if they can bypass the filters and get to the porn sites.
In Civilization or Civilization II, a library is a city improvement that increases the knowledge production in the city it is built in. It is easy to build libraries fairly early in the game, since all they need is the civilization advance of writing and 40 production shields.
Although they are easy to build and can be very useful, veteran civ players don't always focus on building libraries early on in every game. Since a library generates a 50% boost to knowledge production, the city must be generating at least 2 knowledge arrows to get a bonus, and at that level the library barely justifies its cost of upkeep. Especially in far flung empires, where trade is being lost to corruption, it can sometimes be hard to get a noticable bonus out of libraries. Many players choose instead to gain knowledge through increasing trade with caravans or roads, or by trading knowledge with other civilizations.
On the other hand, a small civilization on an island that can switch to a progressive form of government fairly quickly can benefit greatly by building a number of libraries and later universities.
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Li"bra*ry (?), n.; pl. Libraries (#). [OE. librairie, F. librairie bookseller's shop, book trade, formerly, a library, fr. libraire bookseller, L. librarius, from liber book; cf. libraria bookseller's shop, librarium bookcase, It. libreria. See Libel.]
1.
A considerable collection of books kept for use, and not as merchandise; as, a private library; a public library.
2.
A building or apartment appropriated for holding such a collection of books.
Holland.
© Webster 1913.
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