A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also civil servants.
There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries:
Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, United States, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007.
The company, formerly known as Gale Research and the Gale Group, is active in research and educational publishing for public, academic, and school libraries, and for businesses. The company is known for its full-text magazine and newspaper databases, Gale OneFile (formerly known as Infotrac), and other online databases subscribed by libraries, as well as multi-volume reference works, especially in the areas of religion, history, and social science.
The democratization of knowledge is the acquisition and spread of knowledge amongst a wider part of the population, not just elite groups such as clergy, professionals, or academia. Mass literacy, the printing press, public libraries, television, and modern information technology such as the Internet have played a key role, as they provide the masses with open access to information through a variety of means.
View the full Wikipedia page for Democratization of knowledgeA lending library is a library from which books and other media are lent out. The major classifications are endowed libraries, institutional libraries (the most diverse), public libraries, and subscription libraries. It may also refer to a library or other institution that sends materials on request to another library, usually via interlibrary loan.
View the full Wikipedia page for Lending library