A
library is a collection of sources of information and similar resources, made accessible to a defined community for reference or borrowing. It provides physical or digital access to material, and may be a physical building or room, or a virtual space, or both. A library's collection can include
books,
periodicals,
newspapers,
manuscripts,
films,
maps,
prints,
documents,
microform,
CDs,
cassettes,
videotapes,
DVDs,
Blu-ray Discs,
e-books,
audiobooks,
databases, and other formats. Libraries range in size from a few shelves of books to several million items. In Latin and Greek, the idea of
bookcase is represented by
Bibliotheca and
Bibliothēkē (Greek: βιβλιοθήκη): derivatives of these mean
library in many modern languages, e.g. French
bibliothèque.