A special library is a library that provides specialized information resources on a particular subject, serves a specialized and limited clientele, and delivers specialized services to that clientele. Special libraries include corporate libraries, government libraries, law libraries, medical libraries, museum libraries, military libraries, and news libraries. Special libraries also exist within academic institutions. These libraries are included as special libraries because they are often funded separately from the rest of the university and they serve a targeted group of users.Shumaker, David. "Special Libraries." Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, 3rd ed., 4966–74. New York: Taylor and Francis, 2011.
Characteristics
Special libraries often have a more specific clientele than libraries in traditional educational or public settings. They deal with more specialized, area-specific kinds of information. They are developed to support the mission of their sponsoring organization, and their collections and services are more targeted and specific to the needs of their clientele. Special libraries may or may not be open to the general public. Those that are open to the public may offer services similar to research, reference, public, academic, or children's libraries, often with restrictions such as only lending books to patients at a hospital or restricting the public from parts of a military collection. Many special libraries are not open to the general public, though access may be granted for specialized research by request. Special libraries are also sometimes known as information centers. Some authors differentiate special libraries from information centers by defining the latter as having "a very narrow scope".Mount, Ellis, and Renée Massoud. Special Libraries and Information Centers: An Introductory Text. Fourth edition. Washington, DC: SLA Publishing, 1999. They are generally staffed by librarians, although many librarians employed in special libraries are specialists in the library's field rather than generally trained librarians, and they often are not required to have advanced degrees in specifically library-related field due to the specialized content and clientele of the library. Instead, they have training in the informational field and have research experience in that field rather than having typical librarian training. However, it is not uncommon for librarians at special libraries to have both a library science degree as well as a degree or experience of some type in the field their library specializes in as opposed to either only library science or field specific experience.
Special libraries are "special" in their collections, users, and services.
For example, a research institute's library may supply information to scientists who lack the time to visit the library. Current Awareness Service (CAS) and Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) are very common. The listing of special libraries in this article is not comprehensive. Special libraries as a field are defined by not being public, school, academic, or national libraries. Special libraries may be called libraries, information centers, information resource collections, or other names, typically decided by the institution that the library is attached to, and they may or may not have a generally trained and qualified librarian on staff.
These libraries select and procure documents and other sources of relevant documents in the particular field and disseminate the updated information in the concerned field. They give pinpointed technical information promptly. Employees at special libraries provide desired information to users on demand and mostly in anticipation.
History The idea of "special libraries" in the context of sharing a collection of books to a targeted audience was by no means novel.Shumaker, 4967. The first known libraries, dating back to the beginning of known history, recorded commercial transactions and inventories.Renfrew, Colin. Prehistory The Making Of The Human Mind, New York: Modern Library, 2008. Today, these fall under the heading of corporate libraries, discussed below.
The concept of "special libraries" as a distinctive categories of libraries emerged in the United Kingdom and the United States in the nineteenth century. The growth of various special library associations led to the founding of the American Library Association (ALA) in 1876. The Medical Library Association was founded in 1898, followed by the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) in 1906. The Special Libraries Association (SLA), which includes corporate libraries, was founded in 1909 with 20 librarians.
Professional associations The major professional association for special libraries is the Special Libraries Association, which has chapters in Canada, the US, and Europe. The UK based Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and the Australian Library and Information Association also have focus groups devoted to special libraries. More special library associations around the world can be found in the list of library associations. There are also associations dedicated to supporting specialized libraries within specific fields. These include:
American Association of Law Libraries American Theological Library Association Association of British Theological and Philosophical LibrariesAssociation of British Theological and Philosophical Libraries Indonesia Special Libraries ForumIndonesia Special Libraries Forum International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC)International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC) International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres Medical Library Association Music Library Association
Types
Corporate
A corporate library is a special library serving the staff at a corporation. The information services provided by corporate libraries save employees time, and can aid in competitive intelligence work.Keyes, Alison M. "The Value of the Special Library: Review and Analysis." Special Libraries 86, no. 3 (1995): 172–87
Law
Law libraries are designed to assist law students, attorneys, judges and their law clerks, and other individuals conducting legal research including members of the general public. Most law libraries are attached to law schools, private law firms, or government courts for the use of the respective institution's clientele, though some university libraries also maintain a dedicated legal section. The collections of law libraries are tailored to the specific legal interests of the institution they are affiliated with and may not have extensive collection beyond that scope. Education requirement for law librarians varied on types of law libraries. Academic law librarians who provide reference would mostly likely have both master's degree in library science and Juris Doctor degree. Law firm librarians, in contrast, often have library science degree only. The dual-degree requirement in law librarianship has been widely debated in recent years, given librarians in medical or business libraries, for example, are not required to have advanced degree in subject disciplines.Young, S. (2012). The dual degree: A requirement in search of a justification. AALL Spectrum, 17, 7-10. Retrieved from http://heinonline.orgWhisner, M. (2008a). Law librarian, J.D. or not J.D.? Law Library Journal, 100, 185-190. Retrieved from http://heinonline.orgRumsey, M. (2008). Foreign and international law librarianship. Legal Reference Services Quarterly, 25, 73-88. doi:10.1300/J113v25n02_03 Legal reference services available to the general public are typically extremely limited due to legal restrictions on non-attorneys providing legal advice. Researching legal issues is acceptable but directly asking for legal advice is beyond the legally allowed assistance of a law library. The most a librarian at a law library can do is assist with locating reference materials but is not allowed to provide legal advice based on library materials.
Currently, the largest law library in the world is the Law Library of Congress in the United States of America. It opened in 1832 and became a department of the main Library of Congress with the first Law Librarian of Congress Charles Henry Wharton Meehan. Initially, the library only served the members of the United States Congress and the United States Supreme Court but has since expanded to serve the general public and various government agencies as well. The library's collection currently has approximately 2.65 million items in it including materials on both United States law as well as legal resources for jurisdictions all over the world. The collection also includes materials about the history of law going back to the beginning of the most primitive legal systems in the areas of common, religious, civil, customary, and socialist laws.
Federal
In the United States, federal libraries are libraries operated by a federal government agency. The most prominent example is the Library of Congress (LOC), the de facto national library, but there are "more than 1,100 libraries in the U.S. federal government."
The 2022 edition of the Federal Library Directory includes libraries operated by the Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, Department of the Interior, Department of Justice, Department of Transportation, Department of Veterans Affairs, independent agencies, judicial branch, legislative branch, National Archives and Records Administration, and other agencies.
Major categories of U.S. federal libraries include military libraries and presidential libraries. Federal library workers are supported by professional organizations such as the Special Libraries Association (SLA), which has a Military Libraries Community, and the American Library Association (ALA), which has a Federal and Armed Forces Libraries Interest Group.
The LOC manages the Federal Library and Information Network (FEDLINK) as a consortium for U.S. federal government libraries, offering purchasing, training, and resource-sharing. FEDLINK's mission is to "achieve optimum use of the resources and facilities of federal libraries and information centers by promoting common services, coordinating and sharing available resources, and providing continuing professional education for federal library and information staff."
Medical
Medical libraries, also known as hospital libraries or health libraries, are designed to support the needs of physicians, health professionals, medical researchers, medical students, patients, and consumers interested in the medical field. Most medical libraries are attached to hospitals, medical research facilities, medical schools, and similar institutions. Similar to law libraries, most medical librarians have degrees in a biological or medical field instead of or in addition to formal library training, and the specific nature of the medical library collection is tailored to the field or type of care that the library's institution specializes in.
Some hospitals also maintain a library specifically for the entertainment and leisure of patients rather than research, education, or professional development, and these libraries tend to function similarly to public libraries though their collections may be weighted towards medically related or themed works.
Physics Physics libraries include books about physics or helpful to physicists.Paul J. Kobulnicky, "Physics Libraries" in "Physics Libraries and Literature" in Kent and Lancour and Daily (eds), Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, Marcel Dekker, 1977, volume 22, p 214 at p 236.
Military