Libraries and making a literature search

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview on libraries and making a literature search. The chapter presents the surveys on different kinds of library, their aims, contents, and clienteles, and discusses a few of the libraries specializing in economics literature. In most countries, a law of copyright exists that defines the conditions under which published material may be reproduced, and in recent years this has been extended to cover information held in forms other than the printed word. National libraries are the great libraries with a really large collection of material from books, through pamphlets, periodicals, manuscripts, and maps to the new media such as microfilms, photographs, slides, and films, and currently sound and video tapes. Library of Congress is possibly the world's largest library, with about 80 million items, of which about 20 million are books. The strongest subjects are law, history, and the social sciences, and there are many special collections. Academic libraries encompass Academic libraries to the small specialized libraries of colleges of education.