American Library Association

If you had trouble coming up with a complete definition, you are not alone. Even the American Library Association has trouble defining what a library is. On their website, the ALA provides several general definitions of the idea of "library". I like this one from the Librarian's Book of Lists (Chicago: ALA, 2010):

Definition of Library from the Librarian's Book of Lists (Chicago: ALA, 2010).
"A library is a collection of resources in a variety of formats that is (1) organized by information professionals or other experts who (2) provide convenient physical, digital, bibliographic, or intellectual access and (3) offer targeted services and programs (4) with the mission of educating, informing, or entertaining a variety of audiences (5) and the goal of stimulating individual learning and advancing society as a whole."

For a simple word, "library" has a lot of ideas packed into it. In the next few pages we will unpack some of those ideas and you can create a useful working definition for yourself.