A research library is a library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

 which contains an in-depth collection of material on one or several subjects (Young, 1983; p.188). A research library will generally include primary source

Primary source

Primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines to describe source material that is closest to the person, information, period, or idea being studied....

s as well as secondary source

Secondary source

In scholarship, a secondary source is a document or recording that relates or discusses information originally presented elsewhere. A secondary source contrasts with a primary source, which is an original source of the information being discussed; a primary source can be a person with direct...

s. Large university libraries are considered research libraries, and often contain many specialized branch research libraries.

Research libraries can be either reference libraries

Reference library

A reference library does not lend books and other items; instead, they must be read at the library itself. Typically such libraries are used for research purposes, for example at a university. See List of closed stack libraries...

, which do not lend their holdings, or lending libraries

Lending library

A lending library is a library from which books are lent out. The earliest reference to or use of the term "lending library" yet located in English correspondence dates from ca. 1586; C'Tess Pembroke Ps. CXII. v, "He is .....

, which do lend all or some of their holdings. Some extremely large or traditional research libraries are entirely reference in this sense, lending none of their material; most academic research libraries

Academic library

An academic library is a library that is attached to academic institutions above the secondary level, serving the teaching and research needs of students and staff...

, at least in the U.S., now lend books, but not periodicals or other material.

See also

• Academic library
  Academic library
  An academic library is a library that is attached to academic institutions above the secondary level, serving the teaching and research needs of students and staff...
  
  
• Decline of library usage
  Decline of library usage
  As technology becomes increasingly available and digital information expands on a daily basis, academic library use is on the decline. Research libraries on college and university campuses are finding that “gate counts and circulation of traditional materials are falling at many college libraries...
  
  

:Category:Research libraries

• Research Libraries Group
  Research Libraries Group
  The Research Libraries Group was a U.S.-based library consortium which developed the Eureka interlibrary search engine, the RedLightGreen database of bibliographic descriptions and ArchiveGrid, a database containing descriptions of archival collections...
  
  
• Consortium of University and Research Libraries