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Library vs Athenaeum - What's the difference?

library | athenaeum |

As nouns the difference between library and athenaeum

is that library is an institution which holds books and/or other forms of stored information for use by the public or qualified people. It is usual, but not a defining feature of a library, for it to be housed in rooms of a building, to lend items of its collection to members either with or without payment, and to provide various other services for its community of users while athenaeum is an association for the advancement of learning, particularly in the fields of science or literature.

library

English

(wikipedia library)

Noun

(libraries)
  • An institution which holds books and/or other forms of stored information for use by the public or qualified people. It is usual, but not a defining feature of a library, for it to be housed in rooms of a building, to lend items of its collection to members either with or without payment, and to provide various other services for its community of users.
  • A collection of books or other forms of stored information.
  • An equivalent collection of analogous information in a non-printed form, e.g. record library
  • (computer science) A collection of software subprograms that provides functionality, to be incorporated into or used by a computer program.
  • (card games) The deck or draw pile
  • A collection of DNA material from a single organism or relative to a single disease

    • Derived terms

    * Borgesian library * interlibrary * librarian * librarial * library and information science * library assistant * library catalog * library hand * library science * mobile library * record library * public library * school library

    See also

    * bookshop, bookstore, bookhouse False cognates and false friends in English 1000 English basic words

    athenaeum

    English

    Alternative forms

    *

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An association for the advancement of learning, particularly in the fields of science or literature.
  • * {{quote-news, year=1994, date=June 3, author=Michael Miner, title=Will This Man Save Inland Architect?/A Simple Process, work=Chicago Reader citation
    • , passage=A panel of architects who might loosely be described as the local athenaeum of their profession are awaiting, anxiously, the next edition of the bimonthly journal that bears their names. }}
  • A building for storing books or newspapers; a library, reading room etc.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1921, author=Christopher Morley, title=Plum Pudding, chapter=, edition= citation
    • , passage=And this, too, may have been not unconnected with the gracious influence of the other sex as exhibited in a neighbouring athenaeum ; and was accompanied by a gruesome spate of florid lyrics: some (happily) secret, and some exposed with needless hardihood in a college magazine. }}