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An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution which serves two complementary purposes to support the school's curriculum, and to support the research of the university faculty and students. It is unknown how many academic libraries there are internationally. An academic and research portal maintained by UNESCO links to 3,785 libraries. According to the National Center for Education Statistics there are an estimated 3,700 academic libraries in the United States.〔 The support of teaching and learning requires material for class readings and for student papers. In the past, the material for class readings, intended to supplement lectures as prescribed by the instructor, has been called reserves. In the period before electronic resources became available, the reserves were supplied as actual books or as photocopies of appropriate journal articles. Academic libraries must determine a focus for collection development since comprehensive collections are not feasible. Librarians do this by identifying the needs of the faculty and student body, as well as the mission and academic programs of the college or university. When there are particular areas of specialization in academic libraries these are often referred to as niche collections. These collections are often the basis of a special collection department and may include original papers, artwork, and artifacts written or created by a single author or about a specific subject. There is a great deal of variation among academic libraries based on their size, resources, collections and services. The Harvard University Library is considered to be the largest academic library in the world and has the third largest collection in the United States.〔American Library Association, "(ALA Library Fact Sheet 22 – The Nation's Largest Libraries: A Listing by Volumes Held )". October 2012.〕 Another notable example is the University of South Pacific which has academic libraries distributed throughout its twelve member countries.〔 ==History== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Academic library」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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