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. The collections can be of print, audio, and visual materials in numerous formats, including maps, prints, documents, microform (microfilm/microfiche), CDs, cassettes, videotapes, DVDs, video games, e-books, audiobooks and many other electronic resources.

In the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities, Rev.4 the activities of libraries are included in #isic9101 - Library and archives activities, and include:

  • documentation and information activities of libraries of all kinds, reading, listening and viewing rooms, public archives providing service to the general public or to a special clientele, such as students, scientists, staff, members as well as operation of government archives:
    • organization of a collection, whether specialized or not
    • cataloguing collections
    • lending and storage of books, maps, periodicals, films, records, tapes, works of art etc.
    • retrieval activities in order to comply with information requests etc.
  • stock photo libraries and services

Using a work system pattern the current situation of a library has been described in the below architecture view. The model elements and their relationships are defined in ArchiMate® 3.0.

The work system pattern for a public library (using ArchiMate's model elements)

Read more at the Library's Actor Atlas page.