Library vs. Archive — What's the Difference?

A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are easily accessible for use and not just for display purposes. It is responsible for housing updated information in order to meet the user's needs on a daily basis.

An archive is an accumulation of historical records – in any media – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of that person or organization.

A building or room containing collections of books, periodicals, and sometimes films and recorded music for use or borrowing by the public or the members of an institution

Often archives A place or collection containing records, documents, or other materials of historical interest

A place in which reading materials, such as books, periodicals, and newspapers, and often other materials such as musical and video recordings, are kept for use or lending.

A long-term storage area, often on magnetic tape, for backup copies of files or for files that are no longer in active use.

A collection of such materials, especially when systematically arranged.

A file containing one or more files in compressed format for more efficient storage and transfer.

A room in a private home for such a collection.

A repository for stored memories or information

An institution or foundation maintaining such a collection.

To place or store in an archive.

A series of books issued by a publisher.

(Computers) To copy or compress (a file) into an archive.

A collection of standard routines used in computer programs, usually stored as an executable file.

A place for storing earlier, and often historical, material. An archive usually contains documents (letters, records, newspapers, etc.) or other types of media kept for historical interest.

A collection of cloned DNA sequences whose location and identity can be established by mapping the genome of a particular organism.

The material so kept, considered as a whole (compare archives).

A collection of proteins generated from the collected DNA sequences that express them, used for tracking metabolic functions of proteins in diseases such as cancer, for the synthesis of new drugs, and for other proteomics research.

(ecology) Natural deposits of material, regarded as a record of environmental changes over time.

An institution which holds books and/or other forms of media for use by the public or qualified people often lending them out, as well as providing various other services for its users.

(transitive) To put (something) into an archive.

(by extension) Any institution that lends out its goods for use by the public or a community.

The place in which public records or historic documents are kept.

A collection of books or other forms of stored information.

Public records or documents preserved as evidence of facts; as, the archives of a country or family.

An equivalent collection of analogous information in a non-printed form, e.g. record library.

A depository containing historical records and documents

A room dedicated to storing books.

Put into an archive

(computer programming) A collection of software routines that provide functionality to be incorporated into or used by a computer program.

(genetics) A collection of DNA material from a single organism or relative to a single disease.

(card games) The deck or draw pile.

A considerable collection of books kept for use, and not as merchandise; as, a private library; a public library.

A building or apartment appropriated for holding such a collection of books.

A room where books are kept;

A collection of literary documents or records kept for reference or borrowing

A depository built to contain books and other materials for reading and study

(computing) a collection of standard programs and subroutines that are stored and available for immediate use

A building that houses a collection of books and other materials