national library
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national library
The central, state-run library of a country, whose task is to collect, archive, and make available to the public all media works published in the country.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek sammelt alle Publikationen, die in Deutschland erscheinen.
The German National Library collects all publications that appear in Germany.
The word is composed of 'National-' (national) and 'Bibliothek' (library). The first part, 'National-', refers to the nation and indicates that this library has central importance for the whole country.
Der Name 'Nationalbibliothek' macht deutlich, dass sie das schriftliche Erbe der gesamten Nation bewahrt.
The name 'Nationalbibliothek' (national library) makes it clear that it preserves the written heritage of the entire nation.
A central task of the national library is collecting legal deposit copies. This means that publishers are legally required to submit one or more copies of each of their publications to the national library.
Jeder Verlag in Deutschland muss per Gesetz ein Pflichtexemplar an die Nationalbibliothek senden.
Every publisher in Germany is legally required to send a legal deposit copy to the National Library.
A national library is usually a reference library. This means that you can use the books and media only on-site in the reading room and cannot borrow them to take home.
Für meine Recherche habe ich den ganzen Tag im Lesesaal der Nationalbibliothek verbracht.
For my research, I spent the whole day in the reading room of the National Library.
university library
'die Universitätsbibliothek' and 'die Nationalbibliothek' are both large libraries, but they have different tasks. A university library belongs to a university and mainly helps students, teachers, and researchers with academic literature. A national library belongs to the state or has a national task. It collects and preserves a country's media works. The words can be confused because both sound official and academic. Remember: the 'Universitätsbibliothek' is there for the university; the 'Nationalbibliothek' collects for the whole country.
Die Nationalbibliothek sammelt alle wichtigen Veröffentlichungen des Landes.
The national library collects all important publications from the country.
Für ihre Hausarbeit leiht Anna Bücher in der Universitätsbibliothek aus.
For her term paper, Anna borrows books from the university library.