Technical library
Introduction
"A specialized library is an information center that brings together, processes and disseminates information related to a topic or a group of related topics. These are normally organizations linked to research centers, industrial or cultural organizations, laboratories, professional associations, government departments and all types of institutions that carry out their work in a specific field, supporting the main objectives of the institution to which they belong."[1].
The ALA defines it as: "the library established, maintained and administered by a commercial firm, a private corporation, an association, a government agency or other group or entity that has an interest in a specific subject to meet the information needs of its members or staff and achieve the objectives of the organization." UNESCO, for its part, defines them as "those libraries that depend on an association, official service, department, research center, learned society, professional association, museum, company or any other type of organization, and whose collections belong mostly to a particular branch, for example: natural sciences, social sciences, history, etc."
Its appearance is relatively recent, gaining more strength from the second half of the century as a result of the explosion of information and specialization as a social value. The United States was a pioneer in the creation of specialized library societies. The SLA (Special Libraries Association) was created in 1909 and fifteen years later it inaugurated the Science and Technology division under the name of Technological Group. Almost at the same time, in 1932, the ARL (Association of Research Libraries) was founded.
The main mission of these libraries is to provide information to people who focus their activities on these topics, as well as to those who work in these centers, so that they can adequately carry out their tasks based on studies and research.
Organizational features
Specialized libraries are normally part of an organization or institution in different spheres of knowledge, whether scientific, technological, industrial, religious, political, cultural, etc. Although, the conception of this type of information centers was expanded to also be considered as a necessary piece in the economic progress of a society.
Based on this, some typologies of specialized libraries can be established: