Facilities, often located in academic libraries, school districts or other environments, that maintain collections of print and media materials, art supplies and other resources that are used for instructional purposes which teachers, scout leaders, child care providers and others can review and check out for use in their own classrooms. Also included are programs that circulate instructional modules on specific issues that can be incorporated in an educational curriculum.

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Libraries or other organizations that maintain collections of nonprint literary and artistic materials (films and recordings and the equipment that is required for their enjoyment) which are made available to the community on a loan basis. Audiovisual resources include DVDs, audio books, music CDs and language instruction recordings as well as access to eBooks, eAudio and movie and television streaming services.

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Libraries that maintain reference desks in adult and/or children's sections or telephone reference services to help users to find the information or leisure reading material they need. Reference librarians provide assistance in locating information on a wide variety of topics such as business, current events, and statistics and research findings. Also included are readers advisory services.

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Public, academic and some special libraries or other organizations that acquire, house and make available to the community for purposes of research or appreciation, rare books, aggregations of printed works or manuscripts on a particular subject or by a particular author; artistic materials by a particular artist or representative of a particular era or style; or other collectibles that are rare, of special interest, of historical significance or of scholarly value. Also included are organizations that acquire, classify and make available to the community on a loan or distribution basis, special document collections or reading materials in a variety of language or special formats which enable people who have visual or hearing impairments or who read in a language other than English to enjoy leisure reading materials and selected nonfiction and reference works. Some collections include materials that require specialized security and user services.

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