"Library" means "library" in English, which means a place to collect books, and it comes from the Latin word "Liber”books. The ancient libraries in China were successively called "houses, palaces, pavilions, views, courtyards, houses and buildings" and were generally called "library buildings". At the end of 19, the word "library" was introduced into China from Japan and appeared in newspapers, while the Hubei Library and Hunan Library established by 1904 officially used this name.

The library is a scientific, cultural, educational and information service institution that collects, arranges, stores, transmits and develops literature information and provides it to the society. In this concept, it includes the following four contents:

1. The working object of the library-literature information and readers.

2. The working procedures of the library-collecting, sorting, storing, transmitting and developing information.

3. The purpose of library activities is to provide utilization and services, with emphasis on utilization.

4. The nature of the library-academic, cultural, educational and service.