how many books is a library

A collection of books is generally considered a library if it contains anywhere from about 500 to 5,000 books, with 1,000 books often cited as a common threshold for a personal or small library. The American Library Association suggests around 5,000 books for a collection to "feel" like a library in a physical sense, while some sources place the minimum at 500 or 1,000 books. However, there is no strict rule, and even well-curated smaller collections can be called libraries. Public libraries typically hold tens or hundreds of thousands of items, but smaller private libraries or home libraries with a few hundred to a thousand volumes are also commonly recognized as libraries.