In library classification systems, realia are objects such as coins, tools, games, toys, or other physical objects that do not easily fit into the neat categories of books, periodicals, sound recordings, or the like. In education, "realia" are objects from real life used in classroom instruction. The two meanings are closely related because of the support many types of libraries give to educational endeavors.

The term refers to three-dimensional objects from real life, whether man-made (artifacts, tools, utensils, etc.) or naturally occurring (specimens, samples, etc.), usually borrowed, purchased, or received as gifts by a teacher, library, or museum for use in classroom instruction or in exhibits. Archival and manuscript collections often receive items of memorabilia such as badges, emblems, insignias, jewelry, leather goods, needlework, etc., in connection with gifts of personal papers. Most government or institutional archives reject gifts of non-documentary objects unless they have a documentary value. When accepting large bequests of mixed objects they normally have the donors sign legal documents giving permission to the archive to destroy, exchange, sell or dispose in any way those objects which, according to the best judgement of the archivist, are not manuscripts (which can include typescripts or printouts)or are not immediately useful for understanding the manuscripts.

Realia include objects used by educators to help students to better understand other cultures and real life situations. A teacher of a foreign language often employs realia to strengthen students' associations between words for everyday objects and the objects themselves. In many cases these objects are part of an instructional kit which includes a manual and is thus considered as being part of a documentary whole by librarians.

Most libraries usually have a very well written, legally tight, acquisitions policy which rejects beforehand any object which is not some kind of document. There are some exceptions. Children's libraries sometimes have a toy collection, whose individual items are lent out after being cataloged as realia, or under a more specific material designation such as toy, or game. Some large libraries can have a special mandate of keeping objects related to a literary collection or very large libraries can have a public relations department which can find museum objects useful for enhancing or promoting the general collection. Such a library is more likely to prize realia for their associations with writers, subjects, or themes in the library's collection rather than for their own intrinsic worth, artistic merit, historical significance, or scientific value. Examples might include a feather pen believed to have been owned by John Hancock, lead type from Benjamin Franklin's printing press, or a collection of Vietnam era canteens, mess kits, uniforms, combat boots, etc. used in an "hands on" exhibit for children to illustrate the Vietnam Conflict.

Within the very restricted domain of cataloging rules in the field of Library and information science the term "realia" is used to describe those mass produced objects which incorporate documents or significant amounts of text (such as world globes, decks of quiz cards, board games), but which have a format which makes it hard to incorporate them in the general collection or to describe them easily in the catalog. Special cataloguing rules are available to describe these objects.

References

• Drake, Miriam. ed ."Toys, games, etc (realia)" Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science Vol 31. New York : Marcel Dekker, 2003.
• Grossman, Lev. "Catalog This: Dante's dust, Poe's hair, Taft's underwear. Oh, my, what's a librarian to do?" New York Times, "Education Life" section, April 14, 2002, page 26.
• Hektoen, Faith H. and Jeanne R. Rinehart, editors. Toys to go : A Guide to the use of Realia in Public Libraries. Chicago: American Library Association, 1975.
• Olson, Nancy B. "Cataloging Three-Dimensional Artefacts and Realia". Cataloging and Classification Quarterly. 2001 31 (3-4), pages 139-150.
• Weber, Mary Beth. Cataloging Non-Print and Internet Resources. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers Inc., 2002.