Speaking as a librarian, I was thrilled to see that these terms exist; I missed them initially, somehow.
To me, the {paq nojwI' qach} is the literal building housing the books and the staff, while the {tum} refers to the entity more abstractly. If you said, "I'll check the Library and see if they have that" and you used your phone app or the on-line catalog, it would be the {tum} you are accessing, but not the {qach}. If you are talking about visiting the library, I don't see much difference. I also don't see how {tum} implies "public", but that's how it's glossed, so be it.
BTW, I would qualify {De' QulwI'} as not just "librarian", but specifically "research librarian". In fact, as the term stands, it could refer to anyone in the data analysis or research field. {paq nojwI'} is much more appropriate for what I do all day.
ter'eS
From: "Michael Roney, Jr." <nahqun@gmail.com>
To: tlhIngan Hol mailing list <tlhingan-hol@kli.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2016 12:38 PM
Subject: Re: [tlhIngan Hol] Klingon Word of the Day: De' QulwI'
On Thu, Dec 29, 2016 at 9:30 AM, Steven Boozer <
sboozer@uchicago.edu> wrote:
> Also from qepHom 2016:
>
> paq nojwI' qach library (building) (n)
> paq nojwI' tum library (public) (n)
>
Do we know what the difference between libraries is?
--
~Michael Roney, Jr.
Freelance Translator