You were asked to prepare a report about libraries. Tell:

- what we need libraries for;

- whether you visit your school library and why;

- whether you prefer to use the library or the Internet and why.

The word “library” comes from the Latin word “liber” meaning "a book". Nowadays we understand a library like a place where information in printing and in other forms is collected and arranged to serve people of all ages and interests. Libraries appeared in ancient times in Egypt, Assyria, Greece and Rome.

Perhaps the most famous library of that time was in Alexandria. It contained numerous Greek texts as well as manuscripts in other languages from every part of the known world. The first libraries in Russia were established in medieval monasteries. Public libraries were opened in the 19 century at the Academy of Sciences and at Moscow University.

A library today is a centre for all kinds of communications: printed, pictured, recorded, and even electronically stored. In modern libraries you can find books, newspapers, periodicals, documents, printed music, maps, CDs and DVDs.

In some libraries we can also get access to their electronic resources or the Internet. Most libraries have a professionally educated staff whose first duty is to help us. Librarians also select and purchase books and other materials, organize materials so that we can easily use them, answer questions about facts, people, events, or advise us how to find the information we need.

Many people have books at home. As a rule these are the books of their favourite authors, dictionaries and reference books and what not. My family also has a home library. But books are read not only for pleasure. Reading books helps us in our education. We can find all kinds of books in the library: novels, biographies, fiction, short stories, books on traveling, technical books, magazines, books for children and so on. There we can find books in many foreign languages.

Libraries can be found in many places. There are libraries in villages, towns and cities, and we can see libraries at school, colleges,and universities.

Personally I prefer to go to our lyceum library. I must admit our library has a good stock of books. A great number of volumes fill the shelves. There we can find different kinds of books: adventure stories, historical novels and tales, psychological novels, collections of short stories, immortal classics and what not. Our library subscribes to several newspapers and magazines. They keep us well informed about the latest developments in our country and abroad, news in the spheres of science, art and literature.

The library is full of publications necessary for work on different subjects like art, physics, mathematics and so on. We often use them to prepare for reports or discussions. There are different stands in our library which illustrate the most important events in our and other countries, articles about famous people and funny stories or get us acquainted with new books.

Our librarian is always ready to help us to choose a necessary book. Sometimes we have literary disputes in our library. Our librarian often invites poets, journalists and other interesting people to speak to us. The pupils of our lyceum like our library very much and go there with great pleasure.

Some people think libraries are useless nowadays because almost everyone has an access to the Internet and can easily find any information there. I cannot but agree with the fact that the Internet helps us greatly. But it is a great pleasure to turn real pages and feel that special smell of a book.

Libraries have always played a great part in the development of humanity. The cultural heritage of mankind has been kept there for centuries. Through out the history, libraries have been the centre of scholarship, art and science. That`s way I’m sure libraries will preserve their educational function forever.

 

 

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