LIBRARIES IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IN THE USA
Read the texts about the famous libraries in Great Britain and the USA and find out what they are remarkable for. Use a dictionary when necessary.The British Library is the largest public library in Britain. It consists of the Reference Division, the Bibliographic Service Division, the National Sound Archive and the Research and Development Department in London, and the Lending Division in Yorkshire.
The Reference Division has its origins in the library departments of the British Museum founded in 1753. It is housed within the same 19th century building of the British Museum, with more than 9 million books stored along two miles (three km) of shelving, and includes a Gutenberg Bible, the Magna Carta, medieval illuminated manuscripts and original texts by Shakespeare, Dickens, da Vinci and many others. The collections of early printed books, of old English books and of books in all European languages make the British Library one of the finest libraries in the world. It is, however, not only a collection of old books, it is also, with all its current publications, a rapidly growing modern research library.
The British Library receives one copy of every book and of every issue of every periodical or newspaper published in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Now, as in the past, the collections are not only in many languages, but also cover all fields of human knowledge. The Reading Room of the British Library is a centre of serious study in all fields. It is used by university professors and lecturers, by students reading for higher degrees and by those who are engaged in research in their spare time.
The richness of the collections in different subjects makes the Library specially useful for journalists and writers. In the summer, a high proportion of readers are visitors from abroad, particularly from the United States. Well-known literary and historical personages worked here, Sir Walter Scott, Dickens, Carlyle, Thackeray, Marx, Lenin, Thomas Hardy and George Bernard Shaw among them.
Cultural Notes:
The Magna Carta - a famous document in British history agreed in 1215 by King John of England which sets limits on royal powers. Later it was seen as statement of basic civil rights. Four copies of the original still exist.
The Gutenberg Bible - a Bible which was the first book to be printed using movable type. It is named after the printer Johann Gutenberg (1397 -1468)
Thomas Carlyle (1795 -1881) - a Scottish writer on political and social subjects, who was in favour of strong government.
The Photo Gallery
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10th century Constantinople, Gospel of Luke 1 
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The Library of Congress today is among the world's largest. It was established as a reference library in 1800, and occupied one room in the building of the United States Capitol, Washington, DC. The first Capitol's one-room Library of Congress would become a world-famous institution that now occupies three huge buildings, including the James Madison Memorial Building completed in 1980. These structures hold more than 80 million items in collections of books, newspapers, periodicals, manuscripts, films, maps, and works of drama, music, and art. The Library's archives keep a great number of important and exciting documents from American history. Its original purpose was to provide research facilities for members of Congress. There are materials on practically every subject to which members of Congress can refer. Today the library serves the public as well.
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James Madison (1751 - 1836) the fourth president of the US (1809 - 1817), famous for helping to write the Constitution.
The Photo Gallery
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Exercise 1. Answer the questions on the texts:
1 Where is the British Library housed?
2 What unique books are there in the collections of the British Library?
3 What makes the British Library a centre of serious study in all fields?
4 What well-known personages used to work in the Reading Room of the British Library?
5 What is the Library of Congress rich in?
Exercise 2. Say what other famous libraries, apart from the British Library and the Library of Congress, you know. Try and describe the largest library of your country (city). Give some information about its collections.
Exercise 3. Study some reference materials to find information about a famous library. Then tell your class about уour findings.