The World Libraries.

The word “library” comes from the Latin word ‘liber’, meaning ‘book’. This is a place where information in print (book, manuscripts, periodicals) and in other forms is stored. People go to the library to read, look, listen, search, inquire, relax, discuss, learn and think.

The largest and the best known libraries in the world are: the British National library in London, the Library of Congress in Washington and The Russian State Library. The British Library is the largest state library in Britain and is one of the finest libraries in the world. It is a rapidly growing modern research library with all its current publications. The other library which is known throughout the world is the Library of Congress. It was established as a reference library in 1600 and gradually became the world famous institution that now occupies three huge buildings. A great number of items in collections of books, newspapers, periodicals, manuscripts, films, maps and works of drama, music, art and important and exciting documents from American history are kept in library’s archives.

The Lenin Library is the central library and is one of the world’s largest. The old library building was built in 1786 on a hill opposite to the Kremlin by Vasily Bashenov and was a typical example of a Moscow town residence of that time. Its new buildings were built in 1940. When the library was founded in 1861, it contained over 1000.000 volumes, and was then located in the old Pashkov part of the complex. In 1915 its one reading room had a seating capacity of only 170. Now it has 23 reading rooms of 2500 seating capacities and a book fund of 27 millions. There is a wide choice of books: fiction, non-fiction, detective stories, science fiction, biographic, history and encyclopedias which are extremely useful in work, because they give information about every branch of knowledge. Of 25course, there is a catalogue of books. The titles and authors of all the books in the library can be found in a card catalogue or a computer listing. Each card in catalogue gives very helpful information about the book; the titles and the author, the time and place of publication and the even something about it contents. The library is used daily by around 10000 people.

All libraries have many professionals in staff whose first duty is to help you. Librarians also select books, organize materials so that you can easily use them, answer questions about facts, people, events, or advise you how to find the information you need. The library today is a centre for all kinds of communications: printed, pictured, recorded and even electronically stored.