Libraries (0)

Libraries .
We know a lot of things thanks to books , but we do not know exactly when and where they originated, and what should be considered the first book in the world. Ancient document , written on parchment, papyri and vellum can hardly be qualified as books the way we understand the word today .
Centuries went before paper replaced parchment and papyri. In the 15th century Johann Gutenberg invented a mechanical process of duplicating texts, which we today call book printing . The first book was printed between 1444 and 1446, so these years can be considered as the beginning years of book printing. His most important preserved printings are the 40 copies of the Bible . By the end of the 15th century there were about 1000 print -shops in Europe already . The oldest Estonian book dates back to 1535.
Libraries form a vital part of education. They make available - through books, films , recordings and other media- knowledge that has been accumulated through the ages . People in all walks of life use libraries to get information for their work .
Libraries also play an important role in preserving people’s cultural heritage . For example, some libraries have rare books, authors ’ and composers’ manuscripts or works by artists.
Today’s libraries differ very much from the ones from the past - not only in the contents and services , but also in physical layout and atmosphere. Library derives from the Latin word “liber” which means book. It shows that libraries were collections of books at first but now they have also a wide variety of other materials: magazines, newspapers , disc and cassette tape recordings, films and videos, computerized databases , maps etc. In addition to ordinary books libraries may have large-print books and Braille books for people with impaired vision.
There are different kinds of libraries to meet the needs of people: university , research, school, medical, government libraries and other libraries. Public libraries serve a wider range of people than other libraries. They may range from big city libraries to small village libraries. Big city libraries’ materials are usually organized into subject areas , such as history, science , sports , fiction etc. There may be specials sections also for children . Almost every library has a special reading room with comfortable furniture for the readers and the students can work on independent study projects.
School libraries. School libraries are part of the education system. It supports the curriculum as it helps the teachers and pupils to prepare for the lesson. Pupils can read extra materials there about the subjects they like. Everyone doesn’t have a computer neither good encyclopedias at home so they can get the required information needed for their homework from the books or from the Internet . It is needed because it teaches how to find your books on your own from other libraries too because usually the same system is used for the book location. School libraries are definitely very good places to study for a test before the lesson because it is quiet there and one can use books as a helping hand .
Our school library is very nice in my opinion. It is also good compared to other school libraries in our country , even one of the best . It has many good books and it’s good to spend time there, laying on a couch and reading a magazine. There are about 16000 books there and you can use them there or take them home with you. If you want to borrow a book, you must take it to the librarian and she will write up your name to the database, the name of the book and the date of borrowing. Elementary school pupils can take book home for two weeks to one month . High school pupils can borrow the books for one month but they can prolong the time.
If you lose your book you have to compensate for the loss. You can either buy the same book and or buy a book that the librarian values equivalent to the lost one. If you return the book when the date has expired you don’t have to pay a fine for it.
We have fiction on the 2nd floor and non-fiction, periodicals and reference books on the first floor. Reference books are arranged by language . Fiction is arranged by language and alphabetically. If you can find the books you need in our library, you can also find them in any other library. But if you are in trouble and really cannot find the book you’re looking for you can ask the librarian for help.
Our school library is opened for 8 hours , from 8.00-16.00. It has 3 rooms -the exhibition room, the media room and the reading room. There are 6 computers in the media room for everyone to use and you can find learning materials there or spend your break just surfing on the Internet. Pupils’ works are shown in the exhibition room and you can spend time in the reading room reading one of the 80 different periodicals that we have in our library.
I love to go to the library in breaks, rest on the couches and read “Sporditäht”.
Famous libraries. The Library of Alexandria was one of the best- known libraries of the ancient world. It was built in 300 B.C. It had the most complete collection of books at that time. In about 650 A.D Alexandria surrendered in a war and all the books except the ones of Aristotle were used as fuel to heat the public baths.
The Boston Public Library is the largest municipal public library in the United States and was established in 1848. It was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States and the first public library to allow people to borrow books and other materials.
The Bodleian Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford , is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in England is second in size only to the British Library. It is one of five copyright deposit libraries in the United Kingdom.
The British Library (BL) is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is based in London and Boston Spa and is one of the world's most significant research libraries, holding over 150 million items. The Library's collections include around 25 million books,[1] along with substantial additional collection of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC. As of March 2004 the Library held 11.2 million monographs and received more than 41,500 regular serials. As a legal deposit library, the BL receives copies of nearly all books produced in the United Kingdom, including all foreign books distributed in the UK. It also purchases many items which are only printed abroad . The British Library adds some 3 million items every year .
My book. I read Agatha Christie ’s “The Body in the Library”. The story was 130 pages long. The book was first published in 1942 but my version was published in 1983 by Moscow Vysšaja Škola. The genre of the book is mystery novel .
The story takes placed in an imaginary English village St Mary Mead where the body was found and the fashionable seaside resort Danemouth because most of the suspects were staying there at the Majestic Hotel . St Mary Mead seems to be a nice quiet village where strange things happen once in a while. Very different people live there from different social standings. And Miss Marple knows them all very well, like it’s usual for a small village.
The story takes place in the 1940’s I think. The date is not mentioned in the book but I assume it is around 40’s because of the description and the book was published in 1942. There is a murder in St Mary Mead and it’s a hard one to solve but Miss Marple has the ability to overcome any problem and this time is no exception.
The main character in the book was Miss Marple, the old amateur detective. She had been solving many crimes over the years in her home village and near it. So she is hired to help the policemen again. She is an old lady probably in her early 70’s. At first she seems like a usual older lady, she likes gossip talk and knitting. But in reality she is a real genius at solving crimes. She is calm and does not like to make premature conclusions and to tell everybody about them. Her style for solving crimes was unusual -she made parallels with the people from her village and what they would do at the same situation (as a murderer or suspect) and she was excellent at knowing people.
Ruby Keene was the murdered girl. She was young and dim-witted. She worked as a Ballroom dancer at the Majestic Hotel and had to communicate with people. She was a likeable person , the customers of the hotel liked her although it was obvious that she was not very bright .
Josie turner was also a dancer at the hotel. She was somehow related to the girl. Turner was not a very nice person. She was very calm when she heard about the murder and did not seem to be surprised nor sad, more like confused. The hotel staff wasn’t very fond of her and neither were the detectives. She seemed to be clever and hiding something .
Basil Blake was a murder suspect with an arrogant attitude towards the police . He was having parties at his house all the time with young women coming over. He was a rich man working in the film business. He did not want to talk to the police very much and the neighbours did not like him at all, he was not really kind to people.
Mr and Mrs Bantry were a married couple in their 60’s I think. The body was found from their house but the people were sure that they weren’t involved in the murder because they were nice people. Mr Bantry was a reliable man who was a retired colonel. He was a calm and clever man. Never did anything unwise. Mrs Bantry was more active , she was even kind of happy about the body because she had been waiting for a long time for something interesting to happen in her life.
Conway Jefferson was a frequent guest at the Majestic Hotel. He was an old man in a wheelchair because he had lost his both legs, wife , son and daughter in a plane crash. But he was still going on and he even got rich after the accident and that shows he’s a very strong man with an iron will. He was Ruby Keene’s new friend . He was staying at the hotel with his son’s widow and daughter’s widower.
Raymond Starr was a male dancer, the partner of Ruby Keene in the show. He was a handsome man and a good tennis player . He was really eager to help the police and tried to answer the questions as accurately as possible.
George Bartlett was also a guest at the hotel. He was a dumb man who did not remember or pretended not to remember anything about the night when Ruby was murdered. The policemen were really annoyed with him and he was definitely a suspect.
Ruby Keene was a young girl who was found dead from Mr and Mrs Bantry’s home library. She had been strangled to death . Nobody nearby recognized the poor girl but police from a nearby county identified the body as a missing 18-year-old woman . She was a dancer at the Majestic Hotel and this leads the investigation there. There are many suspects-the widower of Conway Jefferson’s daughter and the widow of his son because Conway wrote a will and put Ruby in it although he had known her only for about a week and she would have inherited lots of money from the sick man although the widower was in money problems.
Ruby was Josie Tuner’s replacement in the dancing show as Josie had injured her ankle but Ruby was doing very well and Josie was afraid she would lose her job.
The situation becomes more complicated when the burnt-out wreck of George Bartlett's car is found, with a second murder victim inside it. This body is charred beyond recognition, but on the basis of fragments of clothing it is identified as Pamela Reeves, a 16-year-old Girl Guide who had been reported missing earlier. It soon emerges that Pamela had arranged to attend a secret screen test with a man whom she believed to be a Hollywood film producer, but who appears to fit the description of Basil Blake. Pamela never returned from the screen test.
This leads the detectives to Girl Guides and Ms Marple solves the crime with the help of one of the girls she interrogates and with the victim’s fingernail. The other detectives had jumped into wrong conclusions and would have arrested the wrong suspect but Ms Marple saved him from the worst possible thing that could happen to him.
I chose this book because I have read Christie’s books before and they have been interesting. I like crime stories and this book has got very good feedback from readers. I’m very satisfied with my choice because it really was a good read because the storyline was interesting and complicated because there were many possible murderers. I did not know who’s the real murderer until the very end. Miss Marple’s methods for solving crimes are different and interesting. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone who is fond of crimestories because it was a joy to read it.