Great Libraries

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 department of the British Museum founded in 1753.The British Museum has more than 9 million books 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.

The British Library receives one copy of every book and of every periodical or newspaper published in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. 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 lectures, by students and those who are engaged in research in their spare time.

The richness of the collections in different subjects makes Library specially useful for journalists and writers. Well-known literary and historical personages worked here, Sir Walter Scott, Dickens, Carlyle, Thackeray, Marx, Lenin, Thomas Hardy and George Bernard Show among them.

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. These structures hold more than 80 million items in collections of books, manuscripts, films, maps, and works of drama, music and art. The Library’s archives keep a great number of important and exiting documents from American history. Its original purpose was to provide research facilities for members of Congress. Today the library serves the public as well.

School Education in Great Britain

Education in Britain is compulsory and free for children between the ages of 5-16. About 93 percent of all children are educated in state schools and the rest attend private schools.

Schoolchildren attend primary schools for 6 years (5 to 11 years). At the age of 11 almost all children in the state system change schools. When students transfer to Secondary Schools they do not take any examinations, but their reports are sent on from the Primary School.

Most children over 80 percent go to comprehensive schools. They admit pupils of all abilities.

But there are also:

“grammar schools” - a school for children over the age of 11, who are specially chosen to study for examinations which may lead to higher education) and

“secondary modern schools” – a school for children over the age of 11, who are not expected to go on to higher study later.

The pupils have to pass an exam to go there.

All types of secondary schools have the 5-year courses for pupils from 11 years up to the schools leaving age.

Pupils in all state schools in England and Wales study 10 main subjects.

At the end of 5-year course, at the age of 16, students sit (General Certificate of Secondary Education) exams in as many subjects as possible. Weak students may only sit for three or four subjects. Better students take ten subjects.

At the age of 16 about 2 thirds of these pupils leave school and get jobs or apprenticeships. About one-third stay on at school until the age of 18, preparing themselves for higher education.

The 6^th form. They stay on at school for 1 or 2 years to prepare themselves for university.

The school year is divided into three terms. There are Christmas and Easter holidays and the summer holiday which begins rather late and is usually 6 weeks long.

Students have a lot of opportunities for playing sports, attending different clubs (for example, Book Club, Maths Club, Chess Club, ets.). Most schools have very good libraries which students use for reference work.