Some of the most beautiful buildings in the world are libraries.
They were built at a time when books were not widely available to all, and of course many were unable to read them.
What do you think?
Discuss the following question in your group:
Is there still a place for libraries in this digital age?
This lesson contains 6 steps and an evaluation.
Work them through step by step.
Step
Activity
Introduction
Find out what you already know.
Step 1
Speaking
Answer questions and compare with a classmate. Click on beautiful libraries and answer questions. Compare these with a classmate.
Step 2
Reading
Read an article about libraries. Answer questions in your own words.
Step 3
Words
Match words to their definition. Complete sentences with verbs.
Step 4
Grammar
Theory about gradable and non-gradable adjectives and adverbs. Two exercises to practice.
Step 5
Watching and speaking
First read questions, then watch a video and answer questions. Discuss the answers with a classmate.
Step 6
Task
Write a letter to the editor. There are tips to help you.
Speaking
Which of the following have you done in a library?
Borrowed a book
Read a book
Listened to a talk
Asked for information
Had a meal
Borrowed a CD or DVD
Consulted a data base
Other...
Compare your answers with your classmates.
Now compare with this study 'What people do at libraries'.
How similar or different are your results?
Look at these libraries. Which do you like? Which don’t you like?
Do you prefer modern or old? Or perhaps you have no preference?
Compare your answers with your partner.
Clementinum - Prague:
The baroque Library Hall, with its rare gilded globes and spectacular frescoes depicting science and art, is just one building in the vast Clementinum complex. Legend says the Jesuits had only one book when they started building the library in 1622; when they were done, the collection had swelled to 20,000 volumes. Labels on the bookshelves are original to the library’s opening, as are volumes with “whitened backs and red marks,” markers left by the Jesuits. Tours run daily.
The library at Mafra National Palace in Portugal:
The palace was built by a king who vowed to create it if his wife gave him descendants, which she did. The magnificent floor is covered with tiles of rose, grey and white marble. The wooden bookshelves in Rococo style are situated on the sidewalls in two rows, separated by a balcony with a wooden railing. They contain over 35,000 leather-bound volumes, attesting of the extent of western knowledge from the 14th to the 19th century. Among them, are many valuable bibliographical jewels, such as incunabula (books printed before the year 1500). These beautiful finished volumes were bound in the local workshop (Livraria) in the rocaille style.
The Royal Library Copenhagen in Denmark:
Known as the Black Diamond, this neo-Modernist building was built in 1999 as an addition to the Royal Library’s original complex. Its striking steel, glass, and black granite structure contains a concert hall, a popular café, and exhibition spaces. The Black Diamond treats visitors to spectacular harbor views and a ceiling fresco by one of Denmark’s most famous artists, Per Kirkeby. Guided tours are available on Saturdays.
George Peabody Library, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore:
The Peabody Stack Room’s five-tier soaring atrium has wrought-iron balconies and columns so graceful that Nathaniel H. Morison, its first provost, called it a “cathedral of books.” It’s one of America’s most beautiful college libraries, with a setting so gorgeous that weddings and special events are often held here. Bibliophiles come not only for the design but to browse 18th- and 19th-century volumes of archaeology as well as British and American history and literature.
Royal Portuguese Reading Room, Rio de Janeiro:
A group of far-from-home Portuguese immigrants banded together to create a Portuguese library in 1837, although construction on the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura didn’t get going until 1880. The neo-Manueline building’s limestone façade showcases Portuguese explorers like Prince Henry the Navigator, Vasco da Gama, and Pedro Álvares Cabral in sculpture. The cathedral-like reading room has a stained-glass dome and wooden galleries. Its ornate bookshelves hold the largest collection of Portuguese literature outside of the motherland. Open Monday to Friday.
Library of congress Washington:
When the original library burned down in 1814, Thomas Jefferson seeded a new one with his own much broader collection of books. Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, stands guard in mosaic form above the main reading room, and scrolls, books, and torches pop up throughout the Library of Congress. Highlights include the main reading room, the Gutenberg Bible (one of 42 left in the world), and free classical concerts. Open Monday to Saturday.
Central library of Vancouver, Canada:
Architect Moshe Safdie’s creation resembles a modern-day Colosseum. You enter the Central Library through a huge skylit concourse, which contains shops and cafés and acts as an urban gathering point. Bridges inside the library connect to reading and study areas in the outer walls. Plans are under way to reclaim two of the building’s top floors from other tenants in order to expand the rooftop garden and make it accessible to the public. Open seven days a week.
Musachino Art university Museum and library, Tokyo:
Presenting the most library-like library ever: Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto designed the Art University’s 26,900-square-foot space to be constructed from light-wood bookshelves walled in with glass. Even the stairs have built-in shelves, though they’re currently empty. Compared by Fujimoto to “a forest of books,” the building stands as a powerful visual testament to the bound book’s enduring power. The museum and library are open to visitors; hours vary.
Trinity College Old Library, Dublin:
The 200-foot Long Room is the most striking element of this library; marble busts of famous writers like Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels) line the walkway, and a barrel-vaulted ceiling arches overhead. Many visitors come first and foremost to see the Book of Kells, a lavishly decorated manuscript containing the four Gospels of the New Testament. Originally founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592, the current structure was built beginning in 1712. The Old Library and the Book of Kells Exhibition are open for self-guided tours daily.
Stuttgart City Library, Germany:
From the outside, the nine-story building can appear as a monolithic cube. But at sunset the façade’s glass bricks take on a glow, and after dark they are illuminated with blue lights. Inside, the dramatic all-white interior has a five-story reading room shaped as an upside-down pyramid, plus meeting rooms, a café, and a rooftop terrace. The arresting building was designed to become the city’s cultural heart. Patrons are welcome to settle in with a book or turn up after hours for the “Library for Insomniacs,” which keeps a small selection of material.
Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria:
Alexandria’s original library was destroyed by fire or battle more than 1,600 years ago. Today’s Bibliotheca Alexandrina seeks to recapture the original’s spirit of public learning. Opened in 2002, the massive disc-shaped building has a huge reading room that tilts toward the sea while the façade is covered in letters and characters from more than a hundred different languages. The building also contains a planetarium, four museums, academic research centers, and a multimedia presentation of Egypt’s heritage. Open Sunday to Thursday.
Bodleian Library, Oxford University, England:
Duke Humfrey’s medieval reading room stood in for the Hogwarts library in the Harry Potter movies. And the wood-paneled room—with its low, ornately worked ceiling and somber lighting—looks like the perfect place to brush up on ancient spells. Before it was made famous on the big screen, generations of scholars including kings, Nobel Prize winners, and British prime ministers studied here. Access to the reading rooms as well as the Radcliffe Camera and the Divinity School are by guided tour only.
Connemara Public Library, Chennai, India:
Part of a cultural complex that includes a theater, a museum, and an art gallery, Connemara Public Library was established in 1896. It continues to receive copies of all books, periodicals, and newspapers published in India. Designed by H. Irvin, the consulting architect to the government of the time, the majestic building has a circular entrance that opens into a stately reading room with an elaborately decorated ceiling, teak balconies, and stained-glass windows. Open weekdays and Sunday.
Mortlock Wing State Library, Adelaide, Australia:
When this two-story library opened in 1884, officials were pleased by its majesty, yet felt it was missing something—a timepiece. The Dent and Sons clock still holds pride of place at the end of the reading room, high up on the wrought-iron and gold ornamented balcony. (A staff member winds it once a week.) One feature that’s been replicated in more modern libraries is the glass roof; its dome lets in natural light and enhances the warmth of the beautiful room. Open daily.
Beitou Branch of the Taipei Public Library, Taiwan:
With its rooftop gardens, park setting, and airy, sunlit interior, the Beitou Branch feels like an oasis in the midst of skyscraper-filled Taipei. The eco-friendly library, which has won numerous awards since its 2006 opening, features water reclamation, solar panels, and natural ventilation. It’s a green space that is also gorgeous and invites visitors to curl up with a book on open-air balconies. Open seven days a week.
Step 2 - Reading
Reading
You are going to read an article entitled ‘Do we still need libraries?’.
First read the questions.
How do we know that the libraries were built before the 21st century?
What do the libraries need more money for?
When was library funding significantly reduced?
Which three demographic groups are mentioned as needing libraries and why?
What is the significance of 37 million?
Now read the article.
Do we still need libraries?
By Michael Gonchar
May 7, 2015
New York’s public libraries want about $1.5 billion from the city over the next 10 years so they can fix their buildings, which are old, crowded, falling apart or lacking in things they need to be useful in the 21st century, like electrical outlets. They also want more operating money, $378 million, up from about $320 million, to improve programs and services in the coming fiscal year and to stay open longer — a basic indicator of library-system vigor in which New York lags embarrassingly behind Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio and San Diego. And the city’s suburbs. And Albany.
Mayor Bill de Blasio should give them the money, no question. Library funding has been lagging for years. The city’s three systems — the New York Public Library, which covers Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island; the Queens Library and the Brooklyn Public Library — were left struggling to do more with less under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and need a huge infusion of money to stabilize themselves, make overdue repairs and return service to where it was before cuts dating to 2008.
The city’s libraries are privately run institutions that depend heavily on public funds — overwhelmingly so in Brooklyn and Queens, which lack the deep philanthropic pockets that make mid-Manhattan’s landmark library gleam. Keeping the sprawling system healthy is a core municipal responsibility.
Mr. de Blasio should act because his city is demanding it, more than ever. That is, the people whose needs are the core of Mr. de Blasio’s mayoral mission, whose priorities he trumpets, immigrants and the poor. The libraries are where poor children learn to read and love literature, where immigrants learn English, where job-seekers hone résumés and cover letters, and where those who lack ready access to the Internet can cross the digital divide.
Libraries can be a natural fit for mayoral projects like after-school programs and prekindergarten, and for the city’s justly lauded municipal ID program.
They are havens for thinking, dreaming, studying, striving and — for many children and the elderly — simply for staying safe, and out of the heat.
Mr. de Blasio leads a city where the corporate and entertainment infrastructure are seldom neglected. Citi Field, Yankee Stadium and the Barclays Center, to name just three, are beneficiaries of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds, as Jim Dwyer of The Times recently pointed out, while schools and libraries languish. If the mayor wants to make this city better from the bottom up, he should do right by New Yorkers like those who gather most mornings on the steps of the shiny library on Main Street in Flushing, waiting for the doors to open. You can add up all the yearly visitors to the city’s baseball stadiums, its basketball and hockey arenas, all its performing-arts spaces, city-owned museums, gardens and zoos and you’ll never get to 37 million, the number of people who used the city’s underfunded, overburdened, utterly essential libraries in the last fiscal year.
Source: https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/
Do the exercise.
Step 3 - Words
Words
Do the exercises.
Step 4 - Grammar
Grammar
Let’s look at gradable and non-gradable adjectives.
We describe adjectives as gradable and non-gradable.
That means that we can or cannot make them stronger or weaker with an adverb.
De onderstaande antwoorden moet je zelf nakijken; vergelijk jouw antwoorden met de goede
antwoorden, en geef aan in welke mate jouw antwoorden correct zijn.
De onderstaande antwoorden moet je zelf nakijken; vergelijk jouw antwoorden met de goede
antwoorden, en geef aan in welke mate jouw antwoorden correct zijn.
Video Watching
You are going to watch a video entitled Tech Realty goes retro.
It’s about old buildings that are being used by young companies.
First read the following questions.
How are Yelp’s new offices described?
What do you think Class B buildings are?
Why did companies traditionally have ‘glitzy spaces’?
Why is this not important for tech companies today?
What are the garage doors used for?
How are the millennial minds kept happy?
Why does it not matter that the wiring is visible?
What do the workers want?
How is the old building sector changing?
Watch the video and answer the questions.
Do the exercise.
Discuss the following questions with your partner.
Would you prefer to work in an old building or a new building?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of each?
Think of a study space you like and a study space you don’t like. What are the differences, and why do you like/not like?
To what extent does the space affect how you work?
Step 6 - Task
Task: Write a letter
You read the article Do we still need libraries?. You disagree with the author.
You think that libraries take up valuable space that could be used for other things. (Make some suggestions).
You decide to write to the editor.
Letter to the editor?
If you have something you want people to hear, you might like to write a letter to the editor. Letters to the editor are written by people in the community to comment on issues mentioned in newspapers and online articles. Though there’s no guaranteed way to get your letter published there
are some tips and tricks you can use that will increase your chances.
It’s also worth finding out more about what’s in your state or territory and where you can send your
letter when it’s done.
Read the tips.
Make a list of the points you want to make.
Write your letter. 120-180 words.
Some top tips
Here are a few tips to help you on your way—but remember, this isn't an exhaustive list,
and it's always a good idea to hop online and see if your favourite newspaper has guidelines
and tricks for how to write a great letter to the editor!
Read the 'letters to the editor' section of your newspaper-of-choice.
If you can capture the style of the published letters, you'll increase your chances of finding your opinion in print.
Do your research.
Find out where you need to send your letter, and how you need to send it (fax, e-mail, or snail mail).
Start your letter with:
‘Dear Editor,’ quote the article that you are writing in response to, and the date it was published.
Be up front with your comments
about the article. Are you supporting the article, or wanting to set the record straight?
Keep it short.
Most newspapers prefer letters to be kept under 200 words. So, focus on one or two of the most important points rather than trying to express all your ideas.
End with ‘Sincerely, your name.’
You might want to include a line underneath that explains who you are or your hometown, e.g. ‘Connie Jones, HSC Student’ Newspapers try to show a range of points of view, so being young can work to your advantage!
Once you’ve poured your heart out
onto paper (or screen), walk away and come back in a different frame of mind to edit. Make sure that what you’ve said is easy to follow, to-the-point, well backed up with facts, and uses formal language. Get a friend or family member to read your letter and see if they get what you meant.
Spell-check your letter
and make sure it is double-spaced. Your letter will need to meet the particular newspaper’s formatting guidelines. These are usually shown on the letters to the editor
page.
The guidelines might ask for your personal and contact details.
This is because they may
contact you to check that you, and not someone pretending to be you, wrote the letter. If you don't
want your name published, tell the editor by adding a note before or after the letter itself.
E.g. 'P.S. I would like to remain anonymous so please don’t publish my name.'
Post, fax or e-mail
your letter to the address listed by the newspaper.
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Van dit lesmateriaal is de volgende aanvullende informatie beschikbaar:
Toelichting
Deze les valt onder de arrangeerbare leerlijn van de Stercollectie voor Engels voor havo, leerjaar 4 en 5. Dit is thema 'Buildings'. Het onderwerp van deze les is: Libraries and the digital age? Deze les gaat over bibliotheken en of ze nog nodig zijn nu er veel digitale boeken te krijgen zijn. De grammaticaopdracht gaat over gradable and non-gradable adjectives and adverbs.
Leerniveau
HAVO 4;
HAVO 5;
Leerinhoud en doelen
Engels;
Eindgebruiker
leerling/student
Moeilijkheidsgraad
gemiddeld
Studiebelasting
4 uur en 0 minuten
Trefwoorden
arrangeerbaar, bibliotheken, engels, gradable and non-gradable adjectives and adverbs, h45, libraries and the digital age?, stercollectie
Libraries and the digital age? h45
nl
VO-content
2021-06-16 12:41:15
Deze les valt onder de arrangeerbare leerlijn van de Stercollectie voor Engels voor havo, leerjaar 4 en 5. Dit is thema 'Buildings'. Het onderwerp van deze les is: Libraries and the digital age? Deze les gaat over bibliotheken en of ze nog nodig zijn nu er veel digitale boeken te krijgen zijn. De grammaticaopdracht gaat over gradable and non-gradable adjectives and adverbs.
In this next lesson, we look at libraries.
Speaking
Grammar
Video Watching
Task: Write a letter
Copy and fill in the schedule and answer the questions below.
