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Libraries - London | ||
Tags: Library | United Kingdom (UK) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Bookstores |  | |
| Zanna Triglot Newbie Poland Joined 5498 days ago 21 posts - 21 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Spanish Studies: Catalan, French | Message 1 of 9 30 May 2009 at 12:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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I wonder if you use resources for studying languages from libraries. I don't mean language courses, I'm just looking for a library in London which stocks a considerable amount of literature in foreign languages. I'd like to do much more reading, unfortunatelly buying lots of books is not possible to afford for me and I don't even have any room to store them. So, do you know any good? The closer to the south the better but every single one will be appreciated :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Dark_Sunshine Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5559 days ago 340 posts - 357 votes  Speaks: English*, French | Message 2 of 9 30 May 2009 at 6:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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Any language in particular? Because it will vary between London boroughs according to the local population. For example, my local library has books in Somali and in Mandarin because of the number of immigrants in the area who speak these languages.
Which borough do you live in? Another option for the more popular languages would be the libraries owned by the cultural intitutes. The institut francaise in South Kensington has a large library of French literature- you have to pay an annual membership fee but I think borrowing is free after that. I'm almost 100% certain the Goethe institute has something similar for German books, and I imagine the Cervantes institute would also have a Spanish library. All of these are within reasonable tube travelling distance, and I know that the French institute has a discounted membership for students and people claiming certain benefits, so if you read a lot then it should work out much cheaper than buying lots of books. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Zanna Triglot Newbie Poland Joined 5498 days ago 21 posts - 21 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Spanish Studies: Catalan, French | Message 3 of 9 30 May 2009 at 7:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you very much for you adivice. I am to live in Croydon from next week. I'm especially interested in Spanish, French and German indeed :) Anyway, I'm still waiting for some more answers.
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| Fat-tony Nonaglot Senior Member United Kingdom jiahubooks.co.uk Joined 5934 days ago 288 posts - 441 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Russian, Esperanto, Thai, Laotian, Urdu, Swedish, French Studies: Mandarin, Indonesian, Arabic (Written), Armenian, Pali, Burmese | Message 4 of 9 30 May 2009 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Croydon Central library is very good, it's one of the biggest in London. There's plenty
of books in the Indic languages, Mandarin etc. The selection of European books is much smaller. I have been there for 3-4 years, but on the first floor there is some European literature, with the emphasis on literature, you would find any easy reading. I can't remember the name of the section, but it's in the far right corner, past all the fiction and behind the poetry. If you can't find it, just ask; it's definitely there. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5632 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 5 of 9 17 June 2009 at 12:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Zanna - Nice to hear somebody still uses libraries in this day and age!
Most libraries let you ORDER books from the other libraries in the county. So the Croydon library is in Surrey. This means you can order from all of Surrey, including my local library (Richmond) and other places like Kingston, Redhill and plenty more (don't know exactly which other libraries are in Surrey, but there are PLENTY). You just go to the library or search their electronic catalogue for the books you want. Then they'll order them for you if the Croydon library don't have them, and you'll be able to pick up the books the next day. Edited by cordelia0507 on 17 June 2009 at 12:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Zanna Triglot Newbie Poland Joined 5498 days ago 21 posts - 21 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Spanish Studies: Catalan, French | Message 6 of 9 17 June 2009 at 12:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you very much. Anyway I've moved to the centre now :) And I'm going to Kensington Library today so we'll see.
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6066 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 7 of 9 19 June 2009 at 3:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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I order books from other London libraries, collecting them at the one nearest to me. (Not all libraries can be accessed in this way - for some reason, some boroughs of London are not included in the scheme.)
The only drawback with language books from libraries is that you have to return them, eventually. Also, if you don't own the book you can't underline words, go mad with a highlighter, make marginal notes etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Dark_Sunshine Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5559 days ago 340 posts - 357 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 8 of 9 22 June 2009 at 2:23pm | IP Logged | ||
Isn't Croydon, administratively speaking, a borough of London? Which means the library should be part of the London network, rather than the Surrey one. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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