Out and About

British Council Donates Books to the Library for Foreign Literature

UK Ambassador Jane Pringle opening the library

On May 15, a ceremony was held in the Library for Foreign Languages (VGIBL) to mark the donation of a large number of British Council books & materials to the library. In her opening remarks, Ekaterina Genieva, director of the library, mentioned that during a meeting with Sergey Mironov, the Chairman of the Federation Council, Mironov commented: “we have been absolutely overwhelmed with letters in connection with the British Council, from teachers, students and others from all over the country who are demanding that ‘we return to us our British Council.’” Genieva thanked the most important people whom she stressed are the users and the readers, for their support of the library.

UK Ambassador Anne Pringle, then proceeded to open the library. The ambassador thanked the proprietors of the library building for hosting the British Council collection, “a treasure trove of books, teaching materials, films and information about the arts in the UK,” where it has been for some 17 years. She stressed that learning English to an ever higher level means access to good and exciting materials and access to the internet, “and I am glad to see that you have all of this around you now.”

Various Russian teachers and readers made short and moving speeches expressing their gratitude to the British Council for supplying reading and learning materials, which one teacher described as having “changed my life”. The opening ceremony was attended by approximately fifty people.