Read the article about how libraries are changing, and then complete the notes. Imagine you are going to give a talk to your classmates about public librari...

Exercise 3 tests selective note-making. You are not asked to summarise the whole article: you are asked for four separate points under the first heading and three under the second, each one a different idea drawn from the text. Short notes are enough, and words copied from the article are accepted, but a point written under the wrong heading earns nothing and the same idea worded twice is credited only once.

Question 8: what libraries offer today, apart from lending books. [4] The heading excludes book borrowing itself, so paragraph 1, which says "Borrowing books is still at the centre of the work", supplies no marks. Any four of the following do:

• a library of things, lending tools and household items such as "electric drills, sewing machines, carpet cleaners, board games and even a guitar"
• free internet access, "now among the most requested services"
• lending laptops for several weeks to students who have none at home
• a small recording booth for making a podcast or practising a job interview
• a 3D printer that members can book by the hour
• conversation clubs for people who are new to the country
• free sessions on writing job applications
• singing and stories for parents and babies on weekday mornings
• opening as a warm room in the coldest months

Question 9: difficulties that libraries are facing. [3] Any three of the following:

• local funding has fallen sharply, so opening hours are cut and "buildings that once opened six days a week now open three"
• older buildings are expensive to heat, since "heating a large old hall with a very high ceiling through a winter can cost more than the events held inside it"
• staff trained in cataloguing are now expected to help with digital tasks, and "training for this has not always followed"
• tension between readers who come for quiet and noisy activities such as singing toddlers
• the value of the work is hard to prove, because book loans are easy to count and keep falling while "the number of people helped through a difficult afternoon is not"

Two common errors cost marks here. The first is writing two versions of one idea, such as listing the drill and the sewing machine as separate points when both belong to the library of things. The second is crossing the headings: falling funding is a difficulty, not something the library offers, so it earns nothing under the first heading.

Examination point: the article is organised so that paragraphs 2 to 4 supply the first heading and paragraphs 5 to 7 supply the second. Finding the dividing line in the text before you write is the fastest way to fill both sets of lines correctly.