Word formation

For much of the twentieth century, public libraries were built to impress. Grand staircases, marble columns and hushed reading rooms told visitors that knowledge mattered, but they could also make a building feel 1. to anyone who had not grown up using one. The new central library, which opened last spring, takes a very different approach. From the street, its glass frontage reveals everything going on inside, and the entrance, at pavement level beside a bus stop, is deliberately 2.. Inside, the architects have resisted the temptation to fill every corner with shelving. The ground floor is a flexible, 3. space that can host a toddlers' singing session in the morning and a language class in the afternoon, while quieter study areas are tucked away on the upper floors. Seating ranges from deep armchairs to long communal tables, and the 4. are sturdy enough to survive heavy daily use. Perhaps the building's greatest strength is that it is one of the few 5. indoor spaces left in the city centre, where nobody is expected to spend money in order to stay. It is not without faults. The café, squeezed into a corner of the lobby, is clearly 6., and noise from the children's area carries further than it should, an 7. that a couple of interior walls could have prevented. These are minor complaints, though, about a building whose 8. should allow it to serve the city for generations.