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Page 7
Is it not of value to the library that its librarian should know how
best to expend the money given him to use? that he should not have to
regret hours of time lost over useless experiments? Surely if training
teaches a librarian a wise expenditure of money and an economy of
time, then training must be valuable.
CHAPTER VIII
Rooms, building, fixtures, furniture
The trustees will be wise if they appoint their librarian before
they erect a building, or even select rooms, and leave these matters
largely to him. They should not be in haste to build. As a rule it
is better to start in temporary quarters, and let the building fund
accumulate while trustees and librarian gain experience, and the needs
of the library become more definite. Plans should be made with the
future enlargement of the building in view; libraries increase more
rapidly than is generally supposed.
Rooms of peculiar architecture are not required for the original
occupation and organization of a library. The essential requirements
are a central location, easy access, ample space, and sufficient
light. The library and the reading room should be, if possible, on the
same floor. Make the exterior attractive, and the entrance inviting.
In arranging the rooms, or building, plan from the first, as already
suggested, to permit visitors to go to the books themselves.
A collection of the printed matter on library architecture should be
carefully studied by both trustees and librarian before any plans are
made. While no specific plan can be recommended that would suit all
cases, there are a few general rules that meet with the approval
of the library profession as a whole. They maybe thus summed up,
following in the main a paper on the subject by C.C. Soule:
"A library building should be planned for library work.
Every library building should be planned especially for the kind of
work to be done, and the community to be served.
The interior arrangement ought to be planned before the exterior is
considered.
No convenience of arrangement should be sacrificed for mere
architectural effect.
The plan should be adapted to probabilities and possibilities of
growth and development.
Simplicity of decoration is essential in the working rooms and reading
rooms.
The building should be planned with a view to economical
administration.
The rooms for public use should be so arranged as to allow complete
supervision with the fewest possible attendants.
There should be throughout as much natural light as possible.
Windows should extend up to the ceiling, to light thoroughly the upper
part of every room.
Windows in a book room should be placed opposite the intervals between
bookcases.
In a circulating library the books most in use should be shelved in
floor cases close to the delivery desk.
A space of at least five feet should be left between floor cases. (If
the public is excluded, three feet is ample.)
No shelf, in any form of bookcase, should be higher than a person of
moderate height can reach without a stepladder.
Shelving for folios and quartos should be provided in every book room.
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