A Library Primer | Page 6

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.
Straight flights are preferable to circular stairs.
The form of shelving which is growing in favor is the arrangement of
floor cases in large rooms with space between the tops of the bookcases
and the ceiling for circulation of air and the diffusion of light.
Modern library plans provide accommodations for readers near the
books they want to use whatever system of shelving is adopted.
Single shelves should not be more than three feet long, on account of
the tendency to sag. Ten inches between shelves, and a depth of eight
inches, are good dimensions for ordinary cases. Shelves should be
made movable and easily adjustable. Many devices are now in the
market for this purpose, several of which are good."
Don't cut up your library with partitions unless you are sure they are
absolutely necessary. Leave everything as open as possible. A light rail
will keep intruders out of a private corner, and yet will not shut out
light, or prevent circulation of air, or take away from the feeling of
openness and breadth the library room ought to have.
For interior finish use few horizontal moldings; they make traps for
dust. Use such shades at the windows as will permit adjustment for
letting in light at top or bottom, or both. The less ornamentation in the
furniture the better. A simple pine or white-wood table is more
dignified and easier kept clean than a cheaply carved one of oak. But
get solid, honestly-made, simple furniture of oak or similar wood, if
funds permit. Arm-chairs are not often desirable. They take up much
room, are heavy to move, and are not easy to get in and out of at a table.
In many cases simple stools on a single iron standard, without a

revolving top, fastened to the floor, are more desirable than chairs. The
loafer doesn't like them; very few serious students object to them.
A stack room for small libraries is not advisable. Don't crowd your
cases close together unless it is absolutely necessary.
An excellent form of wooden case is one seven feet high, with shelves
three feet long and seven and a half inches wide, supported on iron
pegs. The pegs fit into a series of holes bored one inch apart in the sides
of the case, thus making the shelves adjustable. These