LIBRARY BUILDINGS AND FURNISHINGS.
Proceeding now to the subject of library buildings, reading-rooms, and
furnishings, it must be remarked at the outset that very few rules can be
laid down which are of universal application. The architectural plans,
exterior and interior, of such great institutions as the Library of
Congress, or the Boston Public Library, with their costly marbles,
splendid mural decorations, and electric book-serving machinery, afford
no model for the library building in the country village. Where the
government of a nation or a wealthy city has millions to devote for
providing a magnificent book-palace for its library, the smaller cities
or towns have only a few thousands. So much the more important is it,
that a thoroughly well-considered plan for building should be marked out
before beginning to build, that no dollars should be wasted, or costly
alterations required, in order to fit the interior for all the uses of a
library.
The need of this caution will be abundantly evident, in the light of the
unfit and inconvenient constructions seen in so many public libraries,
all over the country. So general has been the want of carefully planned
and well-executed structures for books, that it may fairly be said that
mistakes have been the rule, and fit adaptation the exception. For twenty
years past, at every meeting of the American Library Association, the
reports upon library buildings have deplored the waste of money in
well-meant edifices designed to accommodate the library service, but
successful only in obstructing it. Even in so recent a construction as
the Boston Public Library building, so many defects and inconveniences
were found after it was supposed to have been finished, that rooms had to
be torn out and re-constructed on three floors, while the pneumatic tube
system had been found so noisy as to be a public nuisance, and had to be
replaced by a later improved construction.
One leading cause for the mistakes which are so patent in our library
buildings is that they are not planned by librarians but mainly by
architects. The library authorities commonly take it for granted that the
able architect is master of his profession, and entrust him with the
whole design, leaving out of account the librarian, as a mere
subordinate, entitled only to secondary consideration. The result is a
plan which exhibits, in its prominent features, the architect's skill in
effective pilasters, pillars, architraves, cornices, and balustrades,
while the library apartments which these features ornament are planned,
not for convenient and rapid book-service, but mainly for show. It is the
interest of architects to magnify their profession: and as none of them
has ever been, or ever will be a librarian, they cannot be expected to
carry into effect unaided, what they have never learned; namely, the
interior arrangements which will best meet the utilities of the library
service. Here is where the librarian's practical experience, or his
observation of the successes or failures in the reading-room and delivery
service of other libraries, should imperatively be called in. Let him
demonstrate to the governing board that he knows what is needed for
prompt and economical administration, and they will heed his judgment, if
they are reasonable men. While it belongs to the architect to plan,
according to his own ideas, the outside of the building, the inside
should be planned by the architect in direct concert with the librarian,
in all save merely ornamental or finishing work.
We do not erect a building and then determine whether it is to be a
school house or a church: it is planned from the start with strict
reference to the utilities involved; and so should it always be with a
library.
In treating this subject, I shall not occupy space in outlining the
proper scheme of building and interior arrangement for a great library,
with its many distinct departments, for such institutions are the
exceptions, while most libraries come within the rule of very moderate
size, and comparatively inexpensive equipment. The first requisite for a
public library, then, is a good location. It is important that this
should be central, but it is equally important that the building should
be isolated--that is, with proper open space on all sides, and not
located in a block with other buildings. Many libraries have been
destroyed or seriously damaged by fire originating in neighboring
buildings, or in other apartments in the same building; while fires in
separate library buildings have been extremely rare. It would be a wise
provision to secure a library lot sufficiently large in area to admit of
further additions to the building, both in the rear and at the side; and
with slight addition to the cost, the walls and their supports may be so
planned as to admit of this. Committees are seldom willing to incur the
expense of an edifice large enough to provide for very prolonged growth
of their collection; and the result is that the country is full of
overcrowded libraries, without money to build, and prevented from
expanding on the spot because no foresight was exercised in the original
construction or land purchase, to provide for ready increase of space by
widening out, and removing an outer wall so as to connect the old
building with the new addition. If a library has 10,000 volumes, it would
be very short-sighted policy to plan an edifice to contain less than
40,000, which it is likely to reach in from ten to forty years.
The next requisite to a central and sufficient site is that the location
must be dry and airy. Any low site, especially in river towns, will be
damp, and among the enemies of books, moisture holds a foremost place.
Next, the site should afford light on all sides, and if necessary to
place it near any thoroughfare, it should be set back so as to afford
ample light and ventilation in front.
It need hardly be said that every library building should be fire-proof,
after the many costly lessons we have had of the burning of public
libraries at home and abroad. The material for the outside walls may be
brick or stone, according to taste or relative cost. Brick is good
enough, and if of the best quality, and treated with stone trimmings, is
capable of sufficiently ornate effects, and is quite as durable as any
granite or marble. No temptation of cheapness should ever be allowed to
introduce wood in any part of the construction: walls, floors, and roof
should be only of brick, stone, iron, or slate. A wooden roof is nothing
but a tinder-box that invites the flames.
In general, two stories is a sufficient height for library buildings,
except in those of the largest class, and the upper floors may be amply
lighted by sky-lights. The side-lights can hardly be too numerous: yet I
have seen library buildings running back from a street fifty to
seventy-five feet, without a single window in either of the side walls.
The result was to throw all the books on shelves into a gloomy shade for
many hours of each day.
The interior construction should be so managed as to effect the finding
and delivery of books to readers with the greatest possible economy of
time and space. No shelves should be placed higher than can be reached by
hand without mounting upon any steps or ladders; _i. e._, seven to seven
and a half feet. The system of shelving should all be constructed of iron
or steel, instead of surrounding the books on three sides with
combustible wood, as is done in most libraries. Shelves of oxidized metal
will be found smooth enough to prevent any abrasion of bindings. Shelves
should be easily adjustable to any height, to accommodate the various
sizes of books.
In calculating shelf capacity, one and a half inches thickness a volume
is a fair average, so that each hundred volumes would require about
thirteen feet of linear shelf measurement. The space between uprights,
that is, the length of each shelf, should not exceed two and a half feet.
All spaces between shelves should be 10½ or 11 inches high, to
accommodate large octavos indiscriminately with smaller sizes; and a base
shelf for quartos and folios, at a proper height from the floor, will
restrict the number of shelves to six in each tier.
In the arrangement of the cases or book-stacks, the most economical
method is to place book-cases of double face, not less than three feet
apart, approached by aisles on either side, so as to afford free passage
for two persons meeting or passing one another. The cases may be about
ten feet each in length. There should be electric lights between all
cases, to be turned on only when books are sought. The cases should be
set at right angles to the wall, two or three feet from it, with the
light from abundant windows coming in between them. The width of shelves
may be from 16 to 18 inches in these double cases, thus giving about
eight to nine inches depth to each side. No partition is required between
the two sides.
It should be stated that the light obtained from windows, when thrown
more than twenty feet, among cases of books on shelves, becomes too
feeble for effective use in finding books. This fact should be considered
in advance, while plans of construction, lighting, and interior
arrangement are being made. All experience has shown that too much light
cannot be had in any public library.
Railings and stair-cases for the second or upper floors should be of
perforated iron.
The reading-room should be distinct from the book delivery or
charging-room, to secure quiet for readers at all hours, avoiding the
pressure, hurry and noise of conversation inevitable in a lending library
or department. In the reading-room should be shelved a liberal supply of
books of reference, and bibliographies, open without tickets to the
readers. Next the central desk there should be shelves for the deposit of
books reserved day by day for the use of readers. The library chairs, of
whatever pattern may be preferred, should always combine the two
requisites of strength and lightness. The floor should be covered with
linoleum, or some similar floor covering, to deaden sound. Woolen
carpets, those perennial breeders of dust, are an abomination.
In a library reading-room of any considerable size, each reader should be
provided with table or desk room, not flat but sloping at a moderate
angle, and allowing about three feet of space for each reader. These
appliances for study need not be single pieces of furniture, but made in
sections to accommodate from three to six readers at each. About thirty
inches from the floor is a proper height.
For large dictionaries, atlases, or other bulky volumes, the adjustable
revolving case, mounted on a pedestal, should be used.
For moving any large number of volumes about the library, book-trucks or
barrows, with noiseless rubber wheels, are required.
Every library will need one or more catalogue cases to hold the
alphabetical card catalogue. These are made with a maximum of skill by
the Library Bureau, Boston.
The location of the issue-counter or desk is of cardinal importance. It
should be located near the centre of the system of book-cases, or near
the entrance to the stack, so as to minimize the time consumed in
collecting the books wanted. It should also have a full supply of light,
and this may be secured by a location directly in front of a large side
window. Readers are impatient of delay, and the farther the books are
from the issue-counter the longer they will have to wait for them.
Among modern designs for libraries, that of Dr. W. F. Poole, adapted for
the Newberry Library, Chicago, is notable for dividing the library into
many departments or separate rooms, the book shelves occupying one half
the height of each, or 7½ feet out of 15, the remaining space being
occupied by windows. This construction, of course, does not furnish as
compact storage for books as the stack system. It is claimed to possess
the advantage of extraordinarily good light, and of aiding the researches
of readers. But it has the disadvantage of requiring readers to visit
widely separated rooms to pursue studies involving several subjects, and
of mounting in elevators to reach some departments. A system which brings
the books to the reader, instead of the readers travelling after the
books, would appear to be more practically useful to the public, with
whom time is of cardinal importance.
In all libraries, there should be a receiving or packing room, where
boxes and parcels of books are opened and books mended, collated, and
prepared for the shelves. This room may well be in a dry and well lighted
basement. Two small cloak-rooms for wraps will be needed, one for each
sex. Two toilet rooms or lavatories should be provided. A room for the
library directors or trustees, and one for the librarian, are essential
in libraries of much extent. A janitor's room or sleeping quarters
sometimes needs to be provided. A storage room for blanks, stationery,
catalogues, etc., will be necessary in libraries of much extent. A
periodical room is sometimes provided, distinct from the reading-room or
the delivery department. In this case, if several hundred periodicals are
taken, an attendant should be always present to serve them to readers,
from the shelves or cases where they should be kept in alphabetical
order. Without this, and a ticket system to keep track of what are in
use, no one can readily find what is needed, nor ascertain whether it is
in a reader's hands when sought for. System and the alphabet alone will
solve all difficulties.
As to the space required for readers in a periodical room, it may be
assumed that about five hundred square feet will accommodate twenty-five
readers, and the same proportion for a larger number at one time. A room
twenty-five by forty would seat fifty readers, while one twenty-five by
twenty would accommodate twenty-five readers, with proper space for
tables, &c. The files for newspapers are referred to in another chapter
on periodicals.
In a library building, the heating and ventilation are of prime
importance. Upon their proper regulation largely depends the health and
consequently the efficiency of all employed, as well as the comfort of
the reading public. There is no space to enter upon specific
descriptions, for which the many conflicting systems, with experience of
their practical working, should be examined. Suffice it to say in
general, that a temperature not far below nor above 70 degrees Fahrenheit
should be aimed at; that the furnace, with its attendant nuisances of
noise, dust, and odors, should be outside the library building--not under
it; and that electric lighting alone should be used, gas being highly
injurious to the welfare of books.
In calculating the space required for books shelved as has been
heretofore suggested, it may be approximately stated that every one
thousand volumes will require at least eighty to one hundred square feet
of floor measurement. Thus, a library of 10,000 volumes would occupy an
area of nearly one thousand square feet. But it is necessary to provide
also for the continual growth of the collection. To do this, experience
shows that in any flourishing public library, space should be reserved
for three or four times the number of volumes in actual possession. If
rooms are hired for the books, because of inability to build, the library
should be so arranged as to leave each alternate shelf vacant for
additions, or, in the more rapidly growing divisions, a still greater
space. This will permit accessions to be shelved with their related
books, without the trouble of frequently moving and re-arranging large
divisions of the library. This latter is a very laborious process, and
should be resorted to only under compulsion. The preventive remedy, of
making sure of space in advance, by leaving a sufficiency of unoccupied
shelves in every division of the library, is the true one.
In some libraries, a separate reading-room for ladies is provided. Mr. W.
F. Poole records that in Cincinnati such a room was opened at the
instance of the library directors. The result was that the ladies made it
a kind of social rendezvous, where they talked over society matters, and
exhibited the bargains made in their shopping excursions. Ladies who came
to study preferred the general reading room, where they found every
comfort among well conducted gentlemen, and the "ladies' reading-room"
was abandoned, as not fulfilling its object. The same experiment in the
Chicago Public Library had the same result.
Some libraries in the larger towns provide a special reading-room for
children; and this accomplishes a two-fold object, namely, to keep the
public reading-room free from flocks of little people in pursuit of books
under difficulties, and to furnish the boys and girls with
accommodations of their own. It may be suggested as an objection, that
the dividing line as to age is difficult to be drawn: but let each
applicant be questioned, and if falling below twelve, or fifteen, or
whatever the age limit may be, directed to the juvenile reading-room, and
there need be no trouble. Of course there will be some quite young
readers who are gifted with intelligence beyond their years, and who may
dislike to be reckoned as children; but library rules are not made to
suit exceptions, but for the average; and as no book need be refused to
any applicant in the juvenile department, no just cause of complaint can
arise.
In some libraries, and those usually of the larger size, an art room is
provided, where students of works on painting, sculpture, and the
decorative arts can go, and have about them whatever treasures the
library may contain in that attractive field. The advantages of this
provision are, first, to save the necessity of handling and carrying so
many heavy volumes of galleries of art and illustrated books to the
general reading-room, and back again, and secondly, to enable those in
charge of the art department to exercise more strict supervision in
enforcing careful and cleanly treatment of the finest books in the
library, than can be maintained in the miscellaneous crowd of readers in
the main reading-room. The objections to it concern the general want of
room to set apart for this purpose, and the desirability of concentrating
the use of books in one main hall or reading-room. Circumstances and
experience should determine the question for each library.
Some public libraries, and especially those constructed in recent years,
are provided with a lecture-hall, or a large room for public meetings,
concerts, or occasionally, even an opera-house, in the same building with
the library. There are some excellent arguments in favor of this; and
especially where a public benefactor donates to a city a building which
combines both uses. The building given by Mr. Andrew Carnegie to the
Public Library of Washington will be provided with a small hall suited to
meetings, &c. But in all cases, such a public hall should be so isolated
from the library reading-room as not to annoy readers, to whom quiet is
essential. This end can be effected by having the intervening walls and
floors so constructed as completely to deaden sound. A wholly distinct
entrance should also be provided, not communicating with the doors and
passages leading to the library.
Comparisons are sometimes made as to the relative cost of library
buildings to the number of volumes they are designed to accommodate; but
such estimates are misleading. The cost of an edifice in which
architectural beauty and interior decoration concur to make it a
permanent ornament to a city or town, need not be charged up at so much
per volume. Buildings for libraries have cost all the way from
twenty-five cents up to $4. for each volume stored. The Library of
Congress, which cost six million dollars, and will ultimately accommodate
4,500,000 volumes, cost about $1.36 per volume. But it contains besides
books, some half a million musical compositions, works of graphic art,
maps and charts, etc.
The comparative cost of some library buildings erected in recent years,
with ultimate capacity of each, may be of interest. Kansas City Public
Library, 132+144, 125,000 vols., $200,000. Newark, N. J. Free Library,
138+216, 400,000 vols., $188,000. Forbes Library, Northampton, Mass.
(granite), 107+137, 250,000 vols., $134,000. Fall River, Ms. Library,
80+130, 250,000 vols., $100,000. Peoria, Ill. Public Library (brick),
76+135, $70,000. Smiley Memorial Library, Redlands, Cal. (brick), 96+100,
$50,000. Reuben Hoar Library, Littleton, Mass. (brick), 50+57, 25,000
vols., $25,000. Rogers Memorial Library, Southworth, N. Y. 70+100, 20,000
vols., $20,000. Belfast (Me.) Free Library (granite), 27+54, $10,000.
Gail-Borden Public Library, Elgin, Ill. (brick), 28+52, $9,000. Warwick,
Mass. Public Library (wood), 45+60, 5,000 vols., $5,000.
The largely increased number of public library buildings erected in
recent years is a most cheering sign of the times. Since 1895, eleven
extensive new library buildings have been opened: namely, the Library of
Congress, the Boston Public Library, the Pratt Institute Library,
Brooklyn, the Columbia University Library, New York, the Princeton, N. J.
University Library, the Hart Memorial Library, of Troy, N. Y., the
Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, the Chicago Public Library, the Peoria,
Ill. Public Library, the Kansas City, Mo. Public Library, and the Omaha,
Neb. Public Library.
And there are provided for eight more public library buildings, costing
more than $100,000 each; namely, the Providence, R. I. Public Library,
the Lynn, Mass. Public Library, the Fall River, Mass. Public Library, the
Newark, N. J. Free Public Library, the Milwaukee, Wis. Public Library and
Museum, the Wisconsin State Historical Society Library, Madison, the New
York Public Library, and the Jersey City Public Library.
To these will be added within the year 1900, as is confidently expected,
the Washington City Public Library, the gift of Andrew Carnegie, to cost
$300,000.
No philanthropist can ever find a nobler object for his fortune, or a
more enduring monument to his memory, than the founding of a free public
library. The year 1899 has witnessed a new gift by Mr. Carnegie of a one
hundred thousand dollar library to Atlanta, the Capital of Georgia, on
condition that the city will provide a site, and $5,000 a year for the
maintenance of the library. Cities in the east are emulating one another
in providing public library buildings of greater or less cost. If the
town library cannot have magnificence, it need not have meanness. A
competition among architects selected to submit plans is becoming the
favorite method of preparing to build. Five of the more extensive
libraries have secured competitive plans of late from which to
select--namely, the New York Public Library, the Jersey City Public
Library, the Newark Free Public Library, the Lynn Public Library, and the
Phoebe Hearst building for the University of California, which is to be
planned for a library of 750,000 volumes. It is gratifying to add that in
several recent provisions made for erecting large and important
structures, the librarian was made a member of the building
committee--_i. e._, in the New York Public Library, the Newark Free
Public Library, and the Lynn Public Library.