A building is not the first requisite of a public library. A good
collection of books with a capable librarian will be of great service in
a hired room or in one corner of a store. First the librarian, then the
books and after that the building.
But when the building is occupied the value of the library is doubled.
The item of rent is dropped. The library is no longer dependent on the
favor of some other institution and is not cramped by the effort to
include two or three departments in a single room. It will not only give
far better service to the community, but will command their respect,
interest and support to a greater degree than before.
The following hints are intended as a reply to many library boards who
are asking for building plans.
The vital point in successful building is to group all the parts of a
modern library in their true relations. To understand a particular case
it will be necessary to ask some preliminary questions.
1. _Books._
Number of volumes in library?
Average yearly increase?
Number of volumes in 20 years?
Number of volumes to go in reference room?
Number of volumes to go in children's room?
Number of volumes to go in other departments?
Number of volumes to go in main book room?
If the library is large will there be an open shelf room separate from
the main book room?
Is a stack needed?
Will public access to the shelves be allowed?
By answers to such questions a fair idea of the character and size of
the book room may be obtained.
_Rules for calculation._ In a popular library, outside the reference
room, for each foot of wall space available 80 books can be placed on
eight shelves. Floor cases having two sides will hold 160 books for each
running foot, and in a close stack 25 books, approximately, can be
shelved for each square foot of floor space. But the latter rule will be
materially modified by ledges, varying width of passages, stairs, etc.
The above figures give full capacity. In practical work, to provide for
convenient classification, expansion, oversized books and working
facilities, the shelves of a library should be sufficient for twice the
actual number of books and the lines of future enlargement should be
fully determined.
2. _Departments._
Is the library for free circulation?
Is the library for free reference?
Are special rooms needed for
high school students?
children?
ladies?
magazine readers?
newspaper readers?
How many square feet for each of the above rooms?
Are class rooms needed as in a college library?
Club rooms?
Lecture rooms?
Museum?
Art gallery?
Other departments?
3. _Community._
In city or country?
Population?
By what class will library be chiefly used?
School children?
Students?
Mechanics?
Reading circles?
Ladies?
4. _Resources and conditions._
Money available?
Money annually for maintenance?
Size of building lot?
Location and surroundings?
How many stories?
Elevators?
Heat?
Light?
Ventilation?
5. _Administration._
Is library to be in charge of one person?
How many assistants?
Is a work room needed?
unpacking room?
bindery?
librarian's office?
trustees' room?
By careful study of these points a clear conception of the problem is
gained and the building committee is prepared to draw an outline sketch
indicating in a general way their needs and views. They are not likely
to secure what they want by copying or even by competition. The best
architects have not the time nor the disposition to compete with each
other. A better way is to choose an architect, one who has succeeded in
library work if possible, who will faithfully study the special
problems, consult freely with the library board, propose plans and
change them freely till they are right. And if such plans are also
submitted for revision to some librarian of experience or to the library
commission of the state, whose business and pleasure it is to give
disinterested advice, so much the better.
The following outlines taken from actual library buildings are offered
by way of suggestion.
_Square plan._
An inexpensive building for a small country neighborhood may have one
square room with book shelves on the side and rear walls. A convenient
entrance is from a square porch on one side of the front corner and a
librarian's alcove is at the opposite corner leaving the entire front
like a store window which may be filled with plants or picture
bulletins. With a stone foundation the wooden frame may be finished with
stained shingles.
_Oblong plan._
A somewhat larger building may have a wider front with entrance at the
center.
Book shelves under high windows may cover the side and rear walls and
tables may stand in the open space.
It will be convenient to bring together the books most in demand for
circulation on one side of the room and those needed most for study on
the opposite side. One corner may contain juvenile books. In this way
confusion between readers, borrowers and children will be avoided. Each
class of patrons will go by a direct line to its own quarter. This is
the beginning of the plan of departments which will be of great
importance in the larger building.
The number of books for circulation will increase rapidly and it may
soon be necessary to provide double faced floor cases. These will be
placed with passages running from the center of the room towards the end
and that end will become the book or delivery room and the opposite side
will be the study or reference room.
_T-shape plan._
The next step is to add space to the rear giving a third department to
the still open room. If the book room is at the back the student readers
may be at tables in the right hand space and the children in the space
on the left. The librarian at a desk in the center is equally near to
all departments and may exercise full supervision.
The presence of a considerable number of other busy persons has a
sobering and quieting effect on all and the impression of such a library
having all its departments in one is dignified and wholesome. It may be
well to separate the departments by light open hand rails, screens,
cords or low book cases. It is a mistake to divide a small building into
three or four small rooms.
_Separate rooms._
For a larger library these rails must be made into partitions, giving to
each department a separate room. Partitions of glass set in wooden
frames and possibly only eight feet high may answer an excellent
purpose, adding to the impression of extent, admitting light to the
interior of the building and allowing some supervision from the center.
With partitions on each side, the entrance becomes a central hallway
with a department at each side and the book room at the end. This is
the best position for the book room for two special reasons. Overlapping
the departments in both wings it is equally accessible from either, and
at the back of the house a plainer and cheaper wall can be built
admitting of easy removal when the growth of the library requires
enlargement.
Sometimes the angles between the book room and the main building may be
filled to advantage by work room and office. These working rooms though
not large and not conspicuous are of vital consequence and should be
carefully planned.
We have now reached a type of building which, for lack of a better word,
I may call the "butterfly plan," having two spread wings and a body
extending to the back. Others call it the "trefoil." This general type
is being substantially followed in most new libraries of moderate size.
From one entrance hall direct access is given to three distinct
departments, or perhaps to five, by placing two rooms in each wing.
_Modifications required by limited space._
If we have an open park to build in we shall be tempted to expand the
hallway to a great central court or rotunda. Perhaps the importance of
the library may justify it, but we should be on our guard against
separating departments by spaces so great as to make supervision
difficult or passing from one to another inconvenient. We should aim to
concentrate rather than scatter.
More frequently the lot will be too narrow. We must draw in the wings
and make the narrower rooms longer from front to back. With a corner lot
we can enter on the side street, leaving a grand reading room on the
main front and turning at right angles as we enter the house pass
between other rooms to the book room at the extreme end of the lot. Or
again, we shall be obliged to dispense entirely with one wing of our
plan, and have but two department rooms instead of three on the floor.
Every location must be studied by itself.
_Other stories._
Basement rooms are of great service for work rooms and storage. A
basement directly under the main book room is specially valuable to
receive the overflow of books not in great demand.
A second and even a third story will be useful for special collections,
class and lecture rooms or a large audience hall. In a library of
moderate size it will often be found convenient to build a book room
about 16 feet high to cover two stories of bookcases and wholly
independent of the level of the second floor of the main building.
_Extension._
To meet the needs of a rapidly growing library it is important at the
beginning to fix the lines of extension.
A building with a front of two rooms and a passage between may add a
third room at the rear, and at a later stage, add a second building as
large as the first and parallel to it, the two being connected by the
room first added.
This is the architect's plan for the Omaha Public Library.
_Open court._
When a library is so large that one book room is not enough, two such
rooms may be built to the rear, one from each end of the building with
open space between, and these two wings may be carried back equally and
joined at the back by another building, thus completing the square
around an open court.
This gives wide interior space for light and air, or grass and flowers.
Such is the plan of the Boston Public and Princeton University
libraries. It will be the same in Minneapolis when that library is
complete. In the plan of the new library at Newark, N. J., the central
court is roofed over with glass becoming a stairway court with
surrounding galleries opening on all rooms. In Columbia University, New
York, as in the British Museum, the center is a great reading room
capped by a dome high above the surrounding roofs and lighted by great
clerestory windows.
If the street front is very long there may be three extensions to the
rear, one opposite the center and one from each end, leaving two open
courts as in the plan for the New York Public or the Utica Public; and
this general scheme may be repeated and carried still farther back
leaving four open courts as in the Library of Congress. This plan can
be extended as far as space can be provided.
When the general plan of the large building is fixed, passages will be
introduced, parallel to the front and sides, and departments will be
located as may be judged most convenient, always having regard to the
convenience of the patrons of each department in finding ready access to
the books they need and providing for supervision and attendance at
least cost of time, effort and money. Extravagance in library building
is not so often found in lavish ornament as in that unfortunate
arrangement of departments which requires three attendants to do the
work of one or two.
_Light._
Natural light should be secured if possible for every room. Windows
should be frequent and extend well up toward the ceiling terminating in
a straight line so as to afford large supply of light from the top.
Windows like those in an ordinary house or office building, coming
within two or three feet of the floor are more satisfactory both for
inside and outside appearance than those which leave a high blank wall
beneath them. From the street a blank wall has a prison-like effect; on
the inside it cuts off communication with the rest of the world and the
impression is unpleasant. The proper object of library windows six or
eight feet above the floor is to allow unbroken wall space for book
shelves beneath them. There is no serious objection to this at the back
of the room or sometimes at the sides of the house where the windows are
not conspicuous from the street, but every room of any size, if it is
next to the outer wall, should have windows to look out of on at least
one side.
A book room at the back of a building may secure excellent light from
side windows eight feet above the floor with lower windows at the back.
The lighting of large interior rooms is often a difficult problem. Light
will not penetrate to advantage more than 30 feet. Skylights, domes and
clerestory windows are used. In the case of the dome or clerestory the
room to be lighted must be higher than those immediately surrounding it.
The clerestory plan with upright windows is most satisfactory when
available, being cheaper and giving better security against the weather
than the skylight. In a large building with interior courts, the lower
story of the court is sometimes covered with a skylight and used as a
room.
This appears in the plans for the New York Public and the Utica Public
libraries. Skylights must be constructed with special care to protect
rooms against the weather.
The problem of light is peculiarly difficult in the crowded blocks of
cities. A library front may sometimes touch the walls of adjoining
buildings so that light can enter only from the front and rear. If
extending more than 40 feet back from the street, it will be necessary
to narrow the rest of the building so as to leave open spaces on each
side, or to introduce a little light by the device of light wells.
Occasionally a large city library is found on the upper floors of an
office building, where light and air are better than below, and the cost
of accommodation is less. The use of elevators makes this feasible.
_Shelving._
The general scheme of book shelves should be fixed before the plan of
the building is drawn. Otherwise the space for books can not be
determined and serious mistakes may be made. Between the two extremes of
open wall shelves and the close stack a compromise is necessary. The
large library will put the bulk of its books in a stack and bring a
considerable selection of the best books into an open room. The small
library will begin with books along the walls and provide cases for
additions from time to time as needed. Its patrons will enjoy at first
the generous spaces of the open room without an array of empty cases to
offend the eye and cumber the floor. When walls are covered with books a
floor case will be introduced and others when needed will be placed
according to plan, till at last the floor is as full as it was meant to
be, and the basement beneath having served for a time to hold the
overflow, a second story of cases is put on the top of the first. This
process should be planned in advance for a term of 20 years.
For public access passages between cases should be five feet wide. Cases
have sometimes been set on radial lines so as to bring all parts under
supervision from the center. This arrangement, specially if bounded by a
semi-circular wall, is expensive, wasteful of space and of doubtful
value, except in peculiar conditions. It is not adapted to further
extension of the building.
_Size of shelf._
For ordinary books in a popular library the shelf should not be more
than eight inches wide with an upright space of ten inches. Eight
shelves of this height with a base of four inches and crown finish of
five inches will fill eight feet from the floor and the upper shelf may
be reached at a height of 81 inches or six feet nine inches. Ordinary
shelves should not exceed three feet in length. A length of two and a
half feet is preferred by many. A shelf more than three feet long is apt
to bend under the weight of books. For books of larger size a limited
number of shelves with 12 inches upright space and a few still larger
should be provided. The proportion of oversize books will vary greatly
according to the kind of library, a college or scientific collection
having many more than the circulating library. Any reference room will
contain a large number of such books and its shelves should correspond.
_Movable shelves._
Much attention has been given to devices for adjustment of shelves. Some
of these are quite ingenious and a few are satisfactory. No device
should be introduced that will seriously break the smooth surface at the
side. Notches, cross bars, iron horns or hooks or ornamental brackets
expose the last book to damage. If pins are used they should be so held
to their places that they cannot fall out. Heads of pins or bars should
be sunk in the wood and the place for books left, as near as possible,
absolutely smooth on all sides. It is at least a question whether the
importance of making shelves adjustable and absolutely adjustable has
not been greatly overrated. As a fact the shelves of the circulating
library are very seldom adjusted. They may have all the usual appliances
gained at large expense but there is no occasion to adjust them outside
the reference room. They remain as they were put up. It is probably well
to have the second and third shelf movable so that one can be dropped to
the bottom and two spaces left where there were three at first. But all
other shelves might as well be fixed at intervals of 10 inches without
the least real inconvenience and the cases be stronger for it and far
cheaper. A perfectly adjustable shelf is interesting as a study in
mechanics, but is practically disappointing. Its very perfection is a
snare because it is so impossible to set it true without a spirit level
and a machinist. All shelves in a reference room should be adjustable.
Bound magazines might have special cases.
_Wood or iron shelves._
Iron shelf construction has the advantage of lightness and strength,
filling the least space and admitting light and air. Where three or more
stories of cases are stacked one upon another iron is a necessity. It
also offers the best facilities for adjustment of shelves and is most
durable.
On the other hand it is more difficult to get, can be had only of the
manufacturers in fixed patterns, and costs at least twice as much as any
wood, even oak, unless carved for ornament, and four or five times as
much as some very good wooden shelves. This great cost raises the
question whether the advantages named are really important. Few village
libraries need more than two stories of shelves in a stack. If iron is
more durable we can buy two sets of wooden shelves for the cost of one
of iron--and when we buy the second set will know better what we want.
The importance of shelf adjustment has been exaggerated.
A more important consideration, to my mind, is that iron is not so well
adapted to the changing conditions of a growing library. It is made at a
factory and to be ordered complete. It is bolted to the floor and wall
at fixed intervals. But we have seen that a gradual accumulation of
bookcases is better than to put all shelving in position at first.
Wooden cases are movable. You begin with those you need and add others
as you have more books, you can change and alter them at any time with
only the aid of the village carpenter, and enjoy the wide open spaces
till the time for filling them comes.
Iron with all its ornaments belongs in the shop. It is not the furniture
you prefer in your home. The item of cost will usually decide the
question. For libraries of less than 30,000 volumes, where close storage
is not imperative, wood has the advantage.
_Miscellaneous notes._
A floor of hard wood is good enough for most libraries. Wood covered
with corticene or linoleum tends to insure the needed quiet. Floors of
tile, marble or concrete are very noisy and should have strips of carpet
laid in the passages.
On the walls of reading rooms it is neither necessary nor desirable to
have an ornamental wainscot, nor indeed any wainscot at all, not even a
base board. Book cases will cover the lower walls and books are the best
ornament.
Small tables for four are preferred in a reading room to long common
tables. They give the reader an agreeable feeling of privacy.
Do not make tables too high. 30 inches are enough.
Light bent wood chairs are easy to handle.
Steam or hot water give the best heat and incandescent electric lamps
give the best light.
Be sure that you have sufficient ventilation.
Windows should be made to slide up and down, not to swing on hinges or
pivots.
Without dwelling further on details let us be sure 1, That we have room
within the walls for all the books we now have or are likely to have in
20 years; provide the first outfit of shelves for twice the number of
books expected at the end of one year and add bookcases as we need them,
leaving always a liberal margin of empty space on every shelf. We must
plan for the location of additional cases for 20 years with due
consideration of the question of public access.
2, That all needed departments are provided in harmonious relation with
each other and so located as to serve the public to the best advantage
and at least cost of time, strength and money.
3, That the best use of the location is made and the building suited to
the constituency and local conditions.
4, That the estimated cost is well within the limit named, for new
objects of expense are certain to appear during the process of building
and debt must not be thought of.
5, That the building is convenient for work and supervision, a point at
which many an elegant and costly building has conspicuously failed.
Make it also neat and beautiful, for it is to be the abiding place of
all that is best in human thought and experience and is to be a home in
which all inquiring souls are to be welcomed. Since the people are to be
our guests let us make the place of their reception worthy of its
purpose.