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 71/2 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.