apart for furniture, which would be ample if such permanent fittings as bookshelves, counters, screens, etc., were not included. But when these are provided out of a furniture loan it is seldom that a large enough sum is borrowed. It is important to remember that such fittings as bookcases, counters, screens, wall newspaper slopes, barriers, lifts, galleries, etc., form permanent parts of the building, and ought to be included in the building loan, which can be borrowed for thirty years. A furniture loan must be repaid within ten years, and only such _movable_ items as tables, chairs, desks, office furniture, etc., should be bought from this fund. =111.= Assuming, also, that a building must be provided which will bear some relation to the number of persons who will be attracted, the stock to be housed, and the funds available for maintenance, the following factors are presented as a basis from which estimates can be made:-- It has been definitely ascertained that 6 per cent. of the population of the average town become borrowers. For this number the average stock of books provided in lending libraries is three per borrower. Books are kept out on an average ten days each, or twelve days non-fiction, eight days fiction. In a year of 306 days each borrower will read about thirty books. Here, then, is a basis from which to start in providing accommodation for a lending library. If a town has 50,000 inhabitants, it will attract 3000 borrowers, who will require 9000 volumes as a minimum lending stock. The annual issue should be 90,000 volumes. It follows that the minimum lending library accommodation in a case like this should comprise shelving for 9000 volumes, and lobby or other spaces for at least seventy-five persons present at one time. In theory an issue of 300 per day should mean an average hourly attendance of thirty per hour, but in actual practice it must be recognized that borrowers attend at uncertain parts of the day, and most commonly during the last two or three hours in the evening; therefore it is safe to allow for the accommodation of at least one-fourth of the daily average number of visitors. Many lending libraries are overshelved owing to a failure to recognize the possibility of revision of stock and the equally important fact that the best shelving for books is in the homes of the people. The same rules apply to all the other departments. CHAPTER IX SITES AND PLANS