Papers and Proceedings of the Twenty-Third General Meeting of the American Library Association: Held at Waukesha, Wisconsin, July 4-10, 1901
Science
Papers and Proceedings of the Twenty-Third General Meeting of the American Library Association: Held at Waukesha, Wisconsin, July 4-10, 1901
American Library Association; Library science -- Congresses
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._
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