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BOOK 11.

Chapter III.
Hints and

Deductions.

otherwise, advantage will result from the assigning a separate small room to the business connected with binding; (v) Committee or Board Room, with ante-room thereto; (vi) Librarian's Room or study. In a large Library this room also should have its vestibule or waiting room; (vii) Rooms for the Assistant Librarians and Attendants; according to the extent and character of the Library; (viii) Cloak Rooms, Lavatories and other conveniences, and (ix) A room, the extent and situation of which must depend on the other arrangements of the Library, into which the books can be readily wheeled on proper trucks or barrows for the dusting and cleansing which is periodically needful. It is obvious that in a Library which is of small extent and likely so to continue, some of these workrooms may be dispensed with, but it will always be bad economy to stint them needlessly, as being likely to entail a want of that good order and tematic arrangement which are indispensable to the efficient working of a Public Library. 9. The arrangements with respect to the apartments for Librarians and other officers will necessarily depend upon the internal economy of the Library. If the regulations prescribe residence within the walls, the plan suggested by M. De Laborde of isolating such apartments by placing them in front, with a small court yard between them and the main building, may be followed with advantage. In any case, proper lodgings for one or more por ters will be indispensable.

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10. It may now be taken to be a settled point that a Library can be so constructed as to be warmed either by open fireplaces1 (which in most cases would have descending flues), or by hot water pipes carried throughout the building, with equal and absolute security against danger by fire. In the former case the fireplaces should be grated and the grates locked; in the latter, the apparatus should be heated by furnaces and boilers placed either in fire-proof vaulted chambers beneath the Library, or in an isolated building; the pipes should be carried through all the apartments in channels provided in the fire proof floors, at a distance of at least three feet from the nearest books; other pipes should be carried round, or near to, all extensive glazed surfaces; and the circulation of the heated water should be unintermittent.

11. It may also be taken to be an established maxim that gas may with perfect safety be introduced into a properly constructed building; but the gas fittings should invariably include tubes for the carrying off of the vapours produced by its combustion. Such tubes may be either pendant from the ceilings or attached to the walls; the inner

1 See the very instructive evidence of Mr. Braidwood before the Select Committee which sat a few years ago on the plans for a General Record-Office.

2 It will perhaps seem to be very superfluous to suggest that the hotwater pipes should not be placed under the books; but I have seen this done within the last few years in an extensive provincial Library, to the serious injury of the lower tiers of books, and to the necessitating of a considerable expenditure in the removal of the pipes.

BOOK II.

Chapter III.
Hints and
Deductions.

BOOK II.

Chapter III.
Hints and

Deductions.

tube may be of copper and the outer one of opaque glass. Or, on the other hand, the lights may be placed entirely on the outside of the building, of which method very successful applications may be seen at University College, London, and elsewhere.

CHAPTER IV.

FITTINGS AND FURNITURE.

....

...

In the Library of the Laird of Balmanoon [one day
when a curious visitor had obtained the opening of
the long disused window-shutters,]
..... was found a
compartment which excited the visitor's surprise. The
books were veritable certainly, but they had an odd
appearance, and by no efforts could he extract one
volume from its resting place.
Ye've said ower
muchle aboot the De'il, for he's been amang the buiks
here. I never saw the like.' "Then the de'il was
just John, the wricht, and a clever callant he is. Noo,
Sandie, man, ye're a gude bairn, and I'll tell ye how
it happen'd. The skelves here was auld and worm-
eaten, and yae stormy nicht the buiks and skelves
thegither fell on the floor.... Then the grieve he wantit
the floor for an extraordinar' crap o' blue potatos, and
John cam to mend up the skelves. But when the
job was done, .
... the buiks wad na fit. ...... John
and me communed thegither, and I garr'd him tak the
saw to the biggest volumes, and he saw'd off an inch
here, and half an inch there, until we made smo' work.
Then the buiks fitted, and John packit them, and
drove them in with his mell. ... It would tak the
dei'l's ain fingers to draw them out again!'

GILLIES (Memoirs of a Literary Veteran, i, 20-25).

In order to the preservation and the good arrange

BOOK 11. Chapter IV.

Furniture.

ment of books it is obviously necessary to bestow care- Fittings and ful attention on the construction of book-cases and presses. Yet, just as we have seen that even eminent architects frequently sacrifice the main purpose of a building to their ideas-real or mistaken-of its external beauty, so will the joiner and cabinet-maker, unless he be sharply looked after, gratify his notions of

BOOK II.

Chapter IV. Fittings and Furniture.

"symmetry" and embellishment, however they may
impair the fitness and applicability of his work. The
Library fittings of the Laird of Balmanoon and his
'wricht," in the story Sir Walter Scott used to tell with
such glee, scarcely surpass the doings of some worthy
persons at a very recent date. To say that shelves
should be adapted to the books they are intended for,
and that books ought not to be baked or roasted, is by
no means to descend into superfluous details, even in
the
year 1858.

If it be determined to use wooden cases and presses, there can be no better material than English oak. Or if this be too costly, well-seasoned deal of the best quality may be used and polished, without either veneering, staining or any other deceptive process. If, on the other hand, it be determined that the book cases shall be wholly uninflammable, the shelves may be made of enamelled slate, and the other portions of galvanized and perforated rolled iron. Whatever the material, the shelves should be moveable, so that they may be easily adjusted for the reception of books of any size. The cases should everywhere be perfectly flush, and without any sort of protruding ornament near the shelves, or of cavity at the sides. There should always be a space between the back of the cases and the inside of the external walls against which they are to stand, and a plinth of at least six inches between the lowest shelf and the level of the floor. It will also be found both advantageous and economical to make the frame work of the various presses of equal dimensions,

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