B. C. Counter with desks at its extremities, and shelves beneath. D. E. Desks of Assistants. F. Railing (which admits of the entire wall space being shelved). I. Cases with shelves for books returned (the tops serving as tables). In all cases in which a collection of books for use within the building, and a collection for lending, are united under the same roof, it is, for many reasons, desirable that the rooms containing them should be entirely apart, and should have distinct doors, and approaches. The late Dr. Olinthus Gregory (Professor of Mathemathics in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich) prepared for the Select Committee of the House of Commons which sat, in 1836, on the affairs of the British Museum, a rough sketch of his ideas on the economical lodging of books which presents some points of originality, although they are rather indicated than worked out. BOOK II. Chapter II. jected. His leading idea seems to have been that by a novel arrangement of the presses and galleries for books, in- Libraries prodefinite accommodation might be gained for a large Library, at the rate of 100,000 volumes for every space of 100 feet in length, 50 feet in breadth, and 40 feet in heighth, under circumstances which would admit of the readers being accomodated in the same apartments without the full amount of that inconvenience which ordinarily results from the identity of the reading room and the book room. Having thus determined the dimension of each separate apartment, he proposes to construct his bookpresses (with double faces) independently of the walls and at a distance of at least five feet from them (S S on groundplan and on transverse section). The height of these presses he proposes to make twenty-eight feet, so as to admit of the room being lighted, not only by skylights, as at LL, but by perpendicular windows, both inmediately under the roof, as at W W (whence the BOOK II. Chapter II. Libraries pro jected. light would descend into the main apartment nearly at an angle of 45°), and at such other parts of the outer wall as may be needful. Light iron galleries, in three tiers, are to be carried along the presses as at g g (on transverse section). The dotted lines ...fff... indicate a light railing which is to separate the desks DDD provided for the readers, both from the book presses and from access to the spaces A A A allotted to the attendants employed in their service. The Corridor B B, it will be seen, is not included within the dimension allotted to the main block of building, and its height is left dependent on the desirability or non-desirability of erecting apartments for officers above it. Of the compatibility of such a scheme of internal arrangement with a reasonable regard to external architectural effect and embellishment, Dr. Gregory says nothing,-wisely leaving that for the consideration of the architects and their employers. As respects the data on which his calculations of shelf room are based, he thus expresses himself: "Octavos require 100 square feet for 800 volumes, and therefore 12,500 feet of surface for 100,000 volumes. The proposed arrangement would yield 12,768 feet of surface: [(82×4)+(32×4)] 128=456X28= 12,768 square feet. If in any division of the Library folios and quartos should so preponderate that the average space could not be taken upon octavos; then let compartments 6 feet 9 inches high and 6 inches deep be placed in contact with the walls for the reception of duodecimos et infra. Thirty square feet will well receive BOOK II. Chapter II. 360 duodecimos; and therefore shelves six feet nine inches high all round each apartment would receive Libraries pro22,700 duodecimo volumes."1 1 Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee on British Museum, 12 May, 1836. Q. 3514-3517; 283, 284. jected. BOOK II. Chapter III. Hints and Deductions. for construction ducible from IF, in closing this part of the subject, I attempt to reduce into a few general hints the principal conclusions which seem to be derivable from a review, as Practical hints well of the best and most celebrated Library buildings of Libraries, de- which have been constructed, as of many able designs the preceding for Libraries which have been only projected, it must be with the proviso that the applicability of many of them will be more or less dependent on circumstances that are sure to vary considerably in different localities. So diverse, indeed, are the special requirements of par examples. |