Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/209

Rh with a private room for the (lady) librarian, 20 feet by 10 feet, communicating with it. At the back of the news-room, with a separate entrance from the side street, are the lending and reference libraries, and on the other side of the central corridor is a reading-room for boys.

The lending library is a room 40 feet by 24 feet, and the attendants' desk is placed against a clear glass screen with a hatchway in the wall of the newsroom, so that control of the two rooms can always be exercised. The books are shelved in double cases placed at right angles to the desk, and the borrowers have access to the shelves. In the corner of the room is a staircase to a book-store above, with a storeroom for newspapers and periodicals. The boys' reading-room is 21 feet square, and is lit from the area. It is open on one side to the librarian's room, which it adjoins, and on the other to the attendants' desk in the lending library, from which it is separated by a corridor 8 feet in width.

The Wigan Public Free Library was erected from the designs of Mr. A. Waterhouse, R.A. It consists of a main building with cross gables at each end, the central portion forming a recess supported by buttresses. A bold skyline is obtained by the use of dormer lights, and in the principal front a distinguishing feature is produced by leaded windows following the line of the staircase.

The entrance-hall contains a granite column supporting two arches, through one of which access is gained to the staircase, while through the other