Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/229

Rh librarian's office. The library is shelved for about 25,000 volumes at present, a number which can be materially increased when required. On the first floor, approached by a staircase from the entrance-hall, is a room used for lectures, &c., 45 feet by 24 feet. The remainder of the area is occupied by a residence for the librarian, with a separate entrance from the side. The cost of the building and furniture was £5000, and of the site £1100.

The Clerkenwell Public Library was erected in 1890 on a triangular corner site of some 3000 square feet in area. It is in the English Renaissance style, built of red brick and terra-cotta, the design of Messrs. Kerslake & Mortimer, and consists of three storeys and basement. The cost of building and furniture was nearly £7000. The lending library is on the ground floor, and is flanked by the news-room. The former has an area of 560 square feet, and the latter of about 900; both rooms are 15 feet in height. The shelving capacity of the lending library is 11,000 volumes.

This library is somewhat noteworthy as being the first of the British free libraries to open its lending department to the borrowers, and to allow them to choose their own books. The public enter the library at one side of an enclosed counter in which an assistant is placed, and leave with him the books they are returning. After choosing a volume from the open shelves they bring it to the other side of the counter, where it is booked to them, and