Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/243

Rh is occupied by the reference reading-room. This is 85 feet by 28, and is at present furnished with ten tables, at each of which ten readers can be seated. Three tables are screened off at one end to form a ladies' reading-room, and one is reserved for writing purposes. The room is well lit by ten large side windows, and is 20 feet in height. Between the reference reading-room and the book-store is the librarian's room, 22 feet by 16, which is also used as a committee room (Fig 101). The total public accommodation provided in the building is fifty seats at five tables in the magazine-room, thirty seats at three tables in the reading-room, and stands for the display of forty papers in the newspaper-room, and one hundred seats at ten tables in the reference library. None of the rooms are seated to their fullest extent, and seats for fifty more readers could easily be found. The lending library is shelved at present for 25,000 volumes, and the book-store of the reference library, which is 8 feet in height, is intended to take two storeys of shelving, but the walls are thick enough to allow the roof to be lifted for a third. The book-store is lit by a large skylight, and is fitted with double bookcases in the centre of the room, and single cases against the walls. Those in the centre are 18 inches from back to front, and 8 feet in height, with a length of 36 feet, divided into nine divisions of 34 inches each. In these the ordinary octavos are shelved, larger books being placed in the specially wide cases placed against the wall.