Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/298

274 present for an art gallery, museum, and art school, but it is expected that it will be necessary soon to complete the building, and devote the whole of it to library purposes. The shelf capacity at present is for about 100,000 volumes, but the whole building is expected to accommodate upwards of a million.

For several years the library of the Cornell University, Ithaca, had been cramped in its work for lack of shelf-room, until in 1888 Mr. Henry W. Sage offered to erect a new building, which should be a worthy home for the fine collection of books owned by the University. The designs of Mr. W. H. Miller were chosen, and as the architect has throughout worked in harmony with Mr. George W. Harris, the librarian, an exceedingly convenient building has been erected. Study of the accompanying plans will show how all the great requirements of an university library, such as compact storage of books within easy access of the delivery desk, economy of administration, abundance of light and ventilation, and the comfort of readers, have been recognised and provided for.

The library was opened in 1891, and stands at a corner of a quadrangle formed by the other University buildings. The ground slopes rapidly to the south and west, and allows the reading-room, which is entered at the ground level on the east side of the building, to be placed at the vertical centre of the seven-storey stack-room. The delivery desk is thus level with the middle of the stack, and has four storeys above it and three below. The stack-rooms are in two wings placed at right angles to