Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/312

288 elevator. In Fig. 129 is shown the delivery desk and the ends of the bookcases in the stack-room, and a series of easy staircases connecting the stacks from the basement to the top storey.

The floors of the stack-room are of glass slabs, 10 by 18 inches, set in an iron framework. The shelves are of oak, with iron uprights, and supports electroplated in copper. Ventilation is provided by means of a space covered with wire-netting, 3 inches in width, between the glass flooring and the stacks. The central aisles are 39 inches wide, and the cross aisles 27 inches. Each floor will accommodate about 40,000 volumes, and the whole room will shelve about 200,000.

The staircase in the entrance-hall gives access on the second floor to the general reference room, reading-room for periodicals, and rooms for the staff and cataloguing. A plan of the arrangement will be seen in Fig. 127. The general reference room is directly over, and the same size as, the newspaper-room on the ground floor. It is shelved around the walls for ordinary works of reference, and contains fifteen tables for readers. The other reference room on the west contains the bound files of periodicals, which are shelved around the walls and in four double cases at the north end. Nine tables are provided for readers, and in this room are used the books shelved in the adjoining stack-room. The cataloguers' room connects the two reference rooms, and in it is done most of the private work of the library.

On the topmost storey (Fig. 128) there are rooms