Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/32

8 and have had to be removed into others; and those of Birmingham, opened in 1866, and Liverpool, opened in 1853, have had to be enlarged by the absorption of adjoining properties.

In considering the size and shape of a site necessary for a town's library, no hard and fast rule can be laid down. It will be self-evident that a deep site, extending far back, and surrounded by other buildings, with but a narrow street frontage, will only allow of a building being erected upon it one storey in height; while a site of the same shape and area, with its long side fronting the street, will allow the erection of a two-storied building, with ample light to all its rooms. A corner site is, of course, preferable to the same area enclosed, and one bounded by streets or open spaces on all of its sides is better still if it can be obtained. Much will depend upon the accommodation required in the building. A town's library should give the public at least a reference department, a lending department, a reading-room or rooms for newspapers and magazines, and the necessary working rooms for the librarian and his staff.

To these may be added separate reading-rooms for boys, girls, and women; an inner reading-room for students; lecture hall; museum and art gallery; residences for the librarian and the caretakers; strongroom for the safe keeping of MSS. and incunabula, or local collections; and rooms for binding and repairing. In the Birmingham central library, space for the growth of the library proper has been obtained by the transfer of the