Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/332

308 being below the level of the reading-room floor. The cases are 7 feet 6 inches in height, and are well lit, as each is placed at right angles to a window. Access to the different storeys is obtained by straight flights of staircases in the centre of each book-store, and at the back of each staircase is an electrical lift. Hanging electric lamps are placed between each bookcase, which can be switched on as wanted and moved for some six feet in either direction. There is also an electric railway running from the book-stores to the issue desk for the conveyance of the books.

The administrative portion of the building is entirely in the front. On the right of the vestibule, on the ground floor, are offices for the secretary and chief librarian, and on the left four rooms for the assistant-librarians. On the first floor (Fig. 138), over the vestibule and offices, are a noble suite of rooms, in which are displayed prints and manuscripts, incunabula, and a special collection of works appertaining to the antiquities and bibliography of Alsace. In the basement of the front portion of the building is located the heating apparatus, rooms for caretaker, &c. The readingrooms and administrative portion of the building are kept at a temperature of 68 degrees, and the book-stores at that of 50 degrees.

The cost of the building was £70,000, and of the furniture and bookcases £14,250. The stock at the present time is estimated at 700,000 volumes, and the shelving capacity of the whole building is for over a million.