Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/42

18 studies. In small libraries the librarian should be close to the delivery desk of the lending department, for it is there that his advice and opinion will be chiefly in request. In larger libraries, where a greater portion of the librarian's time is of necessity taken up with the administrative duties of his position, it will not be possible for him to come into close personal contact with the readers, but he should be so placed as to be readily available when wanted.

In small libraries, where the staff of attendants is limited in number, an attempt should be made to obtain some supervision of all the public rooms from a given point of vantage, say, the issue desk of the lending department. In some libraries this has been done by erecting one large room, shelving the books round the walls, and placing the newspapers and periodicals on tables and stands in the centre. This is a plan to be avoided if possible, for not only is the noise inseparable from the work of the lending department annoying to the readers, but the vitiated air of the room—if it is used at all largely—plays havoc with the unfortunate attendants, who have to respire it for nine hours or more each day. The lending library should in all cases be in a separate room. Supervision can easily be obtained by good planning and a liberal use of glass screens in the division walls. The plans of the Edward Pease Library, Darlington (Fig. 69), the Tate Public Library, Streatham (Fig. 107), the Westminster Public Library (Fig. 110), and the South Lambeth Library (Fig. 102), give