Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/64

40 room, and secondly, to consider what height is the best for ease of service, and an attempt should be made to combine the two. Nearly all modern libraries have their bookcases low enough to allow the books upon the top shelves to be reached without the aid of a ladder, or, at any rate, by merely using one step 8 or 9 inches in height, the general concensus of opinion being that some height between 7 and 8 feet is the most suitable. Mr. Melvil Dewey in Library Notes recommends 7 feet 8 inches, and my own conclusion is that this or 7 feet 6 inches is the height that, on the whole, is best adapted for ordinary libraries.

The greater portion of the books now being published are octavo in size, varying from crowns to royals, or, say, from 7½ to 9½ inches in height. It seems probable that in the future the proportion of small books will be even greater than it is now. The days of folios, like those published from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, are numbered, except as regards newspapers, and no publisher nowadays dreams of printing books larger than octavo unless they are illustrated, and space has to be obtained for plates, maps, or plans.

It is necessary to have a base from 2 to 4 inches high at the bottom of each case to prevent damage to the lowest shelf of books. In some libraries the base has been made higher, and the heating pipes have been taken through it. This is wrong