Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/259

Rh when such a building is up for consideration, that it is a monument, not a library. When our architects have fully seized the modern situation in its demands and its materials; when the spirit which put up the lying exteriors of the Chicago World's Fair buildings, and thereby delayed our architectural emancipation by many a long day, has begun to die out, it may be possible to erect a thoroughly useful and entirely workable building which shall be in every part a library and also an artistic monument.

The point in the free public library to which the public comes in the largest numbers is the delivery counter. The public side of this delivery counter should be a room easy of access from the street, with cloak and toilet rooms near its entrance; well lighted, that catalogues and lists may be easily consulted, and that the work of the assistants may be done in the main without artificial light; large enough to accommodate comfortably the greatest crowd the library expects ever to attract; and so closed in that the talk and movement which necessarily accompany intercourse between visitors and the library staff will not disturb workers or readers in other parts of the library. A corner of this room, easy of access from the counter, should be devoted to the information desk, at which the stranger or the student will get prompt and courteous and full replies to all questions in regard to the library's methods and resources, and suggestions in regard to books or departments to be consulted on any specific topic. Near this information desk should be the desk at which borrowers' or members' cards, permits, etc., are issued. In the delivery room, or in a room opening from it, should be the catalogue resources of the library. The delivery counter should be so constructed as to serve as an aid in the transaction of business—as a means of communication, not as a barrier—between the assistants and the public. Near to it and easy of access should be the books of the lending department; nearest to it, those most used. If for good reason it is found necessary to forbid the public access to any part of the lending department, it may prove advisable to place such part at some distance from the delivery counter, and to move the books to and fro by means of lifts, belts, or like devices. But any plan by which the attendant, to whom a request for certain books is made, is prevented from easy access to them, stands in the way of the library's educational work, especially where the would-be borrower is himself denied the opportunity to see for himself, in any department, the books he would select from. If a book asked for is not in, another of equal or greater value on the same subject may be in. The borrower, denied access to the shelves, should at least have, if he wishes it, the benefit of the attendant's knowledge of this fact. A delivery service made up largely of