Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/276

 264 Tlie Library. My desire is to render the reader more able to help himself, and without unnecessary trouble, and with this view I ask your attention to a method of arranging a library which I believe would attain this object. I do not say that the scheme is new, although I have never seen it described anywhere. The arrangement might be called the " star " Library. The book-cases are inside the rays of the star, and are placed with their backs to the outside, so that the public may see them. The books may be protected on the outside by wire or glass. The staff is in the centre, and at the places marked C there are counters where readers may return or apply for books. At one or more of these counters ingress for the staff would be arranged. I have premised a room sixty-two feet by sixty-two feet, but of course the size or even the form of the room does not materi- ally affect the principle of the scheme. The clear space between the end of each prong and the wall is six feet. The length of each side of the prongs is fourteen feet, and the diameter of the centre is twenty-two feet. The width of the prongs is four feet at the entrance and three at the point. The height of the book- cases would be seven feet, and the book-cases would go as low as thirty inches from the floor. This would provide for, say, six shelves ten inches high. The highest row of books would not be out of sight, nor the lowest entail uncomfortable stooping. Dividing the fourteen feet of the prong into five divisions would give you thirty shelves each about thirty-two inches long. Taking an average of ten volumes to the foot it follows that the two sides of the prong would hold 1,620 volumes. The eight prongs would therefore accommodate 12,960 volumes. This number of volumes is amply sufficient for a Lending Library of a moderately sized town, or a Branch Library in a larger place. Every Librarian who has formed a Library must have had it forced home upon him that without duplicating it is difficult to make a list of 10,000 volumes suitable for a Lending Library. For a larger Library it would be easy to add to the shelf room by lining the walls with book-cases, and having an attendant in uniform outside the counter to open the cases and bring the books to the counter to be recorded. This on three sides of a sixty-two feet room would give 1,302 feet of shelving, and room for other 13,000 volumes.