Taste, Tact, Thrift, Thoroughness
The spirit of planning is summarized in the apothegm on the frontispiece of this volume.
Tastefully. Although Vitruvius reckons beauty third and last among the requisites of building, I can put taste first, because good taste covers both beauty and use and should be the prevailing characteristic of every detail of a library building.
Tactfully. Webster defines tactful as a discerning sense of what is right, proper, or judicious, and this sense applied to the details of library planning would certainly tend to perfection.
Thriftily. “Economical management” should be the keynote embodied in every detail of library building.
Thoroughly. This should be the pervading and controlling spirit. Plan to the very end; aim for the very best; slight no least detail.
This is so essential to proper planning that it deserves a separate chapter. To lack of thoroughness on the part of building committees, much of the disappointing character of existing buildings is due. They choose an architect directly or by competition, and give him inadequate guidance in his task.
An architect knows much, especially where to look for knowledge, but it is too much to expect him to master in a month or a year, together with a score of other investigations, the intricacies of a complex and rapidly developing science in which only a few librarians are expert after a lifetime of study and practice.
The committees, not experts themselves, have not secured a library expert to formulate their problems thoroughly. Perhaps they have delegated to their own librarian a branch of library science which he does not know by experience, and cannot be expected to learn in a short time by study; especially as his normal duties of running the library fully fill all his waking hours, and part of his dreams. It is not so much a lack of thoroughness on the part of the committee as an entire lack of comprehension of how much there is to be thorough about.
Use Every Inch of Space. Begin at the foundation and study every detail. Study every entrance, passage, stairway, room, floor, piece of furniture, stretch of shelving, up to the roof; sketch as you go, sketch not loosely but to scale. Fit your parts together; leave no waste space, no dark corner unutilized. Measure zealously and save every inch of length, breadth and height; every useless cubic inch costs money and wastes room. Plan a closet under every open staircase. Watch especially the height of every story and every room. Do not allow any foot of height not imperatively demanded for light or ventilation. Allow nothing for mere architectural effect. Search even attic and ceiling to utilize unutilized corners. Do not blame the architect, blame yourself, the library expert, for any waste of space and money.