How to plan a library building for library work

by Charles C. Soule

The Library Adviser

“No library board should attempt building without taking counsel of someone who has made the subject a special study, and has had experience in library management.”—Poole.[132]

If you want to get a really good library, which can be worked easily, economically and effectively for years to come, and if you are not quite satisfied to leave the entire responsibility to the librarian you happen to have, or the architect you happen to get, there is a chance for you to employ, for a far less sum than a competition would cost, such a library expert as will be able to give you aid just where and when everyone may need it most; an adviser who can limit expense of construction, augment capacity, provide for the best and cheapest service, explain your needs to the architect, avoid friction, and bring to the best issue the countless puzzling queries which will arise after the plans are settled, the contracts let, and you plunge into the pitfalls of building and furnishing. Contract with this adviser for the whole problem, from start to finish,—you will want him to appeal to, up to the very end, and it is poor economy to try to scrimp on trifles.

“Committees who work without a trained adviser are certain to spend many times more ... in futile and expensive experiments.... No plan should be drawn up or accepted without the skilled guidance of a thoroughly trained librarian.”—Duff-Brown.[133]

“In this era of the establishment of so many new libraries, and the gift of so many hundreds of buildings, there is decided need for the effective service of a consulting librarian. Many serious mistakes are made, especially in building, for want of a competent professional adviser.”—H. J. Carr.[134]

As two or more counsel are often called in to the trial of a case at law, the importance of library planning demands strong reinforcements for the local librarian. An architect, usually a mature man of affairs, experienced not only in building, but also with men, should be met with equally experienced library advice, lest the library side be overborne. Experience will respect experience, but hesitate to yield to half-knowledge.

It will be possible to get such aid in any part of the country. I should say that there are at least fifty able librarians in the United States who have had such experience in building as would qualify them as experts. Their names could be learned from any library commission, or from any good librarian. “Authoritative recognition of experience and learning stamps a man as trustworthy.”—(Libr. Asso. Record.) Few, perhaps, have worked through all the problems of a very large library. Many have built libraries or branches in the other grades. In the branches, large librarians have faced the requirements of small libraries and would be competent advisers for any grade. The experts in any particular class (except public libraries) are fewer, but could be easily found. With demand, experts will multiply. No new library need lack a suitable adviser, if the local librarian will ask for one, and trustees can see their way to employ him.

As to the fee, the need is so new, that no professional scale has been prescribed. But for service from start to finish, as I have recommended, one per cent on the total cost would not seem too large for the time demanded, the services rendered, and the ends gained.

(To compare library advisers’ fees with architects: The American Institute of Architects have set as a minimum fee, six per cent on the total cost of the building. For preliminary studies alone, one fifth of this fee is to be charged. This would be over one per cent. The library adviser has very little to do with structural planning or construction. His work corresponds fairly well with “preparing preliminary plans,” so that one per cent would seem to be a fair fee to offer. If he is competent he can save ten times this by pointing out better methods and practical economies.)

It will be always an open question whether the expert, when chosen, can spare and be granted time from his duties in his own library. His board, however, would usually feel moved by courtesy to grant such time as he needed, beyond his free evenings and holidays.

Briefer consultations would merit special fees, to be agreed upon. In view of the expert character of the service they should be as liberal as can be afforded.