Plumbing. Be very careful that the water pipes do not run too near, or behind or directly under or over the shelves. Bursting pipes threaten damage and disaster to books.
In indicating where you want your water-fixtures, remember that unnecessary scattering entails unnecessary expense. Economy demands, and efficiency rarely forbids, putting pipes in stacks up and down stairs, one fixture under another, and all near chimneys or somewhere else safe from freezing.
File plans. As suggested under another head, keep your plumbing and drainage plans separately, file them in a pamphlet plainly labelled and catalogued. You may want in a hurry sometime to know just where every pipe and drain can be got at easily.
Cleanliness
Prevention. It has been suggested that library windows, especially stack windows, be made tight, never to be opened; but the hermetically sealed library does not seem to appeal strongly to the public. Dust can be excluded by carefully planned vestibules, and by opening windows only at certain times, and in certain winds, when dust outside does not drive in. In many large libraries, methods of dust-absorption are provided for air-inlets, and such excluders are common to all systems of forced draught.
Inside Dust. In addition to the dust that drives in from the street, and that which rises from mud tracked in, there is some that is evolved from certain book-bindings and from processes of handling, which has to be kept down. Library housekeeping is a steady process.
Cleaners. The old-fashioned sweeping and mopping with the old implements, are not yet out-of-date, but there are many more or less expensive patent sweepers, which are supposed to be dustless. Vacuum cleaners have come to stay. Mr. Hodges of Cincinnati anticipated their use in libraries years ago, and made an effective machine of his own. A simple way is to open dusting ducts, in which books may be dusted while all dust is blown away outside. But in a large enough library, it is now wise while installing a stack, to have some system of vacuum standpipes built in to reach every floor; and in any library some of the simpler and more effective forms of patent sweepers or vacuum cleaners may be provided and stored in basement, attic or closets.
Bowls and Taps. Sinks with taps for filling pails are useful on all floors, for scrub-women and for first aid in fires. They can easily be combined with wash-bowls, thus avoiding multiplicity of fixtures.