“They must be in sequence, so that books may be (1) received; (2) catalogued; (3) prepared; (4) shelved, without jumping around from one part to another.”—Idem.[229]
See excellent article by W. K. Stetson on centralized administration, 36 L. J., p. 467.
In his article on Library Buildings, in the U. S. Public Libraries Special Report of 1876,[230] Justin Winsor pictures the preliminary operations of preparing books for the reader—the first steps of administration, as carried out in a large room, surrounded by stalls connected by tramways for book boxes, and supervised by a superintendent from a raised platform in the centre, who directs the successive operations and operators, all under his eye.
This arrangement persists, but except so far as it governs packing and unpacking, is now usually separated into different rooms, all made parts of a suite, connected either horizontally or perpendicularly, and served by special lifts and elevators.
Such rooms for a large library are here described in separate chapters. In smaller libraries practically the same operations are compressed into fewer rooms.
Trustees’ Room
In very small libraries none is necessary; nor need one be set aside, as the library grows larger, until other more necessary rooms are provided for. The trustees as a body do not meet every day, and their committees only meet an hour or so at a time, so that they can well use one of the staff rooms whose occupants can temporarily get busy elsewhere, or use special rooms only occasionally used.
In growing libraries, when rooms have to be set aside for any purposes which do not require constant occupation, any one of these can be used for trustees. Their meetings, and those of their committees, are generally held in late afternoon or evening, when it would not interfere with intermittent processes or infrequent readers. It has always seemed to me that a Local History room would be an excellent refuge for trustees in a building where space had to be economized, especially as local history is a proper function for a small library with either an active librarian, or an active local society, or both.