“Few village libraries need spend money for steel shelving. It costs twice as much as oak; four or five times as much as some woods. Wooden cases are movable, steel not; with wood you can shift and add. You would not prefer steel in your home.... For libraries of less than 30,000 volumes, wood is better.”—Eastman.[261]
In planning small buildings do not let manufacturers lead you into the expense of putting in metallic shelving or fixtures. Wood answers every need as well, and often better, and is much cheaper. Miss Marvin says,[262] “No stack should be included in a building costing under $20,000.” I should put the limit higher, and say “No metallic stack is either necessary or desirable while wooden wall shelving and floor shelving will hold the books in the library.”
Ledges. In the early wooden shelving for libraries, ledges, “counter ledges,” so called from their being the height of an ordinary “counter,” were considered essential. Dewey[263] says: “These have a double use. They give a greatly needed shelf on which readers may lay books for consultation or while reaching others, and for the pages in getting and putting back books.”
These ledges do not appear so much now in floor-cases or stacks. They still survive, however, in wall-shelving.
But they served serious needs in handling books and have been seriously missed since they disappeared from use. See an article on a proposed substitute in stacks, under the title “Carrel,” p. 286, later. This feature might also be used with wooden floor-cases when lighted by “true stack windows.”
Labels, Pins, see articles in Library Notes.[264]
Head-room. It is best not to build floor-shelving, even in low rooms, quite up to the ceiling, but to leave some room over the tops of the books on the top shelf for free ventilation. But Dewey said at the 1887 Conference, “Why not leave it out—use all space for shelving, with artificial ventilation?” This might apply to the head-room usually left at the top of stack rooms. But how about heat? And in most libraries there is no effective artificial ventilation or forced draft. And in many rooms outside the stack, it will not be necessary to shelve quite up to the roof.
Shelves High or Low. The rule is, as stated, 7½ feet in height. In many old libraries, and in a few newer ones, higher cases are used, in order not to waste upper space in a high room, wherever this space is not needed for ventilation or diffused light. This is very unfortunate in inspecting or handling the books. To overcome the difficulty of seeing and getting at the highest shelves, various forms of steps or step ladders, or base steps and high handles on the uprights are in use which can be investigated and adopted when occasion requires, as it never should arise in a new building. If such shelving is inherited, or must be used, it would be best to use these shelves, too high to reach by hand, for storing sets of books or magazines rarely wanted. Or a gallery can be built half way up to avoid the awkward use of ladders.