Sometimes the projection from the building is rectangular, and the shelving concentric, an arrangement likely to cast shadows. In some American libraries long rows of slanting floor-cases, not true radii, point toward the desk. So good a librarian as Mr. Wellman of Springfield, has adopted this arrangement in a large rectangular room. See also the Law Library at Rochester, N. Y. But does not this arrangement block light rather than facilitate its penetration into the room to the lowest shelves? I should doubt whether the advantage in supervision would counterbalance this interference and the waste of space. Champneys[278] (an architect) thinks there may be danger of “overestimating police methods.” It seems to me that in sizeable rectangular rooms, supervised entrance and exit at the desk, with rectangular arrangement of the shelves either perpendicular to the deskline or even athwart the room, thus trusting the public, would be better.
In small libraries, as in branches, this arrangement is worth considering, but should not be adopted, it seems to me, without very careful balancing of arguments pro and con. Economy in construction and space and difficulties in enlargement are against; many considerations of cheerfulness and usefulness are in its favor. Where the library is so small, however, that only three or four floor-cases will hold all its stock of books, these in a rectangular projection back of the desk, will give most of the effect of the radial form, rather cheaper.
Librarians who have operated both forms could give points to any one in doubt, and many floor plans, English as well as American, with many interior views, are accessible to show different arrangements.
If adopted, it seems to me that the semi-circular plan with true radii, is better than the octagonal or rectangular walls, with obliquely placed floor cases. These may be arranged for good supervision, but their slant disturbs one’s sense of symmetry. Besides, the basement beneath may be devoted to a class or lecture room, for which such a semi-circular shape gives good light and cheerful effect.
The semi-circular plan has been adopted for alcove rooms in many places, such as the Library of Parliament at Ottawa, Princeton University, and so on, but these do not have radiating cases and need not be discussed here.
Shelf Capacity
To calculate shelf capacity, it has been usual to take ten volumes to a running foot, a figure which has been verified in some libraries. But books vary in thickness in different kinds of literature, and the exigencies of growth require gaps to be left in closely-classified libraries, at the end of each subject. These facts have tended to vary estimates, which do not now agree. In “Library Rooms and Building,” I said,[279] “For these reasons, it is prudent to calculate about eight volumes to a foot for octavos and under, and still less, say five volumes to the foot, for reference books, law books, medical books, and other bulky literature.” I have seen no reason since to change these figures for estimates, though planners should bear in mind the different classes and sizes of books to be stored in each room or on each case.
The English authorities still set the average number of volumes to a linear shelf foot rather higher, eight and a half to nine and a half for lending libraries or fiction shelves. See also, “Stack Capacity.”