Reference Room
As already said this is a very useful room, or section of a room; indeed it might even be put in an anteroom or vestibule, to include such books as will be used for quick consultation, but never for reading. It should be for the openest and speediest access. As Spofford specifies,[315] “It would include encyclopædias, dictionaries, glossaries, etc.,” or according to Fletcher,[316] “general and special encyclopædias (such as music, fine arts, mechanics, geography, classical, Biblical, biographical, etc.)” Dr. E. C. Richardson[317] lays down that “at least a small selection of the best reference books should be accessible to the public.”
“Place as little hindrance as may be to the busy man who runs in to glance at the dictionary, directory, or time-table.”—Bostwick.[318]
This room need not be as large as either of the other reading rooms, but it should be most accessible, near the front door, near the desk, near the catalog. It should have wall shelving for large and small books, drawn under specifications by the librarian, for just what volumes he wants to display there. Revolving bookcases are convenient here. This is especially the place for the old-fashioned ledge, and for a few narrow tables like those used in front of a catalog case, with small, light chairs or stools; just as little furniture as would be needed for taking down a volume at a time to glance at, or to take brief notes from. How many it should accommodate at once depends on the library and its use. It will be wanted, in brief visits, by very many of the visitors, down even to the children of the higher grades of the schools.
Although one of the most important departments of large or small libraries, it is not the place for high walls or architectural ornament. It should have especially good light at all points day and evening, for the type of many reference books is so small as to try the eyesight at its best.
If there is not space in the building for a separate room, put it, if possible, in the same room with open-access shelves, or the magazines, or in a corridor, where there is already some confusion; for the use of reference books is a distraction to serious reading anywhere near. If they must be put in the reading room, give the reference books a stretch of shelving or a corner near the entrance and desk, so that their consultation will leave serious readers afar off and undisturbed.
Might not a good arrangement of a reference room be on the window side of the delivery or open-access room, with broad alcoves opposite the light, and with a good ledge under the windows; or just with floor cases perpendicular to the windows, spaced wide like open-access shelves, but having old-fashioned ledges to help consultation of reference books? Here is opportunity for ingenious planning.
Standard Library. Mr. Foster’s plan of a Standard Library room at Providence has something to commend it from an educational or didactic point of view, but it would hardly be much missed by the public. In new buildings where all available space is in demand for more imperative needs, I doubt if I should include such a room, unless already adopted as part of the policy of the library. If it is, however, to be included it should have an architectural dignity—not necessarily splendid—to conform to its purpose. Why might not this be combined with the trustees’ room? The bindings of the books would adorn the walls, and make the room a worthy meeting place of the board at evening, without interfering with what I imagine is not an eager or crowded use by the public during the day.
Or, if its object be not quiet reading, but to bring the books prominently to notice, to exhibit them, why not treat it as an open access or club room, open to conversation? Would not this further its primary object, attract visitors, and promote taking these volumes home or into quiet reading rooms to read?