As the collection assumes an important size, and includes sets of opera scores and assembled works, it may be given a separate room, or two small rooms, with special wall shelving. It has become somewhat usual, in large libraries, to put a piano here for trying scores, and phonographs for repeating them. When this is done, the room or one of the rooms should, of course, have perfectly sound-proof partitions, to shut off sound from other departments.
Provision of some kind must be considered for pianola rolls and phonographic records.
This department may well be assigned to an upper floor. It should, of course, provide shelving for the literature of music.
Maps. Any small library may have atlases, for which special shelving must be provided. An economical provision can be made by putting flat shelving under the table holding the catalog case.
A separate room for this branch of literature, which includes bound volumes, loose sheets, wall charts, globes, etc., is set aside only in large libraries. It cannot be expected on the ground floor, but might be on the same floor with Art, as it requires similar height, arrangement, light, and access.
Maps are kept in three forms, as in volumes (either coming in atlases, or bound up by the library) or in loose sheets or on rollers. For volumes, sliding, flat, and upright shelving will provide suitable stowage. For sheet maps or charts, large, shallow wooden drawers in dust-proof cases, sometimes with wooden flaps in front, are usual. Patent metallic map-cases are better, but more expensive. A high room affords wall space for such charts as can be read at a distance, and are frequently used. Wall space from the floor up should be reserved for hanging maps. Andrews and others recommend Jenkins’ Map Roller. For using maps in any form, large tables in the centre of the room (trestle tables will do, to be brought in when wanted), and sloping desks or ledges under the windows, may be provided.
As sufficient space for this department is often hard to spare, a good location for it is at the end of a corridor. Here doors can be omitted, and the corridor space can be taken into the room. The corridor wall opposite windows is a fine place for hanging maps; the floor of the corridor, for globes and the like.
See C. W. Andrews,[359] Windsor,[360] Bostwick,[361] Duff-Brown,[362] Champneys,[363] The Library Assistant, Vol. 8.[364] See also a fine view of the Library of Congress map room in their 1901 report.[365] To show how important a department this may become, and what room it may occupy, take note that the Library of Congress has 2,600 atlases and 57,000 maps and charts.
Education. This is an important subject in large libraries, and may even demand a separate room in smaller grades where there is much school work done.