Tables
These deserve a separate chapter; they are used everywhere.
“Good, plain, solid,” epitomizes Champneys.[385]
“Use small tables and light chairs instead of the large heavy tables and ‘artistic’ chairs, conformed to the style of the building, but awkward in use.”—Fletcher.[386]
“The old style of long tables is now thought cumbersome,” says Bostwick.[387] This I endorse, though architects prefer large tables in large rooms, as more in proportion. He advises small, rectangular or circular tables for not more than six readers each. I doubt the circular in libraries where space is scant. They waste room.
“Should not be too long, or if double not too narrow.”—Duff-Brown.[388]
“Tables for four give readers a feeling of privacy.”—Eastman.
For this reason I rather incline to slightly sloping desks for two, like school desks, in reading rooms; all facing one way; all with a low back and sides, with a fillet at the front, to keep books and papers from falling; with extension slides or trough drawers for open books at each side of each reader. This form, it seems to me, combines a minimum of space for desk and passages, with a maximum of convenience and seclusion for readers. In the hours when the room was not thronged, there would be a desk to a reader. If the desks were rightly faced and the windows and lamps well arranged, no reader need have direct rays of light in his eyes, nor dazzling reflection from his paper.