Chairs
Chairs are an important element in comfort. Strong enough for rough and constant use they must be. Graceful, or at least not ungainly, they ought to be and in most libraries they cannot be superfluously large. Indeed, there are many places where room can be saved by using stools, even fixed revolving stools. In some places armchairs (simple, not upholstered) will make readers more comfortable. For instance, in places where they can take up a book or magazine while reading and lean on the arms. Where a table is used to lay the book on, armchairs are not necessary, and they always need more room than plain chairs.
For a small library, the simplest kind of strong, bent-wood chairs suffice. Wood “saddle” seats, or rattan, are recommended rather than any upholstery, in larger libraries. To prevent noise, rubber tips to shoe the legs—the kind that screw in rather than slip on, are recommended.
Where there is no special coat room, hat racks underneath and such wire coat racks on the back, as are often used on theatre seats, are conveniences. Mr. Foster has these in the Providence Public Library, but he tells me they are not much used.
Chairs look better if they match each other, the tables, and the shelving, in material, style and color.
In planning it is wise after you have decided how many seats you want in each room, to have the architect sketch a floor plan and draw in shelving, tables and chairs, allotting to all the space which experience has taught is required for each reader in each room, as you intend to run it; and then carefully study the positions of the furniture and the dimensions of all the passages, checking results by examination of plans and visits to libraries which you think are satisfactory, until you are satisfied that you have reached the maximum of convenience with a minimum waste of space. A few hours’ time spent in this apparently trivial matter may mean much in ease of administration for years to come.
Delivery Desks
In the very small library, where every expense must be watched, all the furniture may have to be of common shapes and material, such as can be bought at the nearest furniture store. But as soon as any necessary luxury can be afforded, build or buy a specially designed charging and delivery desk, for this is the center and heart of almost all libraries of any size or any class. Do not have it built by a local carpenter, but wait until you can buy it from an experienced cabinet maker, or better, from a first-class library fittings expert. Study catalogs and plans to see what comes nearest to your needs and methods. If you find within your means a model which entirely suits you, get it. But if using of that or other makes of desks, or trying your own methods, or suggestions of other librarians, have led you to think that some modifications would suit better, it will not cost much more to have them made in the style which otherwise pleases you. Indeed, if your wants are wise, you will find that a dealer may meet them without extra charge, in the hope that his desk will thus commend itself to other librarians. Only by this gradual study put into form by clever librarians, can the ideal desk be gradually evolved.