Receiving Room, see Book Order Department; see also Packing Room.
Reception Room, see Public Reception Room.
Reference Department. This room will serve for general and reference purposes, access being had to as many of the departments and special collections as possible. For the sake of convenience and supervision the special collections might be grouped around this room.
It should be on the second floor, with large windows to about 4 feet of the floor. Seating capacity for from 450 to 600 readers should be provided. It may be found easy to place this room on the top floor with light from above, although such an arrangement does not seem desirable. This will be the largest room in the building.
The public catalog should be near by so that it might be used and supervised by the Reference Librarian.
A delivery desk must also be provided on the same floor as the Reference Department so that the serious student may have books used by him in the Reference Department charged without being obliged to go into the Delivery Department. This desk may be located in the Reference Room, or it may be possible to locate it in the Public Catalog Room so that the orders of those consulting the Catalog may be sent directly to the Stack and the book be delivered to the borrower in that room. If the Public Catalog room is on the same floor as the Reference Room the books from that department could be sent to the Delivery Desk in the Public Catalog Room.
It is desirable to use the same Delivery Room for charging books from both Reference and Delivery Departments.
Registration Room. This is where the record of the individual is kept. If on Brooklyn plan only a few cases will be necessary, but if on Boston plan where there is a Central Registration more space will be necessary.
In any event it should be in or near the Delivery Department.