A floor of hard wood is good enough for most libraries. Wood covered with corticene or linoleum tends to insure the needed quiet. Floors of tile, marble or concrete are very noisy and should have strips of carpet laid in the passages.
On the walls of reading rooms it is neither necessary nor desirable to have an ornamental wainscot, nor indeed any wainscot at all, not even a base board. Book cases will cover the lower walls and books are the best ornament.
Small tables for four are preferred in a reading room to long common tables. They give the reader an agreeable feeling of privacy.
Do not make tables too high. 30 inches are enough.
Light bent wood chairs are easy to handle.
Steam or hot water give the best heat and incandescent electric lamps give the best light.
Be sure that you have sufficient ventilation.
Windows should be made to slide up and down, not to swing on hinges or pivots.
Without dwelling further on details let us be sure 1, That we have room within the walls for all the books we now have or are likely to have in 20 years; provide the first outfit of shelves for twice the number of books expected at the end of one year and add bookcases as we need them, leaving always a liberal margin of empty space on every shelf. We must plan for the location of additional cases for 20 years with due consideration of the question of public access.
2, That all needed departments are provided in harmonious relation with each other and so located as to serve the public to the best advantage and at least cost of time, strength and money.