A Book for All Readers Part 18

Very interesting lists of benefactions for the benefit of libraries may be found in the volumes of the Library Journal, New York. It is with regret that candor requires me to add, that several proffers of fine library buildings to certain places, coupled with the condition that the munic.i.p.al authorities would establish and maintain a free library, have remained without acceptance, thus forfeiting a liberal endowment. Where public education has been so neglected as to render possible such a n.i.g.g.ardly, penny-wise and pound-foolish policy, there is manifestly signal need of every means of enlightenment.

We now come to the various State libraries founded at the public charge, and designed primarily for the use of the respective legislatures of the States. The earliest of these is the New Hampshire State Library, established in 1790, and the largest is the New York State Library, at Albany, founded in 1818, now embracing 325,000 volumes, and distinguished alike by the value of its stores and the liberality of its management.

The reason for being of a State library is obviously and primarily to furnish the legislative body and State courts with such ample books of reference in jurisprudence, history, science, etc., as will aid them in the intelligent discharge of their duties as law-makers and judges of the law. The library thus existing at each State capital may well be opened to the public for reading and reference, thus greatly enlarging its usefulness.

Every State in the Union has now at least a legislative library, although the most of them consist chiefly of laws and legislative doc.u.ments, with a few works of reference superadded; and their direct usefulness to the public is therefore very circ.u.mscribed. The New York State Library is a model of what a great public library should be in the capital of a State.

In it are gathered a great proportion of the best books in each department of literature and science, while indefatigable efforts have been made to enrich it in whatever relates to American history and polity. Its reading-room is freely opened to the public during many hours daily. But a State library should never be made a library of circulation, since its utility as a reference library, having its books always in for those who seek them, would thereby be destroyed. Even under the existing system, with the privilege of drawing books out confined to the Legislature, some of the State libraries have been depleted and despoiled of many of their most valuable books, through loaning them freely on the orders of members. The sense of responsibility is far less in the case of borrowed books which are government property, than in other cases. The only safe rule for keeping a government library from being scattered, is strict refusal of orders for loaning to any one not legally ent.i.tled to draw books, and short terms of withdrawal to legislators, with enforcement of a rule of replacement, at their expense, as to all books not returned at the end of each session.

There is one cla.s.s of libraries not yet touched upon, namely, school district libraries. These originated for the first time in a legally organized system, through an act of the New York State Legislature in 1835, authorizing the voters in each school district to levy a tax of twenty dollars with which to start a library, and ten dollars a year for adding to the same. These were not to be for the schools alone, but for all the people living in the district where the school was located. This was supplemented in 1838 by a State appropriation of $55,000 a year, from New York's share of the surplus revenue fund distributed by Congress to the States in 1837, and the income of which was devoted by New York to enlarging the school district libraries. After spending nearly two millions of dollars on these libraries in forty years, the system was found to have been so far a failure that the volumes in the libraries had decreased from 1,600,000 to 700,000 volumes.

This extraordinary and deplorable result was attributed to several distinct causes. 1st. No proper responsibility as to the use and return of books was enforced. 2d. The insignificance of the sum raised by taxation in each district prevented any considerable supply of books from being acquired. 3d. The funds were largely devoted to buying the same books in each school district, instead of being expended in building up a large and varied collection. Thus the system produced innumerable petty libraries of duplicates, enriching publishers and booksellers, while impoverishing the community. The school district library system, in short, while promising much in theory, in the way of public intelligence, broke down completely in practice. The people quickly lost interest in libraries which gave them so little variety in books, either of instruction or of recreation.

Although widely introduced in other States besides New York, from 1837 to 1877, it proved an admitted failure in all. Much public money, raised by taxation of the people, was squandered upon sets of books, selected by State authority, and often of inferior interest and utility. Finally, it was recognized that school district libraries were an evanescent dream, and that town libraries must take their place. This instructive chapter in Library history shows an experience by which much was learned, though the lesson was a costly one.

The Historical libraries of the country are numerous, and some of the larger ones are rich in printed Americana, and in historical ma.n.u.scripts.

The oldest is that of the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society, founded in 1791, and among the most extensive are those of the New York Historical Society, American Antiquarian Society, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the New England Historic-genealogical Society, and the Wisconsin State Historical Society. There are no less than 230 historical societies in the U. S., some forty of which are State a.s.sociations.

The Mercantile libraries are properly a branch of the proprietary, though depending mostly upon annual subscriptions. The earliest of these was the Boston Mercantile Library, founded in 1820, and followed closely by the New York Mercantile the same year, the Philadelphia in 1821, and the Cincinnati Mercantile in 1835.

Next we have the professional libraries, law, medical, scientific, and, in several cities, theological. These supply a want of each of these professions seldom met by the public collections, and are proportionately valuable.

The most recent plan for the wide diffusion of popular books is the travelling library. This originated in New York in 1893, when the Legislature empowered the Regents of the State University (a body of trustees having charge of all library interests in that State) to send out selections of books to any community without a library, on request of 25 resident taxpayers. The results were most beneficial, the sole expense being five dollars for each library.

Travelling libraries, (mostly of fifty volumes each) have been set on foot in Ma.s.sachusetts, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and other States, and, as the system appears capable of indefinite expansion, great results are antic.i.p.ated in the direction of the public intelligence. It is pointed out that while the State, by its free school system, trains all the people to read, it should not leave the quality of their reading to chance or to utter neglect, when a few cents _per capita_ annually would help them to an education of inestimable value in after life.

Some objections, on the other hand, have been urged to the system, as introducing features of paternalism into State government, and taking out of the hands of individual generosity and local effort and enterprise what belongs properly to such agencies. The vexed question of the proper function and limitations of State control in the domain of education cannot here be entered upon.

In the volume last published of statistics of American libraries, that of 1897, great progress was shown in the five years since 1891. The record of libraries reported in 1896 embraced 4,026 collections, being all which contained over 1,000 volumes each. The increase in volumes in the five years was a little over seven millions, the aggregate of the 4,026 libraries being 33,051,872 volumes. This increase was over 27 per cent.

in only five years.

If the good work so splendidly begun, in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and some of the Western States, in establishing libraries through public taxation and private munificence, can only be extended in the Southern and Middle States, the century now about to dawn will witness an advance quite as remarkable as we have seen in the latter years of the century about to close.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] MS. Records of the Virginia Company, in the Library of Congress.

CHAPTER 16.

LIBRARY BUILDINGS AND FURNISHINGS.

Proceeding now to the subject of library buildings, reading-rooms, and furnishings, it must be remarked at the outset that very few rules can be laid down which are of universal application. The architectural plans, exterior and interior, of such great inst.i.tutions as the Library of Congress, or the Boston Public Library, with their costly marbles, splendid mural decorations, and electric book-serving machinery, afford no model for the library building in the country village. Where the government of a nation or a wealthy city has millions to devote for providing a magnificent book-palace for its library, the smaller cities or towns have only a few thousands. So much the more important is it, that a thoroughly well-considered plan for building should be marked out before beginning to build, that no dollars should be wasted, or costly alterations required, in order to fit the interior for all the uses of a library.

The need of this caution will be abundantly evident, in the light of the unfit and inconvenient constructions seen in so many public libraries, all over the country. So general has been the want of carefully planned and well-executed structures for books, that it may fairly be said that mistakes have been the rule, and fit adaptation the exception. For twenty years past, at every meeting of the American Library a.s.sociation, the reports upon library buildings have deplored the waste of money in well-meant edifices designed to accommodate the library service, but successful only in obstructing it. Even in so recent a construction as the Boston Public Library building, so many defects and inconveniences were found after it was supposed to have been finished, that rooms had to be torn out and re-constructed on three floors, while the pneumatic tube system had been found so noisy as to be a public nuisance, and had to be replaced by a later improved construction.

One leading cause for the mistakes which are so patent in our library buildings is that they are not planned by librarians but mainly by architects. The library authorities commonly take it for granted that the able architect is master of his profession, and entrust him with the whole design, leaving out of account the librarian, as a mere subordinate, ent.i.tled only to secondary consideration. The result is a plan which exhibits, in its prominent features, the architect's skill in effective pilasters, pillars, architraves, cornices, and bal.u.s.trades, while the library apartments which these features ornament are planned, not for convenient and rapid book-service, but mainly for show. It is the interest of architects to magnify their profession: and as none of them has ever been, or ever will be a librarian, they cannot be expected to carry into effect unaided, what they have never learned; namely, the interior arrangements which will best meet the utilities of the library service. Here is where the librarian's practical experience, or his observation of the successes or failures in the reading-room and delivery service of other libraries, should imperatively be called in. Let him demonstrate to the governing board that he knows what is needed for prompt and economical administration, and they will heed his judgment, if they are reasonable men. While it belongs to the architect to plan, according to his own ideas, the outside of the building, the inside should be planned by the architect in direct concert with the librarian, in all save merely ornamental or finishing work.

We do not erect a building and then determine whether it is to be a school house or a church: it is planned from the start with strict reference to the utilities involved; and so should it always be with a library.

In treating this subject, I shall not occupy s.p.a.ce in outlining the proper scheme of building and interior arrangement for a great library, with its many distinct departments, for such inst.i.tutions are the exceptions, while most libraries come within the rule of very moderate size, and comparatively inexpensive equipment. The first requisite for a public library, then, is a good location. It is important that this should be central, but it is equally important that the building should be isolated--that is, with proper open s.p.a.ce on all sides, and not located in a block with other buildings. Many libraries have been destroyed or seriously damaged by fire originating in neighboring buildings, or in other apartments in the same building; while fires in separate library buildings have been extremely rare. It would be a wise provision to secure a library lot sufficiently large in area to admit of further additions to the building, both in the rear and at the side; and with slight addition to the cost, the walls and their supports may be so planned as to admit of this. Committees are seldom willing to incur the expense of an edifice large enough to provide for very prolonged growth of their collection; and the result is that the country is full of overcrowded libraries, without money to build, and prevented from expanding on the spot because no foresight was exercised in the original construction or land purchase, to provide for ready increase of s.p.a.ce by widening out, and removing an outer wall so as to connect the old building with the new addition. If a library has 10,000 volumes, it would be very short-sighted policy to plan an edifice to contain less than 40,000, which it is likely to reach in from ten to forty years.

The next requisite to a central and sufficient site is that the location must be dry and airy. Any low site, especially in river towns, will be damp, and among the enemies of books, moisture holds a foremost place.

Next, the site should afford light on all sides, and if necessary to place it near any thoroughfare, it should be set back so as to afford ample light and ventilation in front.

It need hardly be said that every library building should be fire-proof, after the many costly lessons we have had of the burning of public libraries at home and abroad. The material for the outside walls may be brick or stone, according to taste or relative cost. Brick is good enough, and if of the best quality, and treated with stone tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, is capable of sufficiently ornate effects, and is quite as durable as any granite or marble. No temptation of cheapness should ever be allowed to introduce wood in any part of the construction: walls, floors, and roof should be only of brick, stone, iron, or slate. A wooden roof is nothing but a tinder-box that invites the flames.

In general, two stories is a sufficient height for library buildings, except in those of the largest cla.s.s, and the upper floors may be amply lighted by sky-lights. The side-lights can hardly be too numerous: yet I have seen library buildings running back from a street fifty to seventy-five feet, without a single window in either of the side walls.

The result was to throw all the books on shelves into a gloomy shade for many hours of each day.

The interior construction should be so managed as to effect the finding and delivery of books to readers with the greatest possible economy of time and s.p.a.ce. No shelves should be placed higher than can be reached by hand without mounting upon any steps or ladders; _i. e._, seven to seven and a half feet. The system of shelving should all be constructed of iron or steel, instead of surrounding the books on three sides with combustible wood, as is done in most libraries. Shelves of oxidized metal will be found smooth enough to prevent any abrasion of bindings. Shelves should be easily adjustable to any height, to accommodate the various sizes of books.

In calculating shelf capacity, one and a half inches thickness a volume is a fair average, so that each hundred volumes would require about thirteen feet of linear shelf measurement. The s.p.a.ce between uprights, that is, the length of each shelf, should not exceed two and a half feet.

All s.p.a.ces between shelves should be 10 or 11 inches high, to accommodate large octavos indiscriminately with smaller sizes; and a base shelf for quartos and folios, at a proper height from the floor, will restrict the number of shelves to six in each tier.

In the arrangement of the cases or book-stacks, the most economical method is to place book-cases of double face, not less than three feet apart, approached by aisles on either side, so as to afford free pa.s.sage for two persons meeting or pa.s.sing one another. The cases may be about ten feet each in length. There should be electric lights between all cases, to be turned on only when books are sought. The cases should be set at right angles to the wall, two or three feet from it, with the light from abundant windows coming in between them. The width of shelves may be from 16 to 18 inches in these double cases, thus giving about eight to nine inches depth to each side. No part.i.tion is required between the two sides.

It should be stated that the light obtained from windows, when thrown more than twenty feet, among cases of books on shelves, becomes too feeble for effective use in finding books. This fact should be considered in advance, while plans of construction, lighting, and interior arrangement are being made. All experience has shown that too much light cannot be had in any public library.

Railings and stair-cases for the second or upper floors should be of perforated iron.

The reading-room should be distinct from the book delivery or charging-room, to secure quiet for readers at all hours, avoiding the pressure, hurry and noise of conversation inevitable in a lending library or department. In the reading-room should be shelved a liberal supply of books of reference, and bibliographies, open without tickets to the readers. Next the central desk there should be shelves for the deposit of books reserved day by day for the use of readers. The library chairs, of whatever pattern may be preferred, should always combine the two requisites of strength and lightness. The floor should be covered with linoleum, or some similar floor covering, to deaden sound. Woolen carpets, those perennial breeders of dust, are an abomination.

In a library reading-room of any considerable size, each reader should be provided with table or desk room, not flat but sloping at a moderate angle, and allowing about three feet of s.p.a.ce for each reader. These appliances for study need not be single pieces of furniture, but made in sections to accommodate from three to six readers at each. About thirty inches from the floor is a proper height.

For large dictionaries, atlases, or other bulky volumes, the adjustable revolving case, mounted on a pedestal, should be used.

For moving any large number of volumes about the library, book-trucks or barrows, with noiseless rubber wheels, are required.

Every library will need one or more catalogue cases to hold the alphabetical card catalogue. These are made with a maximum of skill by the Library Bureau, Boston.

The location of the issue-counter or desk is of cardinal importance. It should be located near the centre of the system of book-cases, or near the entrance to the stack, so as to minimize the time consumed in collecting the books wanted. It should also have a full supply of light, and this may be secured by a location directly in front of a large side window. Readers are impatient of delay, and the farther the books are from the issue-counter the longer they will have to wait for them.

Among modern designs for libraries, that of Dr. W. F. Poole, adapted for the Newberry Library, Chicago, is notable for dividing the library into many departments or separate rooms, the book shelves occupying one half the height of each, or 7 feet out of 15, the remaining s.p.a.ce being occupied by windows. This construction, of course, does not furnish as compact storage for books as the stack system. It is claimed to possess the advantage of extraordinarily good light, and of aiding the researches of readers. But it has the disadvantage of requiring readers to visit widely separated rooms to pursue studies involving several subjects, and of mounting in elevators to reach some departments. A system which brings the books to the reader, instead of the readers travelling after the books, would appear to be more practically useful to the public, with whom time is of cardinal importance.

In all libraries, there should be a receiving or packing room, where boxes and parcels of books are opened and books mended, collated, and prepared for the shelves. This room may well be in a dry and well lighted bas.e.m.e.nt. Two small cloak-rooms for wraps will be needed, one for each s.e.x. Two toilet rooms or lavatories should be provided. A room for the library directors or trustees, and one for the librarian, are essential in libraries of much extent. A janitor's room or sleeping quarters sometimes needs to be provided. A storage room for blanks, stationery, catalogues, etc., will be necessary in libraries of much extent. A periodical room is sometimes provided, distinct from the reading-room or the delivery department. In this case, if several hundred periodicals are taken, an attendant should be always present to serve them to readers, from the shelves or cases where they should be kept in alphabetical order. Without this, and a ticket system to keep track of what are in use, no one can readily find what is needed, nor ascertain whether it is in a reader's hands when sought for. System and the alphabet alone will solve all difficulties.

As to the s.p.a.ce required for readers in a periodical room, it may be a.s.sumed that about five hundred square feet will accommodate twenty-five readers, and the same proportion for a larger number at one time. A room twenty-five by forty would seat fifty readers, while one twenty-five by twenty would accommodate twenty-five readers, with proper s.p.a.ce for tables, &c. The files for newspapers are referred to in another chapter on periodicals.

In a library building, the heating and ventilation are of prime importance. Upon their proper regulation largely depends the health and consequently the efficiency of all employed, as well as the comfort of the reading public. There is no s.p.a.ce to enter upon specific descriptions, for which the many conflicting systems, with experience of their practical working, should be examined. Suffice it to say in general, that a temperature not far below nor above 70 degrees Fahrenheit should be aimed at; that the furnace, with its attendant nuisances of noise, dust, and odors, should be outside the library building--not under it; and that electric lighting alone should be used, gas being highly injurious to the welfare of books.

In calculating the s.p.a.ce required for books shelved as has been heretofore suggested, it may be approximately stated that every one thousand volumes will require at least eighty to one hundred square feet of floor measurement. Thus, a library of 10,000 volumes would occupy an area of nearly one thousand square feet. But it is necessary to provide also for the continual growth of the collection. To do this, experience shows that in any flourishing public library, s.p.a.ce should be reserved for three or four times the number of volumes in actual possession. If rooms are hired for the books, because of inability to build, the library should be so arranged as to leave each alternate shelf vacant for additions, or, in the more rapidly growing divisions, a still greater s.p.a.ce. This will permit accessions to be shelved with their related books, without the trouble of frequently moving and re-arranging large divisions of the library. This latter is a very laborious process, and should be resorted to only under compulsion. The preventive remedy, of making sure of s.p.a.ce in advance, by leaving a sufficiency of unoccupied shelves in every division of the library, is the true one.