476 



LIBRARY ECONOMY AND STATISTICS. 



books; 3. Classification of books; 4. Cata- 

 logues. 



1. Library -Buildings. The discussions of 

 the past ten years on the places where and the 

 manner in which books should be housed, hav- 

 ing in view their preservation for the longest 

 period, and at the same time their accessibility 

 for immediate use when wanted, have resulted 

 in some radical changes from the old ideas that 

 have so long obtained regarding library archi- 

 tecture. All are agreed that ample, commodi- 

 ous, well-lighted and well-ventiliated reading- 

 rooms should be provided for the convenience 

 of readers ; but all are not yet agreed as to the 

 best disposition of the books themselves. The 

 majority of librarians, however, favor the stack 

 system, by which the largest number of vol- 

 umes can be shelved in the least room and also 

 be easily accessible. The old style of archi- 

 tecture is illustrated by the halls of the Astor 

 Library, New York city, and Bates Hall, ot the 

 Boston Public Library. In these the books 

 are shelved on the walls and in alcoves pro- 

 jecting from the sides of stately halls, with 

 galleries towering to the height of two and 

 three stories above the main floor, arranged 

 for architectural effect, but with very great 

 loss of room and generally with but little light. 

 One of the best examples of the stack-room is 

 afforded in the addition to Gore Hall, Harvard 

 University, Cambridge, Mass., a building sev- 

 enty feet long by thirty wide, with a vertical 

 height of fifty feet, divided into six stories, 

 each seven feet high, by open iron gratings or 

 foot-plates. The shelving is supported on a 

 series of iron skeleton uprights, two feet wide 

 and three feet apart, extending the whole 

 height of the building. This area of 89,000 

 cubic feet accommodates 263,000 volumes, 

 an average of 10 to each running foot of 

 shelving space. A large number of the new 

 library-buildings erected throughout the coun- 

 try during the last few years provide for the 

 storing of their books by modifications of the 

 stack system. A good example of a small 

 library conveniently arranged for ready access 

 to a large number of volumes is found in the 

 Ottendorfer Branch of the New York Free 

 Public Library. All library-buildings should 

 be of fire-proof construction, and so located, if 

 possible, as to admit of extension when re- 

 quired. 



2. Selection of BooTcs. In the selection of 

 books for a library one of the most important 

 points to be considered is the character of the 

 demand that will be made upon it by the ma- 

 jority of its users. Books of reference the 

 books that answer questions will be about 

 the same, whatever the locality, their number 

 and variety depending upon the amount of 

 money to be expended. But the bulk of the 

 books should be selected with special view to 

 their usefulness to and their fitness for the im- 

 mediate constituency of the library. " It is 

 questionable," said Mr. J. Winter Jones, of the 

 British Museum, in his address before the In- 



ternational Congress in London, " whether the 

 selection of books for a library should be un- 

 dertaken by a committee. There is danger of 

 undue prominence being given to one faculty 

 to the sacrifice of others, or of some class or 

 classes being neglected or prohibited, from a 

 want of a due appreciation of their value or 

 utility. This risk is greater in small than in 

 large libraries. The safest, and therefore the 

 best, course is to be v'ery careful in the choice 

 of a librarian, and then to leave the selection 

 of books to him, subject, of course, to the con- 

 trol of the committee of management whenever 

 the exercise of that control may be deemed to 

 be advisable. 1 ' 



3. Classification. There are many different 

 systems of classification of books in use, and 

 their originators or users naturally favor each 

 the one with which he is most familiar. The 

 system to be adopted in establishing a new li- 

 brary or in making a change is a matter which 

 demands the most careful consideration by the 

 librarian. The decision will largely depend 

 upon the character of the library and its prob- 

 able line of growth. The librarian should 

 make himself acquainted with the systems in 

 successful use in the best libraries most nearly 

 like his own, and select that which seems best 

 adapted to his needs. A classification that 

 might be satisfactory for a free circulating li- 

 brary would not necessarily be so close as to 

 be suitable for a reference library or one in 

 which readers were allowed access to the books 

 on the shelves. Mr. Jones, of the British Mu- 

 seum, remarked on this point that " the books 

 in all libraries ought to be carefully classed on 

 the shelves, and the classification to be more 

 minute in proportion as the library increases 

 in extent." 



The question of location, or the assigning of 

 a shelf -mark or number to indicate the particu- 

 lar place a book occupies in the library, is 

 closely involved with that of classification, as 

 it is necessary to provide that, in making addi- 

 tions to the library, books belonging to the 

 several classes shall always be kept together. 

 The advocates of the relative-location system 

 claim that it allows for indefinite expansion, 

 and that under it the closest classification of 

 books by subject-matter can be made on the 

 shelves ; while in the fixed-location plan, when 

 a shelf is once filled, additional books on the 

 same subject must be assigned to a different 

 place. 



The most prominent schemes of classification 

 are those of Mr. C. A. Cutter, Librarian of the 

 Boston AthenfBum, of Prof. Melvil Dewey, 

 Librarian of Columbia College Library, and of 

 Mr. Jacob Schwartz, Librarian of the Appren- 

 tices' Library,, of New York city. 



4. Catalogues. The catalogue most useful to 

 the readers in any library is that which makes 

 known to them all its resources on any given 

 subject ; but this is the ideal catalogue that has 

 never yet been made. Approximately, how- 

 ever, very much can be done under the system 



