5 § 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February,1910 
dismal and depressing 
to my mind than a lot 
of empty bookshelves. 
Have too many books 
for your cases rather 
than too few. In one 
library of my acquaint¬ 
ance the books have 
overflowed shelf, book- 
racks and tables, until 
now there are several 
piles of the larger vol¬ 
umes on the floor under 
the table, yet the ef¬ 
fect is not in the least 
objectionable. There 
arises at once the ques¬ 
tion, “But shall we not 
in our new house allow 
for a reasonable expan¬ 
sion of our library?” 
Personally, I would not. 
One can always have additional cases built to match the old 
work; let them come when they are actually needed. Just here 
is where the unit system of sec¬ 
tional bookcases comes to the fore 
with its unanswerable argument 
that your bookshelves may grow 
along with your library. Inci¬ 
dentally, the way in which these 
varied units may be built along 
walls, under window-sills, sur¬ 
rounding desk sections, cupboard 
units and drawers is positively 
amazing. 
The matter of doors comes to 
the front again under the next 
factor of protection. But there is 
a choice even here. Most of the 
bookcase glazed doors one sees 
are hinged to swing out. Occa¬ 
sionally one finds doors that slide, 
one outside of its neighbor. The 
first illustration at the bottom 
of this page shows built-in cases 
that could not have hinged doors 
on account of the adjacent seats, but the convenience of such 
an arrangement makes one wonder why the doors are not oftener 
built this way. The sec- 
tional bookcase door, 
sliding back over the top 
of the books and pre¬ 
vented from slamming 
by the natural cushion 
of air in the case, is an 
ingenious and conveni¬ 
ent protection. Curtains 
over shelves neither 
really protect the books 
nor have they any excuse 
for existence on the 
score of beauty. Ad¬ 
justable shelves will go 
far towards keeping the 
books in better condi¬ 
tion if the latter are 
grouped according to 
their height. The dis¬ 
tance between shelves 
may then be made very 
slightly larger than the height of the row, with a resulting pro¬ 
tection against dust. An ingenious improvement upon this idea 
is seen in the shelves in the Presi¬ 
dent’s office, illustrated below. A. 
scalloped leather strip has been 
fastened with brass tacks to hang 
down from each shelf, effectually 
keeping out dust without impeding 
the taking out of any volume. 
You may have built-in cases to 
match the woodwork, shelves sunk 
back into the walls, an antique 
secretary, a combination of unit 
sections, or portable cases to 
match your furniture woodwork 
and finish—according to your taste. 
And there is a great opportu¬ 
nity for an expression of your 
personal taste here — the choice 
and finish of wood, the design and 
grouping of the cases as a whole, 
the patterns of the doors, with 
square or diamond panes, the 
choice of hardware. In any of 
these your books may be properly cared for and made to reflect 
in their ranks your individuality. 
The combination of desk and flanking 
shelves suggests a real working li¬ 
brary 
The sectional bookcase’s unanswerable argument is that with 
it your shelf space may grow readily with the number of 
your volumes. Units for cupboards, drawers, desk and so 
forth, make possible a great variety of arrangement 
Making the bookcase fill the place of 
a low wall is economical plan¬ 
ning 
Sliding rather than hinged doors are necessary here and are very 
convenient on any case 
The President’s office in the White House also contains the leather- 
flap-protected adjustable shelves 
