The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-19
A CHANGE In LIBRARIES.
The Tendency Is to Give Patrons Ac-
cess to the Shelves.
Springfield Republican.


The Holyoke Library, which provides for
the housing of $1,000 books in the stack
rooms, will have room for but 1900 books
of reference in the general room. This
will be a serious handicap when the "open
shelf" plan is introduced, and the OPEN
shelf idea is bound to prevail. AS to its
educational value there can be no question.
Most readers can make little out of cata-
logues, but Al they can be led to a whole
bookcase crammed with interesting-looking
books on the very subject that has caught
their attention, they are in the way to be-
come readers at once. 1t used to be sup
posed by timid librarians that the average
reader could not be trusted among the
books, but in the libraries where the plan
has been tried the loss from theft has been
very small, and is much more than made
the community.
So Ii may be said that no ordinary pub
lie library of to-day should contemplate a
system of construction which makes 1t diff
cult for the public to circulate freely among
the books, which is the undeniable defect
of the stack" 1t may doubtless be used
to a certain extent. for the compact hous-
ing of rarely used books in overcrowded
libraries, but the main idea should be to
put the mass of the books where they can
be seen and handled easily by patrons,
without requiring larger force of library
assistants than necessary. This large free
dom is so new thing in library admins
tration that the details have not yet been
fully worked out. In very large libraries
1t is probable that the ideal of the future
will be subdivision into smaller libraries
after the Poole system" as exemplified
in the Newberry library in Chicago. which
provides for the collection of a number of
affiliated libraries of convenient size under
the same roof.
In the case of public library in small
city such division would be needless and
wasteful, while the stack system repre-
sents the old regime of red-tape carried to
beautiful and scientific perfection. The
public library of an ordinary city is not
and should not be- a costly collection of
rare books and manuscripts, which could
not be replaced, and to guard which with
unceasing vigilance is the main duty Of the
librarian. 1t is primarily popular and edu-
cational in its character 1t is made up
of good books, but not of curios, and the
business of the librarian is to get these
books read as widely as possible This
new ideal has made a complete revolution
in the nature of the demands made upon
the architect. The present call is for as
much floor space as possible, for a rea-
sonably compact shelving of books, for a
close shelf classification, for such arrange
ment of shelves and Offices as will make II
possible for a small force of attendants
to keep an oversight over the whole, and,
above all, for an arrangement by which
a large number Of people can quietly move
about among the books without interfering
with each other and find comfortable
places to read without having to cross the
library. In the Holyoke building the read
ers are at one end, and the books as far
away as possible: the newer. better and
democratic idea is to bring the readers
and the books together. 1t involves no
criticism of the architectural quality of
Mr.. Cloughs plans to say that the change
In library administration now going on is
so sweeping in its effects that no library
| building should be put up now without a
careful estimate of the demands of the
future. Within ten years every building
which relies mainly on the stackroom will
| be out of date.