It was supposed at the time that the additional space gained by the erection of the reading-room and its accessories would have sufficed the library until the end of the century, but the estimate proved fallacious. The need was met by the introduction of the sliding press, elsewhere described, which has solved the problem for the present, except as regards newspapers. It does not appear how these are to be provided for without some extension of the buildings, room for which has been happily provided by the acquisition of the surrounding houses and gardens.
No important example of library architecture, meanwhile, has been given at the Museum of late years except the White Wing (1880–88), which includes the newspaper reading-room and its annexes, extensive additions to the manuscript department, part of the Oriental Library, and the entire department of prints and drawings. The students' room and the exhibition room of the latter department are on a magnificent scale. The Oriental room is remarkable as the first instance of a room specially constructed to receive the sliding press. No grated ceiling being available as in the new library, stout iron bars have been stretched across, from which the presses depend. These have been made a foot too high, thus becoming unduly heavy when quite full, although not unmanageable. Eight feet appears to be the most suitable height for presses of this description. No step has yet been taken to occupy the ground recently purchased, whose disposition remains a problem for next
