arranged in wall-cases and in a double gallery, and there is shelf-room for about 35,000 volumes.
The staircase to the reference library winds around the entrance-hall, and admits to two rooms of the same area as those below. They are lit by a range of clerestory windows fitted with stained glass, a series of groined arches connecting the clerestory with the ceiling, which is 50 feet high. Opening out of the wing is a room 30 feet by 21, containing the Shakespeare collection, and between this and the private staircase are a series of strong-rooms for the more valuable books. The books are arranged in wall-cases, which extend around each side of the rooms, with a gallery above, and shelf accommodation is given for about 150,000 volumes. Already the stock is 140,000, and the question of more shelving has become pressing. The addition of a stackroom, if ground can be obtained adjoining the library, would give the necessary room. The library will have outgrown its present accommodation in less than twenty years from its reconstruction, and so forms a striking illustration of the necessity of obtaining in the first place a site large enough for reasonable growth.
The branch libraries at Birmingham are all constructed upon the same principle—that of building one large room, which is shelved upon one or more sides for books, and has newspaper stands and tables for readers in the centre. Attention has already been given to this mode of planning in Chap. I., and nothing further need be said here
