66 feet by 20, with accommodation for eighty readers. On the left is a large room, 69 feet by 35, which is divided by a glazed screen into a reference reading-room and a ladies' reading-room and two smaller rooms for students. The lending library is at the back of the building, opposite the entrance. It is 43 feet by 20, and has a storeroom adjoining nearly 2000 feet in area. The shelving capacity of the library is about 80,000 volumes. The upper floors are used for art and sculpture galleries and museum, the dimensions of the rooms being: art gallery, 56 feet by 35; sculpture gallery, 45 by 20; natural history museum, in two rooms, 66 by 20, and 62 by 16; and an industrial art museum, 69 by 35.
The Bootle Public Library and Museum stands upon a corner site adjoining the Town Hall, and has the advantage of light upon three of its sides and a portion of the fourth.
The newspaper reading-room occupies the front of the building, and is 43 feet by 28 feet. It has reading stands for thirteen papers, and also seats fortytwo persons. The lending library is in the centre of the building, and is 32 feet square; and the magazine-room and reference library, 64 feet by 26, occupy the back portion of the site. The upper floor is occupied by the museum and art gallery and lecture-hall, which are approached by a staircase facing the lending library. Fig. 68 gives the ground plan of the building, and shows the general arrangement of the rooms. It will be noticed that good supervision over the reference library and the reading-room is obtained from the lending library.
