Page:Library Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furniture.djvu/309

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THE PRATT INSTITUTE
285

49 by 53 feet in area, and five stacks in height. The entrance is on the longest side, and the large hall gives access to the delivery room of the lending department, a children's reading-room and library, librarian's office, and newspaper and periodical room. In Fig. 126 will be seen the disposition of the rooms upon the ground floor. The librarian's office is 26 by 14 feet, and is lilted with speakingtubes and telephones to all parts of the building. Facing the entrance is the children's reading-room and library, 25 by 45 feet in area, furnished with miniature chairs and tables suitable for the varying heights of the occupants. The general readingroom is 66 by 24 feet, well lit by windows on three sides, and containing stands and racks for over two hundred newspapers and periodicals. A corresponding room, of the same area, on the left is the delivery room for home reading, and occupies the whole western end of the main building, with the stack-room adjoining it. Reference to Fig. 126 will show the arrangement. The borrower enters at the north door from the hall and finds the card catalogue on his left, and at the nearer end of the counter the desk for returns, to which 17 feet is devoted. The curving counter extends across the room, and is 51 feet in length, being the full width of the stack-room. At the south end of the room is a space 16 feet by 24, railed off for the registration of borrowers, filing of applications, &c. At either end of the counter a gate leads to the stack-room, and behind the counter, and at its centre, there is an electric book