The form of shelving which is growing in favor is the arrangement of floor cases in large rooms with space between the tops of the bookcases and the ceiling for circulation of air and the diffusion of light.

Modern library plans provide accommodations for readers near the books they want to use whatever system of shelving is adopted.

Single shelves should not be more than three feet long, on account of the tendency to sag.  Ten inches between shelves, and a depth of eight inches, are good dimensions for ordinary cases.  Shelves should be made movable and easily adjustable.  Many devices are now in the market for this purpose, several of which are good.”

Don’t cut up your library with partitions unless you are sure they are absolutely necessary.  Leave everything as open as possible.  A light rail will keep intruders out of a private corner, and yet will not shut out light, or prevent circulation of air, or take away from the feeling of openness and breadth the library room ought to have.

For interior finish use few horizontal moldings; they make traps for dust.  Use such shades at the windows as will permit adjustment for letting in light at top or bottom, or both.  The less ornamentation in the furniture the better.  A simple pine or white-wood table is more dignified and easier kept clean than a cheaply carved one of oak.  But get solid, honestly-made, simple furniture of oak or similar wood, if funds permit.  Arm-chairs are not often desirable.  They take up much room, are heavy to move, and are not easy to get in and out of at a table.  In many cases simple stools on a single iron standard, without a revolving top, fastened to the floor, are more desirable than chairs.  The loafer doesn’t like them; very few serious students object to them.

A stack room for small libraries is not advisable.  Don’t crowd your cases close together unless it is absolutely necessary.

An excellent form of wooden case is one seven feet high, with shelves three feet long and seven and a half inches wide, supported on iron pegs.  The pegs fit into a series of holes bored one inch apart in the sides of the case, thus making the shelves adjustable.  These pegs can be bought in the market in several shapes.  The shelves have slots cut in the under side at the ends to hold the projecting ends of the pegs, thus giving no obstructions to the free movement of the books.  With some forms of pegs the slots are not needed.  The uprights are made of inch and a half stuff, or even inch and an eighth.  The shelves are inch stuff, finished to seven-eighths of an inch.  The backs are half inch stuff, tongued and grooved and put in horizontally.  This case-unit (3’ x 7’ x 8”) may be doubled or trebled, making cases six and nine feet long; or it may be made double-faced.  If double-faced, and nine feet long, it will hold about a thousand books of ordinary size when full.  It is often well to build several of your cases short and with a single front—­wall cases—­as they are when in this form more easily adjusted to the growing needs of the library.