Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/275

A New Method of Arranging a Lending Library. 1 'T'^HE Lending Departments of Free Libraries are as a rule -* arranged on either the "Stack" or the "Wall" system. That is, the book-cases are at right angles to the serving counter, or against the walls. The stack system is by far the most economicaliin regard to space, and is superior to the other arrangement in that the books are all close at hand, a most important particular. The general adoption of the stack system has incidentally accentuated a belief, which some of us hold, that the work of a Free Lending Library is in a great measure mechanical. The use of indicators is a further proof of this. Readers now consult the indicator, and apply by number for a book which they need not name. The assistant supplies the book asked for, and the transaction is over. The reader makes his own selection, and all he requires from the staff is quick and accurate service. There has been a good deal of fine language used, and many lofty sentiments uttered on the relation of the Librarian to his readers ; but it seems difficult to see what influence the Librarian's assistants (for the Librarian rarely attends the Lending Library himself) can exert on a public which does not ask for their opinion, but demands a book very much as it does a railway ticket. The indicator has done much to bring this about, and I have frequently observed that the visitors to a Library who most admire the indicator are those who do not use it. The regub.r reader has long ago discovered that the indi- cator throws the work of finding out what is in upon the reader, instead of, as formerly, upon the assistant. I am not grumbling at indicators, and I see no probability of a return to the old confidential relations between Librarian and reader, which pro- bably more concerned the weather and other people's affairs than the choice of books. 1 Communicated to the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Library Association, Aberdeen, September, 1893. 20