Читать книгу How to plan a library building for library work онлайн

20 страница из 72

The librarian should constantly bear in mind first cost, and cost of care as well as of administration. There may be a choice between equally strong materials and methods of construction. There may be choice as to use of walls, floors, windows, partitions, lights, heaters. In all these points affecting construction his watchfulness should be constant and his practical advice should have weight. He must warn also against unnecessary heaviness and rigidity, and any methods which would hamper changes or needlessly outlast the probable life of the building. Massiveness is not now essential to strength, and in a library building is a detriment.

ssss1

Here naturally the librarian must have pre-eminence. While the architect may well correct inexperience in construction, and may chasten poor taste in ornament, he and the building committee ought to defer to the librarian on all questions of administration, and only oppose or override him where he is clearly unripe, “faddy” or wrong. Certainly, in planning, the architect should try patiently to meet all needs of storage or service as presented by competent authority. Here is the core of the problem: by the test of usefulness this particular building is to be judged a success or a failure.