College and Research Libraries


By LOUIS E. JALLADE 

Plans for Planning-Some Hints 
on Buildings 
Support for librarians~ from a practzczng 
architect~ in the task of securing buildings 
which will fulfil library functions. 

A LARGE BUILDING PROGRAM seems indi-cated for the period after the war. 
Governments, both federal and state, have 
established postwar commissions to help in 
the financing of plans. Many institutions, 
including some libraries, are contemplating 
additions. Accordingly, there would appear 
to be prospects for librarians to get a hear-
ing. If colleges are to undertake building, 
they might as well construct libraries as 
some of the projects they have in mind. 

An effort on the part of librarians to 
come out with their projects, therefore, is 
in order. Those who have been suffering 
for years with obsolete plants might well 
take their courage in their hands and ask 
for their he:ri tage. 

This article is an endeavor to put before 
librarians some selling ideas and to explain 
the resistance they are bound to meet when 
presenting their problems. It is fair to say 
that librarians as a group are among the 
world's wor1st salesmen. They, like scien-
tists, are so much occupied with their work 
and the service they are rende.ring to their 
communities or colleges that they have not 
the time to develop salesmanship. They are 
handicapped because their staffs are under-
manned and have a multiplicity of duties 
which keep their minds away from publicity 
channels. And, like all patient individuals, 
they sometimes are exploited. 

In their honesty of thought and purpose 

librarians have believed that if they were 
to come before the public or their boards of 
trustees with frank statements that they 
required new libraries, their words would 
be given proper weight. But not so. The 
listener always has a certain amount of 
inertia and generally he is not going to do 
much thinking about a library's needs. To 
put the idea across, the only way is to be 
prepared to sell it. To say to a lay group 
that a new library or a new addition is 
essential does not call to their minds any 
such picture as the librarian has and, in-
deed, it often is to speak a strange language. 
The hearer · might be convinced by a de-
tailed explanation, but those in authority 
to grant or allot money for a new building 
usually surround themselves with a defen-
sive wall and will not devote the time neces-
sary for the full presentation of the prob-
lem. They must have the facts predigested. 

The author recently met this condition 
in a college. The library was in an old 
building, spreading out in all sorts of nooks 
and corners. It was almost impossible for 
the staff to function efficiently. There was 
no convenient place to unpack the books and 
there was no space to repair them. The 
cataloging had to be done in a small alcove. 
This situation had existed for many years, 
under the very noses of the trustees. They 
looked and said : "There are the books on 
the shelves, there are the students drawing 
the books, the librarian is busy running 
around, the library is functioning-what 
more can be wan ted ?" 

In presenting the need for a new library 

64 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



to the trustees, the first step was to make 
a diagram of the existing library, showing 
the line of foot · circulation as compared 
with the foot circulation in an idealized 
building. Then came a survey of the col-
lege's need for book space over the next 
twenty-five years; then a study of the area 
occupied by the present library, showing 
how valuable classroom space was being 
used for books-in other words, that the 
books could be stored in a stack more eco-
nomically. There followed a comprehen-
sive budget of what it would cost to operate 
a new building, as compared with the exist-
ing library, as to labor and service. There 
was prepared also a summary of what other 
colleges were doing with their library pro-
grams. Finally, there were presented pho-: 
tographs and statements as to the defects 
in the existing structure, including the pos-
sibility of loss through fire and water and 
the general undignified position of the most 
important building on the campus, namely, 
the library. 

The report embodying all this, which 
must have brought blushes to the faces of 
some of the trustees, was very concise. It 
had the same effect on the trustees as a 
certified public accountant's financial state-
ment would have on a bank president. It 
was something they could feel and under-
stand. Furthermore, it was on a compara-
tive basis and they could weigh it. Some 
of the trustees said later, "We did not know 
that these conditions existed." They then 
raised the question as to how much the pro-
posed structure would cost to build and 
operate. It was not necessary to put them 
off until the next day or week; they were 
given the answer at once. Then they asked 
where the money was coming from and 
were told, in a polite way, that that was 
their problem-that they had been supplied 
with the facts to present to possible donors 
or to the money distributors and that that 
was as far as the librarian and his advisers 
ought to go. 

DECEMBERJ 1944 

If, without these facts, the trustees had 
been approached about a new building, their 
answer might well have been: "Do with 
what you have-it is good enough; we 
need money for the new chemistry building, 
and the library will have to wait." For 
the library the promise often has been "next 
time." All this does not mean that the 
librarian has to put himself where he can 
be misjudged. He does need to remember, 
however, that when he asks for something, 
particularly money, the questions always 
come back : "How do you know you need 
it? Why do you need it?" He must have 
a watertight answer. 

Now for a word about the preparation 
of this material. It takes experience, and 
hard work, and there must be data, figures 1 
and plans. The plans are -the simplest part 
to prepare but the most important. They 
must not be monumental nor approached 
from the architect's point of view but must 
be functional. They must start with the 
concept of books waiting on shelves for 
readers, and the building must be designed 
around the circulation of books and the 
convenience of readers. By circulation is 
meant the use of the books and all the 
physical movements that go with it. 

Where libraries have been built as purely 
architectural problems, they have been un-
successful. To inject a personal note, I 
spent several years of my youth as a li-
brarian in such a building. I knew the 
functions of a library but I was unedu-
cated as to the planning of one, and so I 
could not find the reason why, for instance, 
the books dried out and, again, why at the 
end of the day we wer:e all so tired. Later 
on, as I studied planning and became an 
architect, I found, for one thing, that we 
were taking many unnecessary steps and 
carrying loads uneconomically, because the 
relations among the departments had not 
been well conceived. 

When a designer, inexperienced in li-
brary functions, proposes to place the vari-

65 



ous departments of a building mainly with 
reference to a decorative scheme, the li-
brarian is at a disadvantage. He cannot 
contradict the archi teet on architectural 
points. But he should say "Away with your 
architectural features; let's plan a library." 
That is the attitude the manufacturer would 
take in planning a manufacturing plant. 

Also, where a building is planned too 
small in the first place, it will prove a 
working failure. The effects may be that 
no wings can be added, the reading rooms 
cannot be enlarged, and the stack capacity 
cannot be increased. That brings up the 
question: what are you going to do when 
your completed library calls for $soo,ooo 
and you have an allowance of only 
$I5o,ooo? 

This problem presented itself at Skid-
more College. The suggestion came of 
building a complete structure for the al-
lotted $1 so,ooo. Such a building would 
have contained everything needed but would 
have been so small that no part could have 
been enlarged. When reading rooms and 
offices are in their proper places it is not 
possible to blow them up to double size. 
The solution was to make the over-all plans 
for a complete $soo,ooo building to be 
erected in the future but to put up imme-
diately only a stack and to leave out the 
top tier of that so that its space could be 

used for a reading room. When in time a 
reading room is provided on the first floor 
and new wings are added to the original 
building, the temporary reading room on the . 
top floor can be converted into book space. 

It has worked perfectly. True, the stack 
may be considered the most prosaic part of 
the building-the one that would have the 
least appeal to possible donors. There is 
no architectural glory about it. Necessarily, 
there were left out the parts which would 
contain the main lobby, the big reading 
room, and the architectural fa<;ade. These 
are all for future donors to think of. As 
has been indicated, it may soon be com-
paratively easy to get hearings on the needs 
of our libraries. Librarians may have a 
good chance to secure the buildings they 
have been thinking about for a long time. 
But they have a great responsibility. These 
building~ will be finished and crystallized 
without possibility of change for the next 
fifty years. If they are not well thought 
out and designed, they will be failures. 

So, librarians must plan intelligently: 
first, the campaigns to present their prob-
lems; then, the actual buildings. They 
must know their needs and must set these 
up in such a form as to be understood 
quickly and clearly. They must be ready 
with all tpe answers if the most is to be 
made of the present opportunity. 

A.C.R.L. Nom~nating Committee, I945'"46 
Benjamin E. Powell, librarian, University of Missouri, Columbia, chairman 
William H . Carlson, associate librarian, University of Washington, Seattle 
Mabel L. Conat, reference librarian, Public Library, Detroit 
Hazel A. Johnson, librarian, Palmer Library, Connecticut College, New London 
John Van Male, .librarian, Madison Memorial Library, Madison College, Harrisonburg, 

Va. 

66 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES