ABSTRACT
A common practice, especially among academic libraries, in occupying a new library building with ample shelving for future growth of the collections is to leave the top and bottom shelf of each stack section empty. The practice of leaving the middle two shelves in each stack section empty for future expansion cannot be recommended. Practical experience, verified by a series of experiments carried out by The Molesworth Institute, indicates that most browsing or other casual use of library collections involves material on those shelves that are at or near eye level of most users. The only adverse affect was that second Library did report a greater accumulation of miscellaneous trash being left on its empty shelves than did first Library and this required some greater time to clean up.
