ABSTRACT

The interior layout and furnishing of the library can be affected by decisions to depart from the traditional separation of public library stock by function, form, age group, and so on. In the early 1940s, Detroit Public Libraries devised a Reader Interest Classification broad classification for part of its stock to serve the browser more helpfully. This, and other approaches to stock provision and arrangement, described in this chapter, has the potential to influence the furnishing, guiding and layout of the public library. Most libraries that use stock categorization use it for part of their non-fiction stock, the rest remaining in classified order. When discussing the organization of the library interior, it is important to draw attention to the disquiet that has been expressed over the way such space is organized because of the effect it has on people's attitudes: enclosed 'living room' space versus the open-plan 'supermarket'.