Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Library [PAGE 8]

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ing to the second floor, are four large decorative maps by Mr. Barry Faulkner. Conveniently located on each side of the main entrance lobby on the first floor, is a study room for students using books especially reserved for class use; each of these rooms seats 250 persons and has shelves for about 5,000 volumes. On this floor, also, are reading rooms for Classics and for Education, Philosophy and Psychology; a lecture room seating 106; a room for lockers, and one for checking wraps; a room for the receipt and checking of periodicals and newspapers; and a room for the preparation of volumes, chiefly periodicals, for binding. The Main reading room is on the second floor, extending along the whole front of the building, 300 feet; the proportions of this room are dignified and impressive. At the tables are chairs for 516 students, and around the walls are book shelves for 16,000 volumes. The ample space enclosed by the counter in the center, opposite the entrance doors, provides convenient working room for the reference librarians. The woodwork is in fumed oak. In a central panel of each of the twenty-three large windows, is a reproduction of one of the old printer's marks, done in colors by Mr. J. Scott Williams. These printer's marks add very materially to the attractiveness of the room. The lighting is from over head, though a few tables can be equipped with table lamps. The Delivery room and Public card catalog room, immediately back of the Main reading room, is large enough to accommodate the card catalog for many years. For the present, there is room for cases in which are exhibited books and manuscripts of public interest. The Loan desk leads to the fifth of the ten floors of bookstacks. No mechanical carrier for books has been included in the equipment, but space has been provided for two, which will be installed when needed. Between the Delivery room and Order and Catalog departments is a Bibliography room in which are shelved most of the bibliographical, biographical and other reference books consulted most frequently by these two departments. When these two departments are closed, as at night, the Bibliography room can remain open for faculty and students.