Within-Library Solutions to Book Space Problems

faster than the building planners had expected. We never seem to learn from past experience that our collections are indeed doubling in size faster than we would expect. Before additional space can be made available, librarians have had to make do and many have become quite adept at making book space out of nothing. Whether one looks within or without the library building for solutions to space problems, usually higher cost and greater inconvenience will be encountered unless additional space is provided as a part of the existing structure. Internal solutions can at best be considered only temporary and the over-all long-range cost will probably be greater by postponing construction. The principal advantages gained by increasing book capacity within the existing building are the relative speed and ease with which it can be accom-plished and the proximity of the materials. Some avenues of relief via in-house practices will be set forth in this paper, all of which have been attempted in some library at some time, but they should be considered only stop-gap measures. The only permanent solution to the book space problem as long as libraries are buildings where books are housed and as long as book collections continue to grow, is con-struction of additional space. To develop a base from which to begin research, the writer dis-tributed a questionnaire to 200 libraries requesting information about current book space needs and specific solutions attempted. The cooper-ation of the librarians queried was most satisfying44 percent com-pleted and returned the forms, The over-all response seemed to indi-cate that the matter is a serious one for many libraries and solutions are being sought