Stack -Circulation Area in library building-library managenent

Stacks are the storage spaces for the various types of documents kept in a library. The types of documents generally found in library are: books and monographs; pamphlets and brochures; and periodicals and newspapers. Besides these, specialised libraries may have sizable collection of patents  and standards; maps and  drawings; records and cassettes;  microfilms and  microfiche, and various other types of non-book materials. Obviously storage and display  devices for these diverse  materials of various size, shape, format, and characteristics cannot be the same. Depending on the present and anticipated mix of the document collection, the number of storage units required for each type of documents has to be estimated. Normally a book shelf of standard 85  cm run, can  hold 25 books, or  15  bound  volumes of  periodicals. A standard library rack of 145 cm height, has six shelves for books or five shelves for bound volumes of periodicals. Recommended shelf depth is 25 cm. It should be kept in mind that the stack area, specially the books and periodicals stack area, has the fastest growth rate in a library and a miscalculation at the planning stage can lead to serious bottleneck at a future date. While calculating the space requirement, not only the dimension of the furniture, but the  gangway space has to be considered. -Gangway space  may be  calculated on the basis of minimum 1.30 meter distance between the center of two rows of double sided racks. This will leave a free passage way of 80 cm between two rows, which  is just adequate. However, in bigger libraries, for  less used materials, compact shelving  is recommended to save space. The racks for compact storage move on rails, and no space is left between the rows. But compact shelving is costly and affordable by really big libraries.  

Each library must workout its own formula for housing the collection. Some ways of doing include 6 volumes per linear foot or 10-15 volumes per sq.ft. (includes 25% free space).  Further 5% growth rate per year, 6% configuration loss and 25%. nonassibnable space may have to  be added. It is important to  check the norm and standard by oneself A case study of estimating space requirements of a special library presented in Appendex 2 has used the following formulae:

                                                           Books & reports                     500 per 3.75 sqm

                                                           Bound journals                       300 per 3.75 sqm

                                                           Current journals                     25 per 4.00 sqm

                                                           Standards, reprints, etc.        1000 per 3.75 sqm

                                                           Microforms  10000 per          3.00 sqm