A bookcase filled with books

A bookcase is an article of furniture, forming a shelved receptacle, usually perpendicular or horizontal, for the storage of books. Download high resolution version (672x1024, 161 KB)A bookcase, photo taken by me File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Download high resolution version (672x1024, 161 KB)A bookcase, photo taken by me File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Look up book in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Furniture is the collective term for the movable objects which support the human body (seating furniture and beds), provide storage, and hold objects on horizontal surfaces above the ground. ... Look up book in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

History of the bookcase

When books were written by hand, in manuscript, and were not produced in great quantities, they were kept in small coffers which owners (usually the wealthy or clergy) carried with them on their journeys. As manuscript volumes accumulated in the religious houses or in regal palaces, they were stored upon shelves or in cupboards, and it is from these cupboards that the bookcase of today directly descends. At a somewhat later date the doors were discarded, and the evolution of the bookcase made one step forward. Even then, however, the volumes were not arranged in the modern fashion. They were either placed in piles upon their sides, or if upright, were ranged with their backs to the wall and their edges outwards. The band of leather, vellum or parchment which closed the book was often used for the inscription of the title, which was thus on the fore-edge instead of on the spine. A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... A cupboard is a type of cabinet, often made of wood, used indoors to store household objects such as food and crockery. ... Modern leather-working tools Leather is a material created through the tanning of hides, pelts and skins of animals, primarily cows. ... Vellum (from the Latin for wool or pelt) is a sort of parchment, a material for the pages of a book or codex, characterized by its thin, smooth, durable properties. ... German parchmenter, 1568 Parchment is a material for the pages of a book or codex, made from fine calf skin, sheep skin or goat skin. ...

It was not until the invention of printing had greatly reduced the cost of books, thus allowing many more people direct access to owning books, that it became the practice to write the title on the spine and shelve books with the spine outwards. Early bookcases were usually of oak, which is still deemed to be the most appropriate wood for a stately library. This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Species See List of Quercus species The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of several hundred species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus, and some related genera, notably Cyclobalanopsis and Lithocarpus. ... A modern-style library in Chambéry In the traditional sense of the word, a library is a collection of books and periodicals. ...

Oldest bookcases

The oldest bookcases in England are those in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, which were placed in position in the last year or two of the 16th century; in that library are the earliest extant examples of shelved galleries over the flat wall-cases. Long ranges of book-shelves are necessarily somewhat severe in appearance, and many attempts have been made by means of carved cornices and pilasters to give them a more riant appearance--attempts which were never so successful as in the hands of the great English cabinetmakers of the second half of the 18th century. Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the British Isles Languages None official English de facto Capital None official London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001... Entrance to the Library, with the coats-of-arms of several Oxford colleges The Bodleian Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in England is second in size only to the British Library. ... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Cabinet making is the practice of utilizing many woodworking skills to create cabinets, shelving and furniture. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ...

Designers and manufacturers

Both Chippendale and Sheraton made or designed great numbers of bookcases, mostly glazed with little lozenges encased in fretwork frames often of great charm and elegance. The alluring grace of some of Sheraton's satinwood bookcases has very rarely indeed been equalled. The French cabinetmakers of the same period were also highly successful with small ornamental cases. Mahogany, rosewood satinwood and even choicer exotic timbers were used; they were often inlaid with marquetry and mounted with chased and gilded bronze. Dwarf bookcases were frequently finished with a slab of choice marble at the top. Thomas Chippendale, the elder (June 5, 1718 - November 1779) was a furniture designer and maker from Otley, West Yorkshire. ... sheraton is a late 18th century neoclassical English furniture style, in vogue ca 1785 - 1800, that was named afterwards (by 19th century collectors and dealers) to credit furniture designer Thomas Sheraton, whose books of engraved designs capture this style. ... A pullover with a lozenge pattern A lozenge is a parallelogram which usually has two corners pointing up and down that are farther apart than the corners pointing sideways. ... Fretwork is an interlaced decorative design that is either carved in low relief on a solid background, or cut out with a fretsaw, jigsaw or scrollsaw. ... Satinwood is a tropical wood from the tree species Chloroxylon swietenia. ... The name mahogany was first used for wood of Swietenia mahagoni, later also for the wood of the closely related Swietenia macrophylla. ... Rosewood refers to a number of richly hued timbers, brownish with darker veining. ... Marquetry is the craft of forming a decorative panel of veneers composed of shaped sections of wood (sometimes including bone or ivory, turtle-shell (conventionally called tortoiseshell), mother-of-pearl or fine metals) and applying it to a structural carcass. ...

Library shelving

In the great public libraries of the 20th century the bookcases are often of iron, as in the British Museum where the shelves are covered with cowhide, or steel, as in the Library of Congress at Washington, D.C., or of slate, as in the Fitzwilliam Library at Cambridge. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... General Name, Symbol, Number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 8, 4, d Appearance lustrous metallic with a grayish tinge Atomic mass 55. ... The main entrance to the British Museum. ... The old steel cable of a colliery winding tower Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon being the primary alloying material. ... The Great Hall interior. ... This article is the current U.S. Collaboration of the Week. ... Slate Slate is a fine-grained, homogeneous, metamorphic rock which was derived from an original sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low grade regional metamorphism. ... Map of the Cambridgeshire area (1904) The city of Cambridge is an old English university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire. ...

Systems of arrangement

Parallel arrangement of bookshelves.

There are three stationary systems of arranging bookcases: Flat against the wall; in stacks or ranges parallel to each other with merely enough space between to allow of the passage of a librarian; or in bays or alcoves where cases jut out into the room at right angles to the wall-cases. The stack system is suitable only for public libraries where economy of space is essential; the bay system is not only handsome but utilizes the space to great advantage. The library of the City of London at the Guildhall is a peculiarly effective example of the bay arrangement. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2304x1728, 1495 KB) Summary A stack of bookshelves at the Health Sciences Library, University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada). ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2304x1728, 1495 KB) Summary A stack of bookshelves at the Health Sciences Library, University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada). ... Coat of arms The City of London is a small area in Greater London. ... The Guildhall The Guildhall complex in c. ...

For libraries where space is extremely tight there is yet another system, usually called mobile aisle shelving or high density storage. In such systems rows of bookcases are mounted on wheels and packed tightly together with only one or more aisles between them. It is possible then to visit only two bookcase sides at a time, all the others being pressed close together. A gearing mechanisim allows users move the bookcases and open the aisle in the desired location. Because of the danger of tripping on the floor mounted rails or being squashed between bookcases these systems may have electronic sensors and/or recessed track, or are reserved for closed stacks where access is restricted.

Literature on bookcases

The construction and arrangement of bookcases was learnedly discussed in the light of experience by W. E. Gladstone in the Nineteenth Century for March 1890.

The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski also discusses the shelving of books in some detail.

See also Sympson the Joiner and the early glazed bookcases made for Samuel Pepys. Sympson the Joiner (fl. ... Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys, FRS (23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament. ...

External links

• The Bookcase Information Site.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.