Editing Carnegie library (section)

==Self-service stacks==
[[File:Carnegie Library Pittsburgh SSide branch early days.jpg|thumb|left|One of the first open shelf libraries: Pittsburgh's South Side branch, about the time it opened in 1910 and had a massive front desk]]

[[File:SouthSide Library front desk.jpg|thumb|left|Original service desk at South Side branch in 1999. Originally designed to be imposing, it was replaced in 2011 by a side desk using original wood.]]

The first five Carnegie libraries followed a closed stacks policy, the method of operation common to libraries at that time. Patrons requested a book from a library staffer, who would fetch the book from closed stacks off limits to the public, and bring it to a delivery desk.

To reduce operating costs, Carnegie created a revolutionary open-shelf or self-service policy, beginning with the Pittsburgh neighborhood branches that opened after the main branch. This streamlined process allowed patrons to have open access to shelves. Carnegie's architects designed the Pittsburgh neighborhood branches so that one librarian could oversee each entire operation.

[[Library theft|Theft of books]] and other items was a major concern. This concern resulted in the placement of the library's circulation desk—which replaced the delivery desk used in traditional closed stacks libraries—just inside the front door. Bigger and more daunting than those used in modern libraries, these desks spanned almost the width of the lobby and acted as a physical and psychological barrier between the front entrance and the book room.

The first of these "open stack" branches was in Lawrenceville, the sixth Carnegie library to open in America. The next was in the West End branch, the eighth Carnegie library in the US. Patricia Lowry describes

<blockquote>located just beyond the lobby, the circulation desk—no longer a delivery desk—took center stage in Lawrenceville, flanked by turnstiles that admitted readers to the open stacks one at a time, under the librarian's watchful eye. To thwart thievery, the stacks were arranged in a radial pattern. On each side of the lobby were a general reading room and, for the first time in a library anywhere, a room for children.... The reading rooms were separated by walls that became glass partitions above waist level—the better to see you with, my dear.<ref name="old.post-gazette.com"/></blockquote>

Walter E. Langsam, an architectural historian and teacher at the [[University of Cincinnati]], wrote "The Carnegie libraries were important because they had open stacks which encouraged people to browse .... People could choose for themselves what books they wanted to read."<ref>[http://www.cincypost.com/news/1999/carn101199.html Al Andry, "New Life for Historic Libraries"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930201650/http://www.cincypost.com/news/1999/carn101199.html |date=September 30, 2007 }}, ''The Cincinnati Post'', October 11, 1999</ref> This open stacks policy was later adopted by the libraries that previously had operated with closed stacks.