Library stack

One of Widener's ten stack tiers during construction. Next-higher tier is visible because floor panels, bolted to stacks framework, are not yet installed.

In library science and architecture, a stack or bookstack (often called the stacks) is "a narrow-aisled system of free-standing iron uprights, extending uninterruptedly from the foundations to the top floor, adapted to bearing adjustable shelves and supporting the entire weight of the floors, roof, shelving, and books"^[3]‍—‌the shelving "row on row, tier on tier, with only enough vacant space to give access to books."^[1] The external walls of the building providing protection but no significant structural support.

The first modern stack was built as an 1877 addition to Harvard University's Gore Hall.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b Library planning, bookstacks and shelving, with contributions from the architects' and librarians' points of view. Snead & Company Iron Works. 1915. pp. 11, 152–8.
^ Lane, William Coolidge (May 1915). "The Widener Memorial Library of Harvard College". The Library Journal. 40 (5): 325.
^ ^a ^b Fleming, Donald (1986), "Eliot's New Broom", Glimpses of Harvard Past, Harvard University Press, p. 73

[snead-1] Library planning, bookstacks and shelving, with contributions from the architects' and librarians' points of view. Snead & Company Iron Works. 1915. pp. 11, 152–8.

[lane-2] Lane, William Coolidge (May 1915). "The Widener Memorial Library of Harvard College". The Library Journal. 40 (5): 325.

[glimpses-3] Fleming, Donald (1986), "Eliot's New Broom", Glimpses of Harvard Past, Harvard University Press, p. 73

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