New Library Building for the University of Pennsylvania.

There is now in process of erection at the University of Pennsylvania a library building which, when completed will be the finest and best equipped one attached to any college in this country. The money needed for the building is being raised from subscriptions by the alumni, and a large fund has already been collected. It is estimated that the library will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $180,000. The style of architecture is what is known as the French Gothic, designed and planned by a well-known Philadelphian architect, Mr. Frank Furness. The distance of the library from College Hall is so short that a covered way will probably connect the two buildings, and no inconvenience will be experienced in going to and for during rainy weather. The main entrance, situated within the college yard, affords the only public means of access to the library, the smallest door, facing on a public street, being intended only for the use of employees. The basement is of Nova Scotia red sandstone., the rest of the building being in brick, with terra cotta mouldings and a free use of copper in the stack and elsewhere. The book stack (only one-third of which is to be built at present), will be, when entire, 96 by 110 feet; the main building is 140 feet by 89, and the tower is 95 feet high. The utmost care has been shown in providing for the three essentials to a good library-first, the accommodation for the books themselves; second, the space and facilities afforded the librarian and his assistants, and third, the convenience and comfort of all who use the library. Mr. Justin Winsor, the librarian at Harvard, has helped the builders in meeting these requirements by many valuable suggestions which he has had cause to notice from the structure of our own library. Of course, the new library building is entirely fire-proof, and on one side there is a large green-house sort of extension which will contain alone 512,064 volumes. The capacity of the entire library will be about 750,000 volumes. The interior of the building is so subdivided that there will be a special room for three classes of readers-first a "conversation room," in which the noisier work of dealing out books can go on; second, a series of alcoves intended to hold the working library to which a professor can direct his pupils in graduate or undergraduate study, and third, a reading room open to the public, for special work.