Angus Snead Macdonald was an American architect and businessman; from 1915 to 1952 the president of Snead and Company. This company manufactured the cast iron book stacks found in libraries all over the world in the beginning of the 20th century including the Washington DC Public Library and Harvard

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

's Widener Library

Widener Library

The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, commonly known as Widener Library, is the primary building of the library system of Harvard University. Located on the south side of Harvard Yard directly across from Memorial Church, Widener serves as the centerpiece of the 15.6 million-volume Harvard...

. After World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 Angus Snead Macdonald would lead Snead and Company to revolutionize and standardize library book stacks.

Innovations in library shelving

With the success of the public library movement of the mid 19th century came the rapid expansion of library construction in the United States. Angus Snead Macdonald took advantage of this expansion to revolutionize a number of library features. In 1915 Snead standardized the length of a book shelf to three feet in order to reduce cost and create interchangeable parts

Interchangeable parts

Interchangeable parts are parts that are, for practical purposes, identical. They are made to specifications that ensure that they are so nearly identical that they will fit into any device of the same type. One such part can freely replace another, without any custom fitting...

. The company also standardized the stack range spacing to four feet six inches. In 1930 the company developed a standardized lighting system that reflected light evenly to all parts of the stacks. In 1950, when developing for the Midwest Inter-Library Center, Snead and Company developed the first compact shelving units. These developments kept pace with Snead's ideal to provide libraries that "stressed flexibility, economy, informational comfort, and a reliance on artificial illumination and ventilation."

The most important influences that Angus Snead Macdonald has had on libraries have been his architectural designs advocating open stacks in the 1930s, and his company’s modular architecture in the 1950s. The Snead Company's production of public and academic libraries in the beginning of the 20th century provided the framework for open stack libraries. The company's focus on providing book stacks that could also be modified to accommodate card catalogues or reading spaces helped the expanding use of public libraries following World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The concept of modular libraries not only signaled the financial demise

Demise

Demise, in its original meaning, is an Anglo-Norman legal term for a transfer of an estate, especially by lease...

 of Snead and Company, but also the birth of the modern library form. Composed of nine by nine by eight foot sections or "modules", this concept, combined with the production of light-weight, adjustable shelving, revolutionized library planning. Angus Snead Macdonald and the company he headed were integral

Integral

Integration is an important concept in mathematics and, together with its inverse, differentiation, is one of the two main operations in calculus...

in the move of the American library system from one of closed, structural stacks, to open stacks that emphasize adjustability which are still in use today.

Further reading

• Baumann, Charles (1972) The Influence of Angus Snead Macdonald and the Snead Bookstack on Library Architecture. 307 pp. Metuchen NJ: Scarecrow Press ISBN 0810803909 (based on the author's 1969 dissertation)
• Ellsworth, Ralph E. “Library architecture and buildings”, in: The Library Quarterly, Vol. 25, no. 1 (Jan 1955), pp. 66–75

External links

• Litigation between Angus Snead Macdonald Corporation and Virginia Metal Products Corporation