Illustration by Joseph Kennedy.

Chapter 5: Halfway Point No (Fire) Escape

Prior to 1968, Rand Hall contained a single staircase located at the center of the building. That year the first floor of Rand Hall was renovated and the second floor was repartitioned for the Center for Research in Education. With only one mode of egress, the building did not comply with the fire safety regulations of New York State that required two exits at either end of a floor. An emergency stair tower was added to the eastern edge of the building and a three foot wide unobstructed corridor from one side of the building to the other. In another 50 years, the stair tower would be removed in favor of an interior staircase with the design of the new addition. 

Fire safety is an important feature in libraries as books are highly flammable, which is why libraries are categorized as class A-3 occupancies in the Building Code. There is an anecdote about the Gordon Bundschaft designed Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscripts Library at Yale University which claims that the central glass volume where the books are stored responds to the possibility of fire by creating a vacuum within the space to save the books and asphyxiate anybody unlucky enough to find themselves inside at that time . The rumor is only partially erroneous, as the building pumps a mixture of Halon and Inergen gases into the rooms containing the rare books to suppress fire instead of using water which would damage the books. While not deadly, it reflects the high value placed on the physical artifact of the book. 

Although the building is referred to as a library, it is in many ways more of an archive. The building’s spatial hierarchy inverts the typical spatial organization of a library by placing the reading room underground and the books above grade. The muted lighting diffused by the marble façade is intended to protect the manuscripts from the damaging effects of direct sunlight rather than provide an ideal atmosphere for reading. The Beinecke Library prioritizes the preservation of its books to the accessibility by its patrons in many ways similar to the academic libraries of the 19th century when all books were generally scarce or rare due to the capacity of printing technology and distribution.

As original copies of text, these rare manuscripts have a quality that could not be replicated in their digital format. Because of their value, access to old books and original historic documents are highly regulated in order to prevent the wear and potential damage caused through human contact. For example, the historic plans for Rand Hall used to create the drawings of the building on the facing pages are contained in the Cornell University Kroch Rare and Manuscripts Library where they can be viewed only by advanced appointment and for a short amount of time inside a closed room. The scanned digitization of these drawings and many historic documents like them has not only allowed a greater number of individuals to access their contents from elsewhere, but has preserved the longevity of the objects themselves.

As a means to overcome the constraints of using fragile historical documents for research, the Cornell University Library began a partnership with Amazon in 2006 to provide print-on-demand paperback books of its rare and out of print materials available for order. According to the library, many scholars had requested a printed copy in addition to the digital version of the books available online. Whether this is due to the preferences of older academics more comfortable conducting their research using a print medium, or the signs of a developing trend, libraries may well have to expand their collections to include printed content originally generated from the internet.

This is the fifth part of a series of small essays that recount the history and present of Rand Hall at Cornell University. The first part can be found in the inaugural issue of Ed, "The Architecture of Architecture," available for purchase here. The second part can be found here, the third part here, and the fourth part here.