[PW] Origin of the term "stacks" (in the library)

[swguardian-wombat at yahoo.com]

This might be a clue. An 1896 newspaper article about the Government Printing 
Office gives a description of what the term "stacks" referred to back then. 

Waterloo Daily Courier, Waterloo, Iowa 
23 January 1896

For storage of the vast number of accumulated books and documents 78 
library "stacks" have been built, containing 3,340 bins, each of which will 
hold from 75 to 300 books, according to the size of tho volumes, 
giving room for more than 300,000 documents.

ALAN GREEN <green.200 at osu.edu> wrote: One of our professors would like to know, why do we call them "stacks" (i.e., the book stacks)?  Did libraries formerly stack books flat in piles on the shelves (or the floor, or on tables), before moving to the current vertical shelving system?

The "Stack" entry in OED provided no help for this question.  Please copy replies to my address, as I am not a list subscriber.

Thanks!

Alan Green
Music Librarian, Ohio State University
green.200 at osu.edu 

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