Maximizing the area did necessarily require making compromises. Firstly, it was decided that books were to be shelved according to height. This change was not as great as one might think.

In most modern collections, including this one, books are really shelved by computer, rather than by visual contiguity. This is in itself a form of arbitrary shelving, since it does not allow for the physical size of the books. It’s a necessary tradeoff, because of the gain, but if it is a tradeoff nonetheless. The concept of browsing has changed from scanning the physical books on shelves to scanning a computer-based classified listing. The traditional shelflist is thus relegated to the librarian’s workroom, to be used more as a tool for physically placing an item than for defining a relationship among similar materials.