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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: way of keeping libraries entirely free from damp is to circulate our
enemy in the shape of hot water through pipes laid under the floor.
The facilities now offered for heating such pipes from the outside
are so great, the expense comparatively so small, and the direct gain
in the expulsion of damp so decided, that where it can be accomplished
without much trouble it is well worth the doing.
At the same time no system of heating should be allowed to supersede
the open grate, which supplies a ventilation to the room as useful
to the health of the books as to the health of the occupier. A coal fire
is objectionable on many grounds. It is dangerous, dirty and dusty.
On the other hand an asbestos fire, where the lumps are judiciously laid,
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