A bay is a basic unit of

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

shelving. Bays are bookcases about wide, arranged together in rows. In modern practice, books are shelved from the top shelf to the bottom shelf in each bay, but in historic libraries where the shelves in a bay are not adjustable, it is common for the lower shelves to be spaced to accommodate taller books, with each book having a designated location. Rows consist of a number of bays, either single-sided or double-sided, connected to each other. The standard length of a row is five to six bays, but it is not uncommon to find rows seven bays wide or even wider. In some countries, a row is referred to as a 'stack' or a 'range'.

References

{{furniture-stub Furniture