More specifically, it's a barrister bookcase, because the style was popular in attorney's offices, back in the day.
Are there proper hinges, or, do the doors lift and retract via a pair of pins inserted in the upper corners of each door, and these ride in a rabbet, that is, a groove, milled in to the inside surface of the side walls of your cabinet? I have one like this. It's of solid wood, but those pins are wood. On older cabinets, they are often made of metal, like brass, and last much longer. On mine, the pins are basically the same kind of wooden plug that is used to join pieces together. They will eventually wear and break, over time.
If yours has wooden pins, has one of them snapped off flush with the frame of the door? It's a simple matter to drill that out and make a replacement from a piece of hardwood dowel.
Prost!
Brad
