COUNTY BOROUGH OF DERBY 



Cit)entg=ntntl? Annual Report 



Free Library and Museum Committee, 



For the year ended September 29th, 1900. 

 -J- 



rPree Library and Museum Committee have pleasure in 

 laying before the Town Council their Twenty-ninth Annual 

 Report. 



They are glad to state that the Library and Museum are in a 

 prosperous condition. The present premises have been occupied for 

 twenty-one years, the building having been opened on June 28th, 

 1879. A few figures by way of comparison will show the progress 

 that has been made. In 1879 we had 9,662 books in the Lending 

 Library, and 2,002 in the Reference Department. The numbers now 

 are 21,414 and 13,010 respectively, and the total is 33,424, against 

 11,668. The Library as a whole is therefore nearly three times 

 the size, while the most valuable portion has been multiplied by 

 six, or thereabouts. In the twenty-one years more than three 

 millions of books have been issued for home reading, and about half 

 a million from the Reference Department have been consulted on the 

 premises. The total number of visitors to the Institution averages 

 not less than three-quarters of a million annually. The Committee 

 think that this is a good record for a single institution without any 

 branches. The branch Reading Room established at the Arboretum 

 in 1895 continues to prosper, and during the past year has been 



