COUNTY BOROUGH OF DERBY. 



JhirtY'Seeond j^nnual 3^eport 



OF THE 



FREE LIBRARY & MUSEUM COMMITTEE. 



CHE Free Library and Museum Committee have much pleasure 

 in submitting to the Town Council their Thirty-Second 

 Annual Report. 



As far as the work of the Institution is concerned the year has 

 been a successful one. Books and their readers both show higher 

 totals than last year, as will be readily seen by the tables appended 

 to this report, and the special report prepared by the Librarian. 



Steady progress has also been made with the work in the 

 Museum. The Special Sub-Committee in charge of the re-arrange- 

 ment has continued its work, the result of which is to be seen in the 

 entire re-arrangement of a portion of the insects. As foreshadowed 

 in the last report, our collection of British Birds is now complete, and 

 the Committee have every reason to hope that by another year 

 they will be able to say the same of the Eoreign Birds, and also of 

 the Oological collection. 



The Newsrooms, both in the Central Institution and at the Arbore- 

 tum Branch, continue to be as largely visited as ever, and are some- 

 times inconveniently crowded. Two Ventilating Fans have been 

 placed in the Newsroom and o.ie in the Reference Reading Room, 

 with very beneficial results, and there is now little to complain 

 of with regard to the purity of the air. 



As has been reported to you from time to time during the year, 

 the condition of the building turned out to be much more serious 

 than was anticipated. In addition to the renewal of the foundations 



