librarian's Jleport 



TO THE (JOMMITTKE, FOR THE YEAR ENDING 

 SEI'TEMBER 20th, 19(»5. 



(4ENTLEMEN. 



Iaiii afraid I cannot ijroiuitse that my Report to yon on this 

 occasion will differ verj' much from its predecessors, for although 

 it is my pleasant duty to comment on a very successful year's work, 

 the matters with which I have to deal remain practically the same. 

 I follow mj' usual custom of summarising the most salient points 

 in the Statistical Tables. 



The removal of our financial troubles has enabled us to go back 

 to our usual rate in the purchase of new books and in the replacement 

 of those worn out. I hese two items amount to 1,393 books against 

 (SKI last year, and the stock in the Lending Library stands at 23,401 

 against 22,671. The percentage table affords interesting reading, 

 and those who have declared at random that our Library is principally 

 novels, will be sur])rised to find that light literature only shows a 

 percentage of 28*71 of the w^hole stock. Three books have been lost 

 and paid for, five have been destroyed through having been in infect- 

 ed houses, and two have been totally lost. The total issues are 10,000 

 more than last year, and the average daily issue, 537, is 38 more. In the 

 Reference Library, 335 books have been added, of which, 114 are 

 volumes of Patents, and the number of books in this Department is 

 13,()00 against 13,2(i5. Among other interesting items it nay be 

 noted that we have enrolled 1,094 new borrowers, that 1,155 overdue 

 books have had to be written for, and that 3,004 books have passed 

 through the binders' hands during the year, of which, 423 have been 

 rebound. I show in the subjoined table, the wards in the town from 

 which the last thousand of the new borrowers come, and the second 

 column shows the number per thousand which ought to be expected 



