COUNTY BOROUGH OF DERBY. 



Forty-second Annual Report 



— OF THE — 



PUBLIC LIBRARY, MUSEUM, 



— AND — 



ART GALLERY COMMITTEE. 



Your Committee have mucli pleasure in presenting their Forty- 

 Second Annual Report, and believe that the Institution under their 

 charge continues to maintain a high position in the educational and 

 recreative service of the Borough. 



Before proceeding to deal with the work of the Institution, they 

 would express their sense of the deep loss they have suffered, in common 

 with other Committees of the Corporation, in the death on May 18th, 

 last, of Alderman Sir Edwin T. Ann. For ten years Sir Edwin was 

 their Chairman, and for twenty-four years a member of this Committee, 

 His wise and heljjful leadership, great generosity, and exceptional 

 business capacity have been of incalculable value to the Institution. 

 Mr. Alderman R. B. Chambers, J.P., who has served on the Committee 

 for the jjast ten years, succeeded to the Chairmanship thus rendered 

 vacant. Mr. T. H. Thorpe, F.R.I.B.A., has recently been elected a 

 member. 



The Statistical Tables presented by the Librarian indicate that the 

 popularity of the Library shows no sign of diminution. On the con- 

 trary, there is again a steady increase in the number of books issued, 

 the total for the year in the Lending Department being 164,761, an 

 increase on the number for the previous year of 4,650, or an average 

 daily increase of about 16. It is gratifying to note that of this increase 

 the major part is in the more serious subjects, and the rest in the 

 Juvenile section (about 3,000). There is an actual decrease of some 

 800 in the fiction issues. Of course fiction reading is not in itself to 



