be condemned, healthy amusenient being a legitimate function of 

 public libraries, but it is a subject for congratulation that the Library 

 is being used to a greater extent for the study of literature of a more 

 informing and instructive character. 



Towards the end of the past year the ventilation of the Newsroom 

 was thoroughly overhauled, and though the results have not escaped 

 criticism, there is no doubt the air is sweeter and more healthy, and 

 the work thoroughly justified. The rearrangement and relighting 

 of the stands and tables have also given better opportunities for circu- 

 lation, supervision, and inci'eased accommodation. 



The Branch Reading Room is in a good state of repair. A few 

 papers have been added during the year, and it is doing quiet and much 

 appreciated work, its limitations being such only as are inevitable to 

 its circumscribed space. The recent widening of Rosehill street has 

 involved some rearrangement in the Caretaker's accommodation, but 

 has not affected the public service. 



Table III shows that a large number of volumes of Patent Specifi- 

 cations have been returned to H.M. Patent Office, a step which has 

 been taken somewhat reluctantly, and after very careful deliberation 

 on the part of your Committee. The limits of our available sjjace had 

 long been reached, great congestion impeded the working of the Library, 

 and it was felt that to return the earlier volumes, keeping the recent 

 issues and the abridgements — which are now classified and very full — 

 was the best solution practicable, and one for which there is good 

 precedent from much larger towns than ours. Specifications are still 

 received weekly, and are immediately available for consultation, and 

 these will be retained until complete classified abridgements covering 

 them are issued. 



The outstanding feature of the Librai'y year is the munificent offer 

 by Mr. Andrew Carnegie of £10,000 towards the building of two Brancli 

 Libraries. The question of the extension of the Institutions' activities 

 to the remoter districts of the Borough by the establishment of Branches 

 has long engaged the deliberations of your Committee, but hitherto 

 the expense has placed effectual barriers to action. This very generous 

 gift removes these disabilities, and the Committee are now engaged 

 with the preliminaries to the erection of the buildings sanctioned. 

 One is to be raised on the newly acquired Recreation Ground in the 

 Alvaston District, where it will doubtless be greatly appreciated by 

 the rapidly increasing population of that remoter portion of the 



