COUNTY BOROUGH OF DERBY. 



Forty-Third Annual Report 



— OF TH E - 



PUBLIC LIBRARY, MUSEUM, 



— AND — 



ART GALLERY COMMITTEE. 



In presenting their Forty-third Annual Report your Committee 

 are satisfied that the Institution is fulfilling its educational and 

 recreative functions and enjoys the appreciation of the public. 



THE LIBRARY AND STAFF. 



The Statistical Tables show that the popularity of the Library 

 continues to increase, a small but pronounced rise in the issues being 

 observable in both Lending and Reference Departments, and it is 

 worth noting that in the Lending Department this rise is in spite of 

 a fall of nearly a thousand volumes issued in fiction. The Children's 

 Department is as popular as ever, the year's issues numbering 26,365 

 volumes, as against 22,434 last year. It may be seen, therefore, that 

 the tendency to read more informing literature on the one hand, and 

 the increasing use of the Juvenile section on the other, is still being 

 maintained. 



The Reading Rooms, both of the central Institution and of the 

 Rosehill branch, are used to their utmost capacity, and since the 

 outbreak of the war they have been continually occupied by streams 

 of eager readers. The contents of the tables at the central Institution 

 have been recently re-arranged and new indicators affixed for the 

 guidance of the public. 



In December last, in response to invitations issued by your Com- 

 mittee, eleven sets of competitive designs for two Branch Libraries 

 were submitted by local architects. The Committee placed the adjudi- 



