To the Chairman and Members of the Derby 
Pree Library and Museum €eommitiee. 
GFNTLEMEN, 
The time has come round for me to submit to you my Seventh Annual 
Report, and I do so with very great pleasure. 
The Lending Library now contains 16,958 books, against 16,160 last 
year, and the total issues are 134,763 against 133,594, while the daily average 
is 515 against 518. 843 new books have been added, and 589 volumes 
withdrawn as worn out have been replaced by new copies. Early in the 
year, the Book Committee went through the whole of the worn-out list from 
the stock book, 1e-ordering such books as they thought desirable, and declar- 
ing the numbers vacant where the books were out of date or without interest. 
Nineteen volumes have been lost and paid for, six totally lost, and five com- 
ing from infected houses have been destroyed. I can only repeat what I 
have said on previous occasions, that with very few exceptions, the books 
are carefully used, and considering the extent of tne circulation, there is very 
little cause for complaint. 
The Reference Library stock now includes 9,664 works, of which 342 
have been added during the past year, and it has not been found necessary 
to withdraw any from circulation. ‘lhe number added includes a large 
number of the volumes of Patent Specifications, and I would diaw attention 
to the largely increased use of this Department. The daily average issue in 
the Reference Library is precisely the same as last year, indeed the year’s 
work as a whole has been singularly like that of the preceding year. Great 
care has been exercised in the choice of the new books added, preference 
being given to those likely to be of service to students and to workmen 
employed in the various industries of the town. Both these classes use the 
Reference Library largely. As in previous years, the text books presented 
by the University Correspondence College are greatly in request, and the 
University of Cambridge lent some of the more valuable books used as text 
books for the University Extension Lectures. 
I think there is nothing else in the statistics to which special attention 
need be drawn. ‘The preparation and publication of two hook Catalogues, 
the cataloguing and labelling of the ‘“ Felix Joseph” collection of China, 
and the labelling of the fossils, have made this the busiest year for clerical 
