To the Chairman and Members of the Derby Free 
Library and Museum Committee. 
GENTLEMEN, 
HAVE the honour and pleasure of laying before you my Tenth 
as Annual Report. The past year has been the busiest I have ever 
had in your service. The ordinary work, as the accompanying Tables 
show, is ever increasing. A new Department for Children has been 
organised and set to work. The whole of the scientific books have 
been newly catalogued, and the necessary arrangements have been 
made for opening a Branch Reading Room. In addition, a considerable 
amount of re-arrangement has been done in the Museum, and my work 
in connection with the Art Gallery increases rather than diminishes. 
My time has therefore been very fully employed. but, thanks to your 
ready co-operation and the loyal and willing help I receive from the 
whole of the staff, whose duties, like my own, are at times extremely 
heavy, the work has been done pleasantly enough, and I hope and 
believe to your satisfaction and that of the ratepayers. 
A few figures, by way of comparison, will say more as to the 
increase of the Library and its work than anything else, and these I 
give below. 
TOTAL BOOKS. TOTAL ISSUES. DAILY AVERAGE, 
November, 1885 . ... 20,970 ... (IET,S64.. . 438 
a TSQO as» 2A,Oe. 2.  TAOSOAG . <0 “HZ 
. 1895. Seer Ore 172,202, 3. BES 
The special figures belonging to this year’s work will be found in 
the accompanying Tables, which, I think, contain all information likely 
to be interesting, and do not present any special features in any of the 
results shown. New books have been steadily added, and all depart- 
ments of the Library kept well up to date, sufficient new books to give 
