lg PE a 
County Borough of Derbp. 
ee 
TWENTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT 
OF THE 
Free Library and Museum Committee, 
FOR THE YEAR ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 1896. 
Se 
HE Free Library and Museum Committee have very much pleasure 
in presenting to the Council their Twenty-fifth Annual Report. 
The Institution was never in a more flourishing condition than at 
present, nor more appreciated by the ratepayers. The issues of books are 
considerably in advance of last year’s, and although fewer new books have 
been added, the Library is well up to date in all important particulars. 
The total number of books now in the Library is 28,858. This is 315 less 
than last year, but over 1,200 books have been withdrawn as worn out 
and obsolete, a great number of which are not worth replacing. 
Those interested in the minuter details of the work done are referred to 
the tables which accompany this Report, and to the Librarian’s com- 
ments upon them. 
The Children’s Library, which had just been started at the time of 
the last Report, has had a very successful year, and there are over 700 
borrowers between the ages of 8 and 14 who are being supplied with 
suitable literature. These young folks took out upwards of 21,000 books 
during the year, and the success which has attended this department has 
fully justified its establishment. 
The Committee are now able to report also on a year’s work at the 
Arboretum Branch Reading Room. The number of visitors has been 
carefully recorded during six months of the year, and the attendance 
in those six months has reached 54,135. Averaging this for the year, the 
readers would number 107,257, or considerably more than the population 
of the Borough. So far, the experiment is an entire success, and the 
