LIBRARIES. 9 
amongst local architects. A site has been purchased for Reading 
Rooms in Stanley Road and the Surveyor has prepared plans for a 
suitable building which it is hoped will be ready for use altout the 
end of the present year. Negotiations for sites for two Reading 
Rooms in other parts of the City are in progress. 
The whole system of electric lighting in the Reference and Branch 
Libraries has been revised by a special Sub-Committee. There has 
been a thorough re-arrangement of the lights, and metal filament 
lamps have been generally substituted for the carbon filament lemps 
previously in use. The gas fittings have been removed from the 
Picton Reading Room and electric lamps substituted. The latter, 
however, have been connected to a separate main and can be con- 
fidently relied upon in case the are lights fail. The results of these 
changes are increased efficiency and economy. 
Towards the end of the year a Depot was established in the Central 
Buildings wherein are stored specially selected books for circulation 
through the Lending Libraries. The Branch Libraries have now 
become so numerous and supply localities so widely differing in 
requirements, that the policy of purchasing books for them had to 
be reconsidered. It was therefore decided to maintain a stock of 
books at each Library suitable for the locality and to organize a 
Central Depot from which each Library may borrow. The stock 
in the Depdt consists of Foreign Literature and books which are 
either too costly or not in sufficiently frequent demand to be placed 
in all the Branch Libraries. The Librarian in charge of the Depot 
arranges interchanges of books between the libraries as the demands 
of readers necessitate, and as his department has been placed in 
telephonic communication with them, this can be done with the 
utmost expedition. It is intended to keep in the Depot a manu- 
script catalogue of the contents of all the Branch Libraries in order 
' that the interchange of books may be facilitated. A catalogue of 
books in the Depdt is also being compiled and printed copies will 
be distributed to all the Branch Libraries. The latter will also be 
regularly supplied with lists of additions to the Depot. The use 
already made of this department has fully demonstrated its 
necessity and possibilities. 
