GENERAL REPORT. 



Our record for the past year is one of growth and activity in every 

 direction ; and both in the work done, and in its quality, we have made 

 gratifying progress. 



The commodious new Library in Everton is doing excellent service in 

 that populous district, and the addition of Reading Rooms for women 

 and boys has fully justified this new departure. A large new Reading 

 Room has been added to the Kensington Library. A new Library aud 

 Reading Room has been opened at Walton, and a Lending Library at 

 Sefton Park : while plans have been passed and estimates are now being- 

 obtained for a new South Library in Windsor Street. Some pressure 

 has been put upon the Committee to establish further libraries and 

 reading rooms. So far the policy of the Committee has been to place 

 them only in great centres of population, and although, where funds 

 permit, it might be desirable to sub-divide some of the larger districts, 

 it is hardly possible to provide libraries and reading rooms in every 

 ward without a serious increase in the Library rate, which the Committee 

 are anxious to avoid. There has been a large increase in the demand 

 for periodicals, due no doubt in great measure to the popular and 

 entertaining character of their contents and the excellence of their 

 illustrations. 



The Free Lectures have continued to increase in popularity : the 

 average attendance at the Picton Lecture Hall being 1,187. A 

 beginning has been made in the outer districts, where twenty-eight 

 lectures have been delivered to an average attendance of 226. 



The substitution of electric lighting for gas in the Picton Lecture 

 Hall, and an improved system of ventilation, have greatly added to the 

 comfort of the audiences which assemble in this building. 



The increasing numbers of visitors to our Museums is the best 

 testimony that they are not losing in their attractiveness, and it is believed 

 that the endeavours being made to introduce a thoroughly scientific 



