GENERAL REPORT. 



The past year has been one of steady progress in all departments of our 

 library work. In our Reading Rooms there is a noticeable increase in the 

 number of magazines and reviews issued, and this departure must be taken 

 as an indication of the increasing desire to obtain information and scientific 

 knowledge in a brief and condensed form, and it must be viewed with 

 satisfaction, as the short magazine articles are taking the place of the 

 novel and serial story. The Branch Libraries and Reading Rooms are 

 doing a most excellent work, and some idea of the public appreciation of our 

 Branch Libraries may be gathered from the fact that last year these 

 libraries issued over a million volumes for home reading, whereas nine years 

 ago, when we had only two branch libraries, the number issued was only 

 324,957 volumes. 



It is a matter for sincere regret, that the Bill intended to be introduced 

 into Parliament, which, inter alia, provided for an increase of the 

 Library Rate from Id. to l|d. in the pound, for the extension of 

 our libraries, was wrecked by the adverse vote of the ratepayers, 

 and the Committee is therefore prevented from going forward with 

 their policy of establishing further branch libraries. The Committee cannot 

 believe that this vote was intended to defeat this good and popular object, 

 and, with the sanction of the Council, will, at an early date, bring their pro- 

 posals more directly before the ratepayers. Liverpool is the only important 

 city in the United Kingdom which is content with a rate of only Id. in 

 the pound for library purposes. With the income which this furnishes, it 

 is not possible to make any adequate provision of libraries or reading rooms ; 

 and libraries and reading rooms have, with the advance of education, ceased 

 to be luxuries, they are essential for the healthy intellectual life and 

 well-being of the community, and it will be little short of a scandal if 

 Liverpool is allowed to lag behind the other great centres of population 

 in the development of her library system. 



Our Reference Library is receiving increased attention, and the Com- 

 mittee are anxious to maintain its high reputation. Perhaps the extent 

 to which this Library is availed of is scarcely known. From early morning 

 to late at night it is filled with from 200 to 300 serious students — pro- 

 fessional and scientific men, schoolmasters, clergymen, writers for the daily 



