GENERAL REPORT. 



The exhaustive report of the Chief Librarian renders it 

 unnecessary to dwell further upon the statistical facts of the past 

 year beyond directing attention to the satisfactory growth which 

 these figures indicate, of the popular appreciation of our public 

 facilitates for reading and study. ^Ye have successfully introduced 

 open bookcases containing new and popular works, from which 

 readers can select books without going through the usual book- 

 order formula. These have been greatly appreciated, and have had 

 the good effect of supplanting to some extent the casual leading of 

 magazines. 



Very much of the success of our Free Libraries is due to tbe 

 interest which our officers take in facilitating the work of readers, 

 in indicating to them the best books in any particular line of study 

 or research, and in encouraging among our young readers the 

 selection of books of travel, of scientific research, or of standard 

 classics, in place of light literature or magazines. Reading is 

 largely a matter of babit and education ; perhaps the greatest 

 hindrance to solid reading and study is the habit of desultory reading, 

 which the prevailing fashion of " paragraph writing " does so much 

 to foster and encourage. If, says the young reader, I can get 

 my scientific facts summed up in a paragraph of two dozen lines, 

 why should I read a whole thesis ? little thinking that the paragraph 

 is no sooner read than forgotten, and what we want is not the 

 pleasant entertainment of the moment, but the accurate kuowledo-e 

 which will be our possession for all time. 



The Reading Rooms for Women and Boys have proved a great 

 success, and it is pleasing to find so many boys and girls making 

 use of these rooms during their holiday time. 



The new Toxteth Library is approaching completion, and promises 

 to he a model Library in its various arrangements, The Wavertree 



