4 GENERAL REPORT. 



students, who, by the use of our libraries, have produced works which 

 have taken high place in contemporary literature. The working 

 man who rushes in during his dinner hour to consult a technical 

 book bearing on his trade, the schoolboy who finds here the 

 material to win the scholarship which is the first rung on the ladder 

 of achievement which he is anxious to attain, the pressman who 

 seeks the information which to-morrow he gives out to the world, the 

 clergyman in the preparation of his weekly discourse, and the school- 

 master in his classroom, are all equally indebted to the free library. 

 Xor must I omit the many who find pleasure and recreation in the 

 latest fiction, book of travels, or biography : not a few of whom thus 

 obtain the habit of reading which carries them forward to the higher- 

 realms of literature, and all of whom are the better for the hours 

 they spend over books, for all reading must lie broadening and 

 enlightening, and tend to make men and women less parochial and 

 more and more citizens of the world. "We have to appeal to a 

 broad view of library work as a witness to its value, and in this aspect 

 those most familiar with it are not only satisfied with what it has 

 done, but look forward to the future with sanguine expectations. 



The opening of the new South Library, and the gift of a Library 

 for West Derby by Mr. Carnegie, are the leading events in our 

 records for the past year. 



In the Museum we have been mainly occupied with preparatory 

 work for the re -arrangement of the galleries, in which we hope to 

 make good progress during the coming year. 



The Art Gallery has been enriched by several gifts and by 

 purchases from the Autumn Exhibition. The Autumn Exhibition 

 brought together all the best works of the year, and was quite equal 

 to any of its predecessors. 



WILLIAM B. FORAVOOD, 



Chairman. 



