LIUKAKlliS. 



LIBRARY DEPARTMENT. 



Chief Libbabian's Repobt. 



Fifty yours hare now passed away since the Liverpool Public 

 Library was founded on the 18th of October, 1852. Those who 

 remember its beginning in the building formerly known as the 

 Union Newsroom, in Duke Street, and the modest stock of books 

 available for readers, will need no comparisons to make them under- 

 stand the growth and development of the institution. Then the 

 number of books in the Reference Library at the end of the first 

 year was 13,456. On its jubilee birthday they had increased to 

 125.000, and 9o,0U0 in the several branch libraries, making a total 

 of 218,000 volumes. The issue of volumes during the first year was 

 111,72-'!. Last year the volumes issued in the Reference Library, 

 William Drown Street, numbered 003,571; and if to these Ave add 

 the volumes lent for home reading from our various lending branches 

 and those issued in their reading rooms, we have a grand total of 

 1,717,607 volumes, apart from an enormous number of periodicals 

 and newspapers read, estimated at 1,478,866. If, further, we include 

 the 70,250 persons who attended the 110 lectures delivered in 

 various centres of the city, some idea may be formed of the work of 

 the Libraries during the past year. During the half century since 

 the foundation of the Library, upwards of 51 million volumes have 

 been more or less read, besides magazines, reviews and periodicals. of 

 all kinds, the number of which cannot be given with accuracy, but 

 which cannot be less than two-thirds of the total of books. The 

 amount of mental profit and enjoyment obtained by the community 

 during this period is not easy to measure ; but so great a circulation 

 of books such as are available from the Libraries must have had a 

 beneficial influence. 



The scientific and art works have in particular helped, it is known, 

 many an earnest student onward to success in life. The books pro- 

 vided for our boy and girl readers have been selected with the 



