CHIEF LIBRARIAN’S REPORT. 
I respectfully submit a report of the work of the Libraries and 
Reading Rooms, and Lectures Sub-Committees, during the past 
year. 
A comparison of the statistics in the appended tables with those 
for the preceding year will show a decrease which, fortunately, is 
more apparent than real. The Picton Reading Room was closed for 
one month for painting and decoration, while the Patent 
Specification Room, the Central Lending Library, and _ the 
Kensington Branch Library, were also closed for one month for 
structural alterations, &c. Every effort was made to carry on 
business during the alterations, but it was quite impossible to meet 
the ordinary demand. While the Picton Reading Room was closed 
the Reference Library work was transferred to the Brown Reading 
Room, and only the newspapers left available for the frequenters of 
that room. By this arrangement the inconvenience caused by the 
closing of the Picton Reading Room was considerably minimised, 
but the ordinary issues in the Brown Reading Room and the Hornby 
Library were entirely suspended, and those in the Reference 
Library greatly diminished. That there has been no reduction in 
the work of the various departments of the Reference Library is 
shown by the fact that while the actual daily issue in 1909 was 
1,289 volumes, that in 1910 was 1,324 volumes. 
I have re-arranged the tables of statistics which it is customary 
to include in the Annual Report, and in the case of the Reference 
Library separated the figures showing the actual issue from the 
approximate estimates, while in the case of the Lending Libraries 
I have included actual issues only and excluded the approximate 
estimates. Owing to the increased facilities given to the public 
to consult books statistics are failing to adequately show the great 
extent of the work done in the Reference Library and Branch 
Library Reading Rooms, particulary the former. For instance, 
