LIBRARIES. 11 
Lenpinc LisraARies. 
The Central Lending Library has been enlarged by adding to it 
a part of the room in which the Patent Specifications and Files of 
Newspapers are consulted. This alteration has been most successful, 
both as regards the convenience of the public and the health of the 
staff. The work of this Lending Library has been thoroughly 
re-organised, and the books carefully examined. Over 2,400 soiled 
and worn-out volumes have been withdrawn, 1,500 of which have 
been replaced by new copies. The whole Library has been 
re-classified on the Dewey system, and a new catalogue is being 
compiled. This work has been carried through under considerable 
difficulty. Except for the comparatively short period that the 
Library was closed for the structural alterations, the books have 
always been available for the public. Structural alterations have 
also been made at the Kensington Branch Library, and the building 
painted and cleaned. This is the oldest of our Branch Library 
buildings and the time had arrived to make improvements which 
would equip it to properly meet the demands the tables of statistics 
prove the public make upon it. 
The Rawdon Lending Library was formally opened by Councillor 
William Evans, J.P., in February, and the issue of nearly 134,000 
volumes in the succeeding eleven months proves that a library in 
the Anfield district was wanted. 
The work of weeding out the soiled and worn copies of books in 
the Branch Libraries has been continued and over 7,000 volumes 
have been withdrawn. This work will now be taken up 
systematically and the stocks in all the Branch Libraries be 
thoroughly overhauled in succession. During the past year the 
books in the Central Lending Library were dealt with; in the 
ensuing year the stocks of the Walton and Sefton Park Libraries 
will have to be prepared for the new buildings now in course of 
erection; and afterwards the older and larger collections in the 
Toxteth, Kensington, and Everton Branches will receive attention 
in turn. 
