14 

 LENDING LIBRARIES. 



It is not easy to measure the amount of valuable and useful work done 

 through the medium of the Lending Branches. The books taken away 

 for reading at home are enjoyed in many cases not by one person but 

 several, so that probably the issues may be entirely duplicated in order 

 to indicate the amount of reading done. The total volumes issued 

 during the year number 463,256, being an increase of nearly 40,000 

 over the issues of last year. There have been important increases in all 

 classes of books requiring attentive and thoughtful perusal. All the 

 Libraries contain a large number of volumes for circulation of excellent 

 music, which are drawn upon in a most gratifying way. How many 

 persons and homes are made all the happier and brighter by such simple 

 and comparatively inexpensive means, it is impossible to say. That 

 7,669 volumes of music should have been issued in one year shews that 

 the taste for tliis agreeable elevating art is no slight one, and it is felt 

 that much has been done by these Libraries since 1859, when the first 

 volumes were introduced, to foster and extend it. 



The large additions of books of a technical character have been made 

 known to many artizans through the special catalogue which was printed 

 and circulated in local workshops. The result is shewn in the important 

 demand which has been created for these books. 



Those who are cut otF from the happiness of sight are not overlooked 

 in our Libraries, for as early as 1857 books in Moon's type were placed 

 in our North and South Branches for the use of the blind, and now an 

 admirable collection has been formed in each of these Libraries, not only 

 in Moon's type, but Braille, American Point, and Roman : the value of 

 which requires no comment. The Committee would be glad that the 

 existence of these books in the Libraries should be made more generally 

 known. 



The North and South Branch Libraries are deficient in Reading 

 Rooms attached to them. The Committee view the want of such rooms 

 as crreatly interfering with the usefulness of the Libraries, and they look 

 forward to a very early period when these deficiencies will be remedied, 

 and that rooms will be provided not only for men, but also for women 

 and boys. 



