monographs and galleries of engravings will be found wanting ; while 

 no provincial library has so extensive and valuable a local collection 

 of maps, drawings, engravings, books, and pamphlets illustrating, 

 in our case, Liverpool and its immediate neighbourhood. This collection 

 has a county reputation, and as it was begun in the first year of the 

 library's existence, this library has the honour of being the pioneer in 

 a work which is now considered of paramount importance by all librarians. 



The success which attended the distribution among workshops of the 

 hand-list of technical books has so favourably impressed the Committee 

 that they have given sanction to the publication of a printed list of the 

 important collection of architectural works in the library, for the posses- 

 sion of which so much is due to the taste and judgment of the late 

 Sir James Picton. 



Probably, the Library's collection of music will next be taken in hand, 

 and similarly other subjects, in order to bring prominently before the 

 citizens of Liverpool the advantages they enjoy in the institution, the 

 contents of which they are not so well acquainted with as no doubt they 

 themselves desire. 



A comparison of the following statistical tables with those in last 

 year's report shows a marked increase in the total work of the library, 

 notwithstanding the Picton Reading Room was closed for 24 days for the 

 purpose of painting and cleaning. 



The almost trebled issue of specifications of patents is the strongest 

 and best evidence of the need there was for giving better facilities for con- 

 sulting them, and for the construction of the new and commodious rooms 

 in which they are now stored. 



The year's work in this library and its several branches gives the 

 following totals, viz. : — ^Books issued, 1,197,991 ; magazines and reviews, 

 656,222 ; newspaper readers, 428,220 ; attendances at lectures, 59,904. 

 This shows an increase in books of 97,875 volumes ; in magazines, of 

 111,879 ; in newspaper readers, of 98,426 ; and in attendance at the 

 lectures, of 11,293. 



