Tlie.se Committees, which supervise the Sections into which the original 

 Trust has expanded, are elected by and are responsible to the general body ; 

 each reports yearly to that body the progress and the actual condition of each 

 Section. These reports are accompanied by detailed returns from the Librarian 

 and Directors of every Subdivision, and are subjoined to the Annual Report of 

 the general body of the Trustees, which is laid on the tables of both Houses of 

 Parliament, is printed, and thus gains extensive publicity. 



The Committee of the Library applied themselves to examine, revise, and 

 enlarge the supply of Periodicals, to ensure a more rapidly flowing and regular 

 current of those necessary works. 



Finding that the enterprise of booksellers, stimulated by the due appreciation 

 of a higher order of literature than was formerly introduced into the country, 

 enabled the Committee to procure in Melbourne many books in several branches 

 which attract a large portion of the ordinary readers, they bought them on 

 the spot, on reasonable terms. Much time intervening between the dates of 

 their being ordered and obtained from Europe was thus saved. They have 

 entered also on the consideration of a system by which readers may be conducted 

 more easily and more expeditiously to the volumes on the shelves. 



From the Schedules can be learned the progressive expenditure in building, 

 and in the acquisition of Books, Pictures, and Objects of Art. It will be seen 

 that at the enumeration of March 1880 the number of 



Books was (including Pamphlets) 108,000 



Readers during 1879 266,839 



Visitors to the Gallery and Museums 407,205 



Oil Paintings in Gallery ... 91 Casts of Statues 75 



Statues of Marble ... 9 Casts of Busts Ill 



Busts of Marble 17 



The number of Students in the Schools were 



Design 161 Chemistry, Metallurgy, and 



Painting 50 Mineralogy 27 



Engineering 23 Telegraphy 31 



Among the Schedules annexed will be seen a Synopsis of the subjects 

 under the heads into which the contents of the Library are subdivided, with 

 the number of volumes of each kind. In further explanation of this, an Index 

 of Subjects placed at the end of the Catalogue supplies the surnames of the 

 authors who have written on each branch of literature. On reference to the 

 latter the resources of the Library will be seen, and whether the work of which 

 the reader is in search be in the collection or not. If not, further research or 

 enquiry becomes unnecessary, while in the course of investigation some other 

 work which may serve the purpose of the reader may suggest itself. 



Plans showing the position of the book-cases in the principal apartments 

 and in the galleries, and the particular order of literature in each, are placed 

 at the end of each volume of this Catalogue. Similar plans of larger size are 

 hung up in the Reading Room. 



An inspection of these will facilitate access to the work desired. 



At an early period of the history of the Library a Catalogue, in manuscript, 



