In Board of Aldermen, November 18, 1861.

Laid on the table, and one thousand copies ordered to be printed.

Attest:

S. F. MCCLEARY, City Clerk.

CITY OF BOSTON.

PUBLIC LIBRARY, 15 November, 1861.

HIS HONOR, JOSEPH M. WIGHTMAN, Mayor of the City of Boston:

SIR: I have the honor to transmit to you, herewith, the Ninth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Public Library, prepared in obedience to the fourth section of the Ordinance of the 14th of October, 1852, providing for the establishment and regulation of the Public Library.

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

CHARLES C. JEWETT,

Secretary of the Board of Trustees.

NINTH ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

TRUSTEES OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

IN obedience to the fourth section of the Ordinance of the 14th of October, 1852, providing for the establishment and regulation of the Public Library, the Trustees ask leave to submit to the City Council their Ninth Annual

REPORT.

The ordinance directs that a committee shall be annually appointed by the Trustees, consisting of five citizens at large, with a member of the Board to act as chairman, who shall be invited to examine the library and make report of its condition. The members of the Committee for the present year are Alderman E. T. Wilson, Chairman, Edwin C. Bailey, Esq., Joshua D. Ball, Esq., Rev. Jacob M. Manning, Professor W. B. Rogers, and Stephen N. Stockwell, Esq. The report of the Examining Committee is herewith submitted, marked A, together with the report of the Superintendent of the Library, marked B.

To these documents little or nothing need be added, in order to give a just view of the condition of the Library and of the increase of its resources and efficiency during the past year. The simple facts that above sixteen thousand volumes have been received during the twelvemonth, nearly three fourths of them