is the same practical question which constantly arises with regard to the uses and the hours of the Library. The experience of the past twenty-three years has been simply tentative. The Trustees have gone from step to step in extending the freedom of the Library as fast as public demand required. If the presumed uses of the books were sufficient to authorize the Board to ask for additional appropriations from the City Government to meet the necessary expenses of administration, it has not failed to make such application. From the density of the surrounding population, the opening of the reading-room on Sunday, in Boylston street, has proved to be a moderate success, while in the Branches it has not been found to be either a necessity or a considerable convenience. It is just to say, however, that the success in the Central Library might have been more marked, had there been better accommodations for readers. With regard to the Bates Hall and its frequenters, the number of those who desire books for table consultation in the hall and of those who borrow books for home use is nearly equal. freedom for hall use which is given to non-residents occasions frequent applications to the Library shelves. For this class the Sunday convenience would not contribute to the use of the books. In watching the class who desire books, as well as the periods when they wish to take them, the Trustees will give early attention to any proper demonstration looking to a still further extension of Library privileges ; but as yet no such public demand is apparent. The question is one which will hereafter probably require consideration, and the suggestion at the present time will give the community opportunity to thoughtfully consider the possible results.

The

Upon the other points to which reference is made by the committee, the Trustees accept with pleasure the conclusion to which it arrived.

During the past year the convenience and safety of the building have been largely increased. The new tower con

structed at the south-west corner has been finished, furnished, and devoted to the purposes for which it was needed. Other accommodations are also required for the public as well as for some of the Library departments.

With a view, then, to the requirements of the immediate future, the Trustees desire to call the attention of the City Council to a prospective enlargement of the building. The open space in the rear of the present edifice cannot now be used for the purposes for which it was intended, as the recent erection of a large stable upon Van Rensselaer place will probably preclude a nearer approach to the line of our estate than is at present attained by the recent addition; but the room necessary for the Library purposes can be acquired from the property purchased by the city for this object in 1872, and joining the building on the east.

The insufficiency of the accommodations for the visitors to the reading-room and the waiting-hall of the popular Library, apparent fully five years since, has shown itself in a more marked degree during the past year. The readingroom, containing, in accordance with the condition of Mr. Bates' legacy, one hundred chairs, with the arrangements for the use of a large number of periodicals, is now quite too limited in extent for the purposes to which it is devoted. The waiting-room has long been a great evil to the institution

small, low studded, unventilated, insufficiently lighted, it is often inconveniently overcrowded. Its condition has deprived the lower Library of a large class of borrowers who would otherwise gladly use the books of that favorite collection. A hall, sufficiently large to allow separate access for the boys, with seats and tables conveniently arranged for the use of two or three hundred persons, would eventually increase circulation, and remove most of the present objections to the system of delivery.

It is obvious that any material alteration of the present structure should receive most careful consideration, so that

any addition should affect, as little as is practicable, its air and light. The plans for the purpose will be prepared during the present year, and laid before the Council for its approval previous to the annual appropriation for the coming year.

The accommodations, also, at the South Boston Branch are insufficient for the public and the Library. The lease of the premises does not expire until the first Saturday of 1878. It is hoped that on or before that date the city may be able to provide suitable rooms in some building of its own property.

A brief summary of the condition and uses of the institution, inclusive of its branches, will lead, it is hoped, to a consultation of the tables of the appendix for fuller and more minute information. The whole number of volumes now in its possession amounts to 276,922, an increase of 16,372 during the year. Of these 221,049 are contained in the Central Library, and 55,863 in the six Branches. The issues of books, during the 306 days of the year, have risen to the large aggregate of 758,417, being an increase over the previous year of 132,975. A portion of this increase is due to the opening of a new Branch in Dorchester, which in about three months circulated 16,017 vols. The whole number of persons who have made application to use the Library since 1867 now amounts to 90,782, of whom 14,599 were entered during the last year. The periodical reading-rooms were opened 359 days, and were during that period visited by 249,870 readers, who used 348,772 magazines. The number of books lost, during the year, was 85, or about one to every 9,000 of circulation.

It is gratifying also to state that the number of persons evincing such interest in the institution as to induce them to make donations of books or pamphlets to its shelves was larger than ever before; 1,091 friends having given 4,169 vols. and 15,889 pamphlets.

An analysis of the circulation of the popular department of the institution gives the following results: The 32,590 volumes of the Lower Hall found 272,834 readers, an increase of nearly 20,000 over the previous year, notwithstanding the issues of the six Branches, which, with an aggregate of 55,863 volumes, distributed to their visitors 404,846 books. South Boston still leads in the uses of its books, every volume of its collection having been loaned, on the average, seventeen times. The lowest proportional circulation is to be found at Brighton, but this naturally arises from the fact that the Library is larger, in proportion to the surrounding population, than in any of the other districts of the city. The reading of juveniles and fiction is more general in the districts than in the city proper, although the proportion of literature of these classes is larger in the Lower Hall than in any of the Branches. From the Lower Hall only 69 per cent. of the issues belonged to these classes, a smaller proportion than ever before; while in the Branches it amounted to about 80 per cent. This change in the percentage of use in the Lower Hall is due to the interest shown in a higher class of reading, in consequence of the publication of the class list of History, Biography and Travel, the distribution of which swelled the loans in these departments, from 16,856 in 1873-4, to 23,925 vols. in 1874-5.

During the past year the staff of the Library has undergone important and unexpected changes. By an unusual fatality it has lost three heads of departments, and by resignation another. By the death of Mr. Wm. A. Wheeler, the Assistant Superintendent, and chief of the Catalogue Department, the institution was deprived of an officer from whose skilled training in his specialties it had largely profited in the past, and had important expectations in the future. To the minute exactness of the lexicographer, and to the general knowledge of a scholar, his culture had added the va

rious information of a bibliographer, which his tastes and inclination had developed to a rare degree. After his decease, the keeper of the Bates Hall, Mr. Joseph Sykes, died, a gentleman whose courteous manners, and quiet following of his line of duty, had secured the kind regards of all those who sought his assistance in their various fields of inquiry and consultation. Subsequently Mr. J. Otis Williams, the special curator of the Tosti collection of engravings, and of the great pamphlet stores of the Library, also died; the term of his service having begun with the indexing of the Prince мss. in 1869.

Mr. Edward Capen, who had faithfully served the Library from its foundation, in various capacities, resigned his office, and accepted a similar position of trust in a neighboring city. These personal changes required to some extent a reorganization of the departments. Mr. James L. Whitney succeeded to the position of Assistant Superintendent, Mr. James M. Hubbard to that of principal assistant in the Catalogue Department, Mr. Henry Ware to the charge of the Bates Hall, Mr. Arthur M. Knapp to the care of the Barton and Prince Libraries, and the whole collection of periodicals and pamphlets, and Mr. José F. Carret to the oversight of the Patent Documents and the Engravings. It is believed that the accession of these educated gentlemen to the Library force will increase the direct usefulness of the Library to its great constituency. It is naturally found that in no place are general accomplishments, no less than special learning, so valuable and important as in a great collection of books to be used and consulted by such various classes of students who desire to go at once, and without loss of valuable time, to the books which they need.

By the death of Mr. Wheeler, the publication of the Ticknor catalogue, to the preparation of which he had devoted a