Excerpt from Annual Report of the Springfield Public Library, Located in the Warder Library Building: For the Year Ending May 1st, 1896 The net increase, it will be seen, including donations and periodicals bound, is only 218 volumes. This is not a good showing for a Library so well situated and with such accessible advantages for larger development. At this rate of increase, the circulation will necessarily be limited; the extension of free reading by branch library stations will be indefinitely postponed, and the Library itself will remain in the rear, while other similar institutions in the State, less favorably known, are pushing forward in the line of progress. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.