Excerpt from Thirty-Third Annual Report of the Trustees of the Public Library, 1885 Their report is a sensible and thoughtful document, and will be read with interest by all friends of the institution. Of their practical suggestions but few require any com ment on the part of the Trustees. The Art-room was originally set aside for the ladies' read ing-room, and devoted to that purpose. But after the various additions made to the art collection, so many visitors were attracted by it that it was found expedient to limit its occupation for women alone to the hours after 6 pm. - the time when ill-disposed persons might possibly intrude. It is not understood that any complaint has been made to those in charge of the room of any incivility to ladies or young women by daylight. With regard to the character of the fiction and juveniles, purchased of late years for the Lower Hall and Branches, it should be stated that an examination of each volume has been made by a competent person before purchase, and those of questionable usefulness rejected. The new cata logue of this class of books, now passing through the press, has been subjected to critical examination for the purpose of excluding any and all volumes whose tendencies were doubt ful or injurious. The public demand for this class of reading increases year by year, and one is not surprised to find that of the books published in the United States, as tabulated by the Publish ers' Weekly, out of a total of books issued in 1883 or a fraction over 25 per cent., were fiction and juve niles, which, in a total of in 1884, had increased to or a fraction over 31 per cent. The construction of a second card catalogue for the Lower Hall is, at the present time, beyond the financial ability of the institution, and the question of its form and expediency, as suggested by the committee, will probably arise under the new conditions of a separation of the Bates and Lower Hall libraries, after the completion of the new library edifice. 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.