Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-07-02
FREE LIBRARY TRUSTEES MEETING.

The Board of Trustees of the City Free
Library held their regular monthly meeting
last evening. 1t was ordered that the Library
should be closed from Saturday night, July
81, until the Saturday morning following, for
the purpose of the annual cleaning of the
carpets and shelves. No time will run against
books out Of the Library during the days of
closing and therefore no fines will accrue for
not returning books during these days. The
annual report of the Librarian, Miss Han
cock, was received and accepted, which is as
follows:
To the Board of Directors of Sacramento
Free Library: [ herewith present my first
annual report as Librarian of Sacramento
Free Library for the year ending June 80,
1880. There has been steady increase in
the patronage of the Library, both of books
drawn and readers, till toward the last of
May, when the total number of books issued
per month decreased about 200. Since then
there has been a decrease each month, but no
more than we had reason to expect az the adj
vent Of the heated term and short evenings. The
Library was opened to the public ON the 18th
day of June. 1879, and has been open since
that time 3S1 days. The whole number of
books issued during that time was 81, 7Si. OF
these 80, 9lS were works of fiction and juve-
lille books; history, i,272; biography, IN
travels, 303 general literature, 1,52i:
poetry and drama, 6i0; theology, l69
science aud ant, 1,090. The average number
Of books issued per day was So The largest
number Issued in one day was 233 The per-
oentage of fiction over other works was 81.
The reason Of this large percentage is proba-
bly, caused by our other departments not being
well filed, particularly the department Of
useful arts and sciences. About 500 books Of
reference have been used, and many more
called for that we did not have, showing that
that department also needs additions. | have
not kept a continuous account of the number
OF readers in tie rooms, hut some days there
have been as many IS $50 and some weeks
they have averaged 20 per day. There have
been between 800 and GOO books given from
the shelves to be read in the room. The loss
Of books has been very small. there being but
nine actually l0ss-seven OF those were paid
for by the losers. The books, under the new
rules, are returned very promptly. Forty
four books have been donated to the Library
and 400 bought, making the number Of vol
umes now on the shelves 6, 543. The amount
Of fines collected on delinquent books is
Sl45 -. The reading matter on the the ta-
bles and in the reading room consists Of 81
periodicals, Of which 80 are newspapers, 10
illus rated weeklies and IS monthly maya
zines. OF the newspapers, - wers donated.
Six Of the magazines and SIX Of the newspa-
pers are foreign. No public documents Of
any amount have been sent us. The accom-
modations for the Library and reading room
are amply sufficient, save the gentlemen's
reading room, where the newspapers are
kept that is altogether too small to accom-
MEDIATE the number Of readers that sit there
every evening. Altogether, / think the Lii
brary has been as we'll patronized as we could
desire, ana mas indeed proved a success. TIE
number OF names on the register is , 437.
CARRIE q. HANCOCK, Librarian.