Excerpt from Thirty-Second Annual Report, 1884 The great collection of books belonging to the Public Library, and the extent of its uses, have changed vastly since the first report of an Examining Committee was made in the year 1853, when Volumes were upon the shelves, shortly to go into circulation. In the second report, made in 1854, when the Library contained volumes, it is stated that of a large number of these books there are duplicates, and in a few cases there are several or many copies of the same work. The institution and its value were then on trial, and the work of the committee from citizens at large was easily accomplished in a few hours. At this period, however, was settled the question of duplicates, of which single copies of works on attractive subjects, or of large popular interest, could not satisfy the daily and weekly demand. 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.