This decision was
doubtless the result of a recommendation from the Librarian, Mr. George
Easter, as Mr. James Reeve, F.G.S., then Curator of the Castle Museum,
had suggested to him the wisdom of forming a Local Collection. In April
of the following year the Librarian reported to the Committee that he had
received during the year 10 pounds for fines, and he requested that he
might retain the amount for the purpose of forming a Local Reference
Library. The Committee sanctioned his request, and from that time to the
present the fines imposed for the detention of lending library books
beyond the time allowed for reading have been exclusively devoted to the
Local Collection. Mr. Councillor Stanley, a member of the Committee, by
way of a commencement, gave "the books containing a complete list of the
city and county charities," and the annual report for 1880 stated that "A
collection of Books of local interest is proceeding very satisfactorily."
The collection had grown in ten years to 1,603 volumes and 1,933
pamphlets. In the annual report for 1893-94 it was stated that the
receipts for fines from 1880 to that date had been 620 pounds, and that
the collection numbered 2,646 volumes, 3,462 pamphlets, and numerous
engravings, maps, portraits, etc.
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