MISS SARAH F. EARLE, Assistant Librarian, Green Library.

MISS JESSIE E. TYLER, Assistant Librarian, Circulating Library.

DIRECTORS' REPORT.

To the Honorable Charles B. Pratt, Mayor, and the City Council of the City of Worcester :

The Directors of the Free Public Library respectfully submit their seventeenth Annual Report.

In the Reports of the Librarian and of the several Standing Committees of the Board herewith transmitted will be found a detailed account of the management of the Library for the past year. Special attention is called to these reports, as containing valuable and interesting information relating to this Institution. By the Librarian's report, it appears that the use of the Library has continued to increase rapidly, as during the past few years. This use has more than doubled since 1873, without increased cost to the city. The number of books given out in the Circulating Department during the past year has been 137,205 against 122,456 in 1875, while the use of the reference or Green Library has risen from 22,833 in 1875 to 27,694 in 1876. The number of volumes in the Library is as follows:

To the Green Library 336 books and 6 pamphlets, and to the Intermediate and Circulating Departments 2,714 books and 1,968 pamphlets.

To the Standing Committee on the Library by the rules and regulations of the Board, is committed the duty of attending to