1864

In the trustee's Annual Report, published in July of 1864, they describe the popularity of the public reading room, opened in 1859, and how demand is outpacing the holdings:

THE READING ROOM Occupies one entire floor of this building, and is the natural sequence of the free night instruction, for here all classes have unrestricted admission to the current literature of the day, as well as of the past. It is open, free to all, without tickets, from 8 a. m. until 10 p. m. It is supplied with 160 newspapers and 110 magazines, including all the leading publications of this and foreign countries. The number of foreign papers has not been diminished in consequence of the increased cost, the Trustees believing that the rise in gold rendered it all the more important to furnish these papers to those who might not otherwise be able to get access to them. The number of visitors during the year 1863 was 171,873, an average of nearly 600 per day. The Trustees take this occasion to acknowledge from some unknown friend of popular education, a donation of 537 volumes of standard literature, and to say that there is pressing need of large additions to the Library, and that no more acceptable aid can be given to the Institution than by gifts of books in any de­partment of science and literature. The Library numbers about 4,000 volumes, but should be greatly enlarged in order to meet the demands upon it. The Trustees devoted to the Reading Room and Library the sum of $1,736.50, which is as large a proportion12 of their revenue as they can thus apply without detriment to the other departments.