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198
Volumes in Stock.
The Tate Library, Streatham 20,558
Balham Public Library 13,255
Tooting Public Library 9,427
Total 43,240
The classification of the stock is given in the table on page 16.
The limited amount available for the maintenance of the three
libraries makes it difficult for the Sub-Committee to provide
copies of popular books in sufficient number to meet the increasing
demand and also precludes the purchase at present of
many important works of reference. Owing to the large circulation
the sum required for the replenishment of worn-out stock is
becoming every year a heavier charge on the book funds.
At the annual stocktaking in July the number of books
which could not be accounted for was four.

At each library the work of cataloguing has occupied a good
deal of attention. Revised editions of four catalogues of Fiction
and Juvenile Literature (in the form of Indicator-Keys) and two
Lists of Recent Additions were published at intervals during the
year. The rapid growth of the Tooting Library also made it
necessary to compile and print earlier than was anticipated a
new General Subject-Catalogue of the books in the Lending
Department.