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244
THE REPORT
OF THE COMMISSIONERS
OF
PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS.
We, the Commissioners, beg to report that the appointment
of a Chief Librarian to manage one Library and to
superintend the other Libraries to be provided in the Parish,
engaged our attention early in the year. We had 228 candidates,
in response to our advertisements, and we selected
six to attend a meeting, in order that we might personally
examine into their qualifications. We proceeded to take
the election by ballot, which resulted in the appointment
of Mr. Edward Foskett, Fellow of the Royal Society of
Literature, as the best qualified to fulfil the important
duties of Chief Librarian, and he entered upon those duties
in January last. We have now the pleasure of testifying
that he has zealously and ably discharged the trust reposed
in him, and has inaugurated a scheme for the future development
of the Libraries.
In our last Report we stated that we had been engaged
in the selection of sites and negotiations for the purchase
of land and premises in suitable positions for Libraries
in the parish. Having regard to the population and the
great area of the parish, we came to the conclusion that all
the Districts would not be benefitted by the adoption of the
Act, unless we established, in addition to the Minet Library,
at least four Libraries, viz., one for Camberwell, one for Peckham,
one for East Dulwich, and one for the Old Kent
Road.