The total number of members was 1,479; the year's subscriptions
being L1,594. The price of shares has been raised from two to three
guineas during the past year. Receipts from shares, fines, &c., amounted
to about L480, making the amount actually received in 1882, L2,012 6s.
The expenditure had been L1,818 19s. 9d., inclusive of L60 carried to
the reserve fund, and L108 paid on account of the new catalogue; and
there remained a balance of L198 6s. 1d. in hand. L782 0s. 9d. had been
expended on the purchase of 1,560 additional books, re-binding others,
&c., making a total of about 50,000 volumes. The library needs
extension, but the shortness of the lease (thirty years only) and the
high value of the adjoining land prevents any step being taken in that
direction at present. The Birmingham Law Society's Library was founded
in February, 1831, by Mr. Arthur Ryland, and has now nearly 6,000
volumes of law works, law reports (English, Scotch, and Irish), local
and personal Acts, &c., &c. The present home in Wellington Passage was
opened August 2, 1876, being far more commodious than the old abode in
Waterloo-street, the "library" itself being a room 35ft.
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