two styles, the popular style and what we may readily term the unpopular style. But of the two the latter is probably the more practical.

In the United Service Magazine in 1891, Mr. Spenser Wilkinson in a review of a military work wrote: “I believe the right way to raise the standard of knowledge in

the army is to write for the earnest students, and to let the

general public alone". And these are remarks which may well apply to the library world also in more than one branch.

Reviewers in late years have not unfrequently assumed that it is the duty of librarians when writing on abstruse subjects to address themselves to the laity, rather than to their own circle.

I need hardly say that if this were our rule real scientific progress would be but slow. It is true that there are certain aspects of the library movement which demand as popular a treatment as it is possible to achieve, but these are as a rule on accepted matters requiring little investigation and less discussion.

We do not demand of lawyers that they shall make law interesting—that their treatises shall read like novels and make us laugh! What we demand of them is that they shall know their business and perform it honourably. And this I take it is what we expect of ourselves.

Speeches must be interesting, but it is the special prerogative of Papers, as with Sermons, that they may be dull ! This is an ancient right and liberty, and let not all the reviewers in the world deprive us of it!

CONCLUSION.

I will then conclude by repeating what I have said before, that the Council have had considerable difficulty in obtaining a sufficient number of suitable papers for recent annual meetings, but it is my firm belief that if only we give ourselves longer notice, and make special efforts to study our subjects in good time, the future difficulty of the Council will be not what to obtain, but what to reject.

APPENDIX.
Rough1 Subject-Analysis of Papers ? read before the Library Association,

1877-1897
America.

Libraries, Constitutions of.
Libraries, Hist. of.

Libraries, History of.
Library School, 2.

Copyright, 3.
Public Docs., Distribution of. Culture and Libraries, 1.
American Library Assoc., Hist. of. Education and Libraries, 15.
Art Galleries and Museums.

English Literature.
Theory of, 3.

Bibliography of National Hist.
Assessment of Libraries.

Black Death Lit.
See Library Adm.

Collected Lit., Index to.
Bibliographical Society.

Early English Book Fairs.
Bibliographies of Bibliographies. Early English Printed Books.
Bibliography, General, 11.

General Catalogue of Eng. Lit.
Annual Reviews of, 2.

Periodical Lit., Catalogue of.
Professorships of.

Shakespeareana.
Study of.

Europe.
Binding, 10.

Library Statistics.
Biographical Sketches, 17.

Fiction, 4.
Book Illustration.

Classified, 1.
Booksellers, 2.

Fine Art Bibliography, 2.
Bookselling in Wales.

Facsimile, Process of, 2.
British Museum, 3.

France.
Annual Reports.

History, Classification of.
Authors' Catalogue, 2.

Libraries, Adm. of.
Catalogue Rules.

Libraries, Catalogues of.
Classification of Library, 3.

Libraries, History of.
Early Printed Books.

National Library, 2.
Catalogues, 1.

Printing
Printing of, 1.

Provincial Libraries.
Special Catalogues, I.

Germany:
Cataloguing.

Classed Catalogues.
Academical Dissertations.

Gipsy Literature.
Anonymous Literature.

Indexing.
Co-operative Cataloguing, 3.

General Literature.
Dictionary Catalogues, 4.

Periodical Literature.
Periodical Lit., 5.

Scientific Periodicals.
“ Pitfalls.”

Theory of Indexing.
Size-Notation, 5.

Universal Subject Index.
Title-Entries, 2.

Inst. of Bibliography, 3.
Cataloguing Rules, 6.

Juvenile Literature, 3.
Cathedral Libraries.

Lectures, 4.
Classification, 14.

Legislation, 12.
Dewey System, 5.

Assessment.
French History.

Parish Libraries.
Natural Science.

Libraries.
Collected Literature, Index to.

See also Private Libraries.
Colonies.

See also Special Libraries.
Annual Registers.

See also Subscription Libraries.
Colonial Institute Library.

See also Travelling Libraries.

1 Unfinished in detail.

2 Some 500 Papers (vide numbers given).
3 Library Association of the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Ireland).

LOCAL LIBRARY JOURNALS.

The subject of Local Library Journals was alluded to at the Southport Meeting, and it is more than probable that such journals will form a valuable feature of library work in the future. No one will dispute the fact that additional links of interest are required to keep the public in touch with their libraries, and to attract them to them. Lectures supply this need in a great measure, but a periodical literary journal can equally create an influence which nothing else can supply.

It would probably be found more economical and practical if the libraries of small localities combined in the issue of such a periodical, to which each could add supplementary pages at will. In the larger towns, however, there will be sufficient wealth of material and of funds to make individual efforts a success.

Of such efforts, The Public Library Journal, the quarterly magazine of the Cardiff and Penarth Free Public Libraries and the Cardiff Museum, may be quoted as an admirable instance of what may be achieved with determination and perseverance; and we heartily congratulate Mr. Ballinger on the results. We have asked Mr. Ballinger to supply us with the statistics of his enterprise for the benefit of our readers, and he has very kindly forwarded us the following facts, commencing with No. 1, issued ist January, 18973

“ For the first year the total cost (four numbers) including printing, illustrations, postages, advertising and all other expenses was £77 125. 4d., a loss of £15 being incurred, the proceeds only reaching about £55 from all sources.

“For the second year (four numbers) the total expenses amounted to £78 18s. 2d., the proceeds reaching £88 3s. 6d., which, after allowing for some sums belonging to the previous year, left a profit of about £6. “ The sale of the April and July numbers is less than the other two. The coal strike having affected the sale of the July, 1898, issue to a marked extent. Back numbers are constantly in demand. We could sell a number of complete sets if we had them."

BOOTLE, ever on the look-out for new methods by means of which to popularise and increase the usefulness of the tripartite institution under its control-Library, Museum and Technical School-has followed the admirable lead of Cardiff in the publication of a quarterly journal, which bears as its title The Bootle Free Library, Museum and Technical School Journal, edited, it is needless to say, by the able, energetic and popular librarian, Mr. J. J. Ogle.

To judge from the fourth, and most recent, issue which is before us, this little journal should prove instrumental in assisting our esteemed confrère to carry on and extend the admirable work which he has not only inaugurated but carried to its present high state of efficiency at Bootle, and in which we wish him the success he so well deserves.

Although scarcely so ambitious as its Cardiff progenitor, the Bootle journal bids fair to enter into a keen and friendly rivalry with it, a rivalry which we shall watch with interest, carried on, as it will be, in the friendliest of spirits by two librarians whose aim in life is not selfglorification, but an earnest desire to raise the standard and dignity of their profession, to help forward the library movement, and leave the world a little better than they found it.

The journal, which consists of sixteen pages and wrapper, is devoted to short but interesting and helpful paragraphs on New Books, Museum Notes, and Technical School Notes. It likewise includes an admirable article by the editor on How to get on," a chapter for the studious; a paper by the sub-librarian of Bootle (Mr. C. H. Hunt) on “ Domesday and Bootle"; a most instructive description of “An interesting manuscript" in the Bootle Museum ; list of recent additions to the library, and syllabus of the Twelfth Session of Free Lectures.

To those librarians who contemplate doing something in the same way, we cannot do better than advise them in the first place to see the two journals to which we have referred; and I think we may venture to take it upon ourselves to say that the respective editors, Mr. John Ballinger of Cardiff and Mr. J. J. Ogle of Bootle, would be pleased to give any reasonable assistance in their power in the way of hints to professional brethren who may be anxious to try the experiment of a local journal.

CROYDON.-As we go to press an intimation reaches us that the Croydon Public Libraries Committee has decided to issue on the ist of January the first number of a bi-monthly magazine bearing the title The Reader's Index. The principal feature will be a carefully annotated list of additional books supplied to each of the libraries during the period covered by each number. At the end of the year full indexes will be supplied to the volume, which will form a complete catalogue of the year's additions, supplementing the Class Lists. Reading Lists, directing attention to the material in the libraries on popular topics or subjects of permanent interest, should prove a valuable feature. We congratulate our friend Mr. Stanley Just on his venture, and wish him every success. The price of the index is to be id.