and are
in a language intelligible to all. The amateur cannot give the time or
patience to wade two-volume deep in the subject his club wishes him to
treat in half an hour's speech. The magazine gives just what he wants
in several pages. There are periodicals exclusively devoted to every
branch of every science, and magazines which, in their files, include
articles on all subjects. This mine of information has been opened up
by Poole's index. Since 1881, when the third and enlarged edition
of Poole's index was published, all this is common property for the
asking. Grouped around Poole and keeping pace with the times are the
Poole supplements, which ought, perhaps, to be named the Fletchers,
covering the five-year periods since 1881, ending respectively 1886,
1891, 1896. Then the Annual literary index gives a yearly index
of subjects and authors, and serves as a supplement to the Poole
supplement. For such as cannot be even a year without a periodical
index we now have the admirable Cumulative index, bi-monthly, edited
by the Cleveland public library. Thus all the principal periodicals
since the beginning of the century may be consulted by reference to
one or more of five single books or alphabets.

"The Review of reviews must be mentioned as a useful monthly index to
current periodical literature, but of little value for study reference
as compared with the indexes just mentioned. An annual index issued by
the Review of reviews, since 1890, is good in its way, though rather
superficial. Sargent's Reading for the young, and its supplement,
index the juvenile sets of St Nicholas, Harper's young people, and
Wide Awake. Poole and the Cumulative are of little use without a fair
assortment of the sets therein indexed.

"Thus far 442 titles (practically all of them serials published since
1800) have been indexed. It is a mistake, however, to suppose that
most of these are necessary in a small library before Poole's index
should be purchased or can be of use. Given Poole and a complete set
of Littell's living age, and Harper's monthly, more reference work can
be done than with twice the number of reference books not periodicals.
A small collection of sets has enabled more than one struggling
library to hold its own with the students and club members, and to
accomplish work which could not have been done as well with many works
of reference, the purchase of which would have exhausted the whole
book fund."

CHAPTER XIV