ritish books published since the
period covered by Lowndes. The three volumes of Allibone accompany the
titles of works by noted authors with many critical remarks, copied
mostly from reviews and literary journals. This feature of the book,
which makes it rather a work of literary history and criticism than a
bibliography pure and simple, has been dropped in Mr. Kirk's supplement,
which thus becomes properly a bibliography. The publications of England
and America, from about 1850 to 1890, are more fully chronicled in this
work of Kirk than in any other bibliography.

The important "English Catalogue of Books," from A. D. 1835 to 1897, in 5
vols., with its valuable Index of Subjects, in 4 vols., from 1857 up to
1889, is so constantly useful as to be almost indispensable in a public
library. It records, in provokingly brief one-line titles, with
publisher's name, year of issue, and price, all books published in Great
Britain whose titles could be secured. It thus subserves the same purpose
for English publications, which the American Catalogue fulfills for those
of the United States. Both are in effect greatly condensed
bibliographies, enabling the librarian to locate most of the published
literature in the English language for many years back. The English
catalogue, from 1897 to date, is supplemented by its annual issues,
entitled "the English Catalogue of Books for 1898," etc.

I have said that accuracy should be one of the cardinal aims of the
librarian: and this because in that profession it is peculiarly
important. Bibliography is a study which approaches very nearly to the
rank of an exact science; and the practice of it, in application to the
daily work of the librarian, is at once a school of accuracy, and a test
of ability. A habit of analytical methods should be assiduously
cultivated, without which much time will be lost in fruitless searches in
the wrong books to find what one wants. As a single illustration of this
need of method, suppose that you want to find the title of a certain book
with its full description, a want likely to occur every hour in the day,
and sometimes many times an hour. The book is perhaps Sir Walter Scott's
Life of Napoleon,--9 vols., London, 1827, and your object is to trace its
title, published price, etc., among the numerous bibliographies of
literature. You begin by a simple act of analysis--thus. This is a
London, not an American book--hence it is useless to look in any American