The essential advantages arising from business communication with my house are: (1.) Prompt service; exact execution of the smallest orders. (2.) Permanent assortment of millions of volumes and pamphlets. Special Line: Complete sets of periodicals and pamphlets. Within the last few years I have sold in America the libraries of Prof. Zarncke, Leipzig; Prof. Sauppe, Göttingen; Prof. Bechstein, Rostock; Prof. Nagel, Tübingen; and Prof. Hertz, Breslau. (3.) The great saving in freight by shipment in collection consignments to New York. (4.) The American scholars and libraries having communication with my house can always buy at first hand. (5.) Unconditional guarantee for completeness. (6.) Binding of every class at the cheapest prices. (7.) Facilitation of communication through my New York Agency (P. O. Box 2943), through'which the shipments are sent. COMPLETE LIBRARIES OF THE LATE PROFESSORS ARE FOR SALE AT PRESENT: BRUNN (Munich), the prominent Archæologist. Price, 14000 Mark. Prospectus and catalogue on demand. KEKULE (Bonn), the great Chemist. 18000 volumes. Price, 32000 Mark. Prospectus and catalogue on demand. DU BOIS BEYMOND (Berlin), the celebrated Physiologist. 14000 volumes. Price, 22000 Mark. Prospectus and catalogue on demand. MERKEL (Strassburg), the Master of Criminal Law. 1200 volumes. Price, 1500 Mark. Catalogue on demand In Well Collated Annales de chimie et de physique, p. Lavoisier, Complete Sets I Offer: MARK 2200 980 600 600 90 500 Brookhaus, Konversations-Lexikon. 14. Aufl. 400 750 290 Bulletin de la Societe chimique de Paris. I. 450 140 Corpus Inscriptionum latinarum. So far as MARK 1600 Cruveilhier, J., Anatomie pathologique du Goethe's Werke. Hrsg. im Auftrage d. Gross- alphabetisch beordnet..... All correspondence to be addressed directly to my Leipzig house. 7000 250 2000 148 45 Jahrg. 1500 VOL. 22. THE LIBRARY JOURNAL MARCH, 1897. THE general appropriation bill approved Feb. 19 makes provision in detail for the Library of Congress and creates a specific division to be known as the Copyright Department. This subdivision of the work of the Library of Congress is in every respect desirable and should give opportunity for the effective reorganization of the copyright bureau. It is to be hoped that it will be practicable for the library authorities to consider plans by which the copyright office, without increase of its expenses, and indeed with some possibility of increased income, should be of auxiliary benefit to the libraries of the country. The copyright fees are 50 cents for entry and an additional 50 cents for a certificate of entry, and it is usual No. 3 Public Library took the step of excluding the two most notorious journals of this class from its reading-room, and suddenly it occurred to a number of librarians and library boards that this was what ought to have been done long ago. Several libraries have already fallen into line in following Mr. Hill's example, and while for the moment the result may be to advertise "the new journalism”—although no advertising can be so luridly pervasive as its own the rebuke will doubtless have its effect. This movement is new evidence of the vital and far-reaching relations of the modern library spirit with modern life. THE removal from the shelves of the Alle to enclose the full dollar instead of the half-gheny Carnegie Library of a considerable num dollar for the sake of getting such record. Why might not this record be printed in proper bibliographical shape on a standard card and be delivered in this shape to the copyright owner, while serving the additional purpose of a card catalog for the Library of Congress and permitting the sale of duplicates to the libraries throughout the country? Such a plan would not cover the full field of the printed catalog card now managed by the Publishing Section of the A. L. A., because it would not include imported books, but in other respects the field would be much widened and there would be many advantages in the plan. ber of works of second-rate fiction has awak ened the usual amount of press comment and criticism. Mr. Stevenson, however is well able to hold his own against his critics, and his reasons, which are printed elsewhere, are interesting and suggestive. In the Allegheny "Index expurgatorius" there are, nevertheless, some names to which even librarians may be tempted to offer an exception—notably E. P. Roe and "Marion Harland." It may be questioned if either of these writers ever produced anything that can be called literature, nor are their works of interest to persons of intellectual perception; but they are not hurtful—indeed their aggressive morality is one of their most disagreeable characteristics. Both also occupy a warm corner in the hearts of a multitude of WHILE librarians have been doing their "level best" to stem the flood of the reading of fiction, particularly of the yellow-covered varie-readers, who have found in them a commonty, and lead readers of trash into really helpful use of reading-time, their newspaper readingrooms, by grace of "the new journalism," have been opposing, and more than counteract ing, all their missionary efforts. This literature has taken in New York the curious local name of "yellow kid" literature, because an extraordinary caricature of a vulgar small boy dressed in "yaller" has been the rival hero of the two New York dailies which indulge most in "flash" sensationalism. It is gratifying that the expression of the better public opinion regarding this class of journals has been voiced by the library profession. The Newark Free place and harmless contentment, while among the writers whose works remain unbanned are a number whose influence must be conceded to be more directly towards sensationalism and false perspective. Indeed, in glancing over the fiction supplement of the Allegheny library, the question arises whether the old-fashioned trashy novel, with its sentimentality, didacticism, and high-flown language, is a sharmful in its influence as the latter-day school of "slum stories" and "keynote" fiction. There is no question of the literary skill and excellence of construction of many of these later books, and they may not be hurtful to the well-balanced and mature mind; but for the average youth or young girl it seems fair to say that the tritest platitudes of "poor old Roe," to quote Miss Garland's witty defence, or the most tearful sentimentalities of Mrs. Holmes, are preferable to the imbruted vulgarity of "Maggie, a girl of the streets," the perverted hysteria of "A superfluous woman," or the morbid unpleasantness of "Celibates." ALMOST from the beginning of the A. L. A. in 1876 librarians have wished some better guide to the selection of fiction than the average book review. The plan for the establishment of such a guide devised by the Massachusetts Library Club, under which a committee of the club read the principal novels of the year and published a monthly "List of select fiction," has met with general approval from those who have made use of it. This would seem to show that such a list can be prepared with reasonable promptness, and that the decision of the selecting committee will be generally accepted. It is thought that the list can be ultimately made self-supporting through subscriptions, but for the present the work is beyond the unaided resources of the Massachusetts Library Club. Various methods of continuation have been suggested with which readers of the JOURNAL are familiar. The club, after a careful survey of the situation, has decided that the work of preparation had best be kept in its own hands. A widely separated corps of readers would lead to unavoidable delays and would make impossible one of the most useful features of the work, namely, the monthly meeting of readers when the books are informally discussed, thus maintaining a general interest that is impossible in solitary work and enabling the committee to keep to a more uniform standard. The club now asks for subscriptions from other associations, and its appeal is given elsewhere. Doubtless the sum necessary $150 to $200 could be secured from a few individuals, but it is thought preferable that a work of general usefulness should have a more general support, while the fact that an association contributes to the work is an advertisement of that work to all its members. It is to be hoped that all who are interested in the work will see that the state or local association of which they may be members gives its support to the project. Communications. THE QUESTION of indexes. THE Co-operation Committee of the A. L. A., has under consideration the possibility of securing the preparation of indexes to books which especially need good indexes, but have been published with a poor index or with none. I shall be glad to receive suggestions based on experience - but not necessarily in the language immediately resulting from such experience as to books which most need this attention. WM. H. TILLINGHAST, Chairman. INFORMATION AS TO MUSIC LIBRARIES WANTED. I AM anxious to make a complete list of libraries containing music, either for reference or circulation. Librarians of all such libraries who have not recently received a letter of inquiry regarding their music department from the New York State Library, would confer a favor by writing to me. MARY S. Cutler. REINCORPORATION OF THE A. L. A. FOR One, I am opposed to the proposition to make the A. L. A. over into a governmentsupported institution, and an attachment to the Smithsonian Institution, with its Proceedings issued from the Government Printing Office, like those of the American Historical Association. The latter association considers itself fortunate when its Proceedings appear from that cave of gloom two years after the annual meeting therein reported. The A. L. A. six and eight months for its Conference numis quite familiar with the experience of waiting ber of the LIBRARY JOURNAL― through no fault, of course, of your staff, and of course through no fault of the unsalaried and otherwise busy recorder; but I submit that to treble or quadruple that hiatus would be more than the most patient among us could bear. The saving of expense, in the publication of our Conference proceedings, would be a small matter; a far more acceptable reform would be the expenditure of enough additional money to engage a professional editor to rush the Conference number to press, and give the result to us not later than three weeks after the entirely practicable reform, which should sureclose of the post-conference tour. This is an ly be adopted at the Philadelphia Conference this year. MACKINAC |