THE BIBELOT is issued monthly, beautifully printed on white laid paper, uncut, old style blue wrapper, in size a small quarto, (5 x 6), 24 to 32 pages of text, and will be sent postpaid on receipt of subscription. Remit (preferably) by P. O. Money Order. Librarians will do well to have one or more sets of The Bibelot on file before the early numbers are advanced in price. THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO.. MA 5 and 7 East Sixteenth Street, New York, AKE a specialty of supplying public, private, and school LIBRARIES, for which they have exceptional facilities through their connection with many of the largest houses as special agents, and by carrying the stock of all American Publishers. They are pleased to give estimates at lowest rates on lists of proposed purchases, and solicit correspondence with Librarians and other bookbuyers. This house is characterized by its Promptness, Carefulness, and Low Prices. There will be sent to any address on application a topically arranged General Library List selected from the books of all publishers. BOOKS FOR SALE. Walter S. Houghton, Lynn, Mass. St. Nicholas, 1st 21 v. in nos. $40. The Reference Catalogue Of Current (English) Literature. 1 VOL., HALF BOUND, NET, $3.50. (Subject to raise in price.) The new edition of the above (the English publishers' trade list) for 1894 is larger and more complete than any former issue. The Index, also, is much more copious, containing about 90,000 entries. Orders for the United States will be supplied by The Office of THE PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY, 28 Elm Street (Temporary Office, The Literary Index, complements the "Annual American Catalogue" of LONDON: ESTABLISHED 1872 PARIS: 30 WELLINGTON ST., STRAND. 76 RUE DE RENNES. LEIPZIG: HOSPITAL STR. 10. GUSTAV E. STECHERT Purchasing Agent for Colleges & Libraries 810 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, (TWO DOORS ABOVE GRACE CHURCH) begs to call attention to his facilities for obtaining FOREIGN Books and PERIODICALS at more economical rates THAN ANY OTHER HOUSE IN America OR EUROPE can offer, because: He employs no Commission Agents, but has his own offices and clerks at London, Paris and Leipzig. He has open accounts with all the leading publishing houses in the world. His experience enables him to give information at once about rare and scarce books. He receives weekly shipments from England, France and Germany, and can thereby fill orders in quicker time. MORE THAN 200 LIBRARIES FAVOR HIM WITH THEIR ORDERS. SPECIAL REFERENCES, "Mr. Stechert has for years furnished this Library with most of its periodicals and European books, and has bought for us many thousand volumes. Mr. Stechert's success is due to his constant personal attention to the business, and the reasonable terms he is able to offer. I consider a New York agent far preferable to reliance on foreign agents alone.' GEO. H. BAKER, Librarian of Columbia College, New York. "Seven years ago, in reorganizing the Columbia College library, I spent much time in trying to discover how to get our foreign books and periodicals with the least delay, trouble and expense. The result of the comparison of three methods, viz: ordering direct from foreign dealers, ordering through one agent in London, or ordering through one agent in New York showed us that it was to our advantage to give Mr. Stechert all our foreign orders, as he delivered in the library in a single package and with a single bill at as low cost as we were able with vastly greater trouble, to get a half dozen different packages in different bills from different places. In reorganizing the New York State Library, I opened the whole question anew, and the result of the comparison was the same as before, and we find that the library gets most for the time and money expended by taking advantage of Mr. Stechert's long experience, and the careful personal attention which he gives to our orders." MELVIL DEWEY, Director of N. Y. State Library, Albany, N. Y. "Mr. G. E. Stechert of New York has served us with fidelity in procuring English, French and German books, both new and second hand and also periodicals. His terms are more reasonable than any others that have come to our notice, while he has always guarded our interests very carefully. We find it a great convenience to have one agency in New York, represented by branches in different European countries.' Prof. ARTHUR H. PALMER, Librarian of Adelbert College, Cleveland, O. "Your methods and facilities for doing business, as I have examined them here as well as at the Leipzig and London ends, seem to me admirably progressive and thoroughly live. I deal with you because I judge it for the advantage of this library to do so. If I did not, I should not. Up to date I am unable to find a method which is, all things included, so economical of time and money as dealing through you.' ERNEST C. RICHARDSON, Librarian of College of New Jersey, Princeton, N. J. "Our library committee speaks in the highest terms of your services. You have not only saved us many dollars, but have shown an intelligent appreciation of our wants for which we thank you.' A. 8. COLLINS, Act. Librarian of Reynolds Library, Rochester, N. Y. GUSTAV E. STECHERT, LONDON. PARIS. LEIPZIG. NEW YORK. NEW YORK: PUBLICATION OFFICE, 59 Duane Street. LONDON: SOLD BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & Co., PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD. YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION, $5.00. MONTHLY NUMBERS 50 cts. Price to Europe, or other countries in the Union, 20s. per annum ; single numbers, 25. Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N. Y., as second-class matter. HE above cut is a reduced photograph of the upper end of two card holders hinged together. These holders are 41⁄2 x 16 inches, full size. In the Bibliography column the work was first typewritten on thin paper, five to eight copies at once. One of these copies was pasted on cardboard, and by the use of a RUDOLPH CARD CUTTER, cut apart, each book separately; yet the cards are easily separated for the insertion of new books, each in its proper place. In the Biography column the printed matter is simply a leaf from an ordinary catalogue, pasted on cardboard and then treated in the same way. The card holders are hinged alike at both ends, producing an ENDLESS INDEX CHAIN which is revolved by a crank under the glass lid of the case, showing five pages at once. The size of Indexer Case is 34 inches long by 24 inches wide, 42 inches high. About the only practical difference in use between the RUDOLPH INDEXER and an Unabridged Dictionary is that you turn the Dictionary leaves by hand, while in the Indexer an endless succession of leaves is revolved by a crank. It will accommodate equally a library of 1000, 10,000 or 20,000 volumes. It takes the place of the old style card finding list, is accessible to the public, yet cannot be tampered with, and renders the publication of supplements unnecessary. If the problem of a World's Central Cataloguing Bureau is ever solved it will be done by the use of the RUDOLPH INDEXER. Time saved over the card system, say three-fourths. Money saved over the card system, say two-thirds. Compare looking for a word and its meaning in an Unabridged Dictionary, and for the same word in the latest card index drawer, and you have about the difference between the old card system and the RUDOLPH INDEXER. WRITE FOR CATALOGUE. THOMAS KANE & COMPANY, Sole Manufacturers, 137-139 Wabash Avenue, CHICAGO, ILL. Now that the A. L. A. Conference of 1895 has emerged from the dim future into the living present, it behooves every librarian to take to heart the advice bestowed upon the lamented Mrs. Dombey and "make an effort" to go to Denver in August. Such advice should be superfluous to all who know of their own knowledge what the conference means as a stimulus to renewed effort and as a refreshment to drooping energies. Those who do not yet know, should determine this year to join the ranks of the enlightened. Present indications point to a falling off in the Eastern contingent, -as was perhaps to be expected; but this will probably be more than made up from the Western end of the line, and there is no reason to doubt that the Conference of 1895 will be as successful, as enjoyable, and as inspiring as its 16 predeces sors. THIS Western conference, indeed, appeals with special force to every member of the A. L. A. on account of the opportunity it offers to aid in the library movement in the West and to bring the principles and methods of the Association clearly before the public. The program for the meetings has not been given in detail, but the brief outline presented in the June JOURNAL shows that the executive committee has kept these objects closely in view. Prominence is given to practical questions of general interest rather than to those of purely technical detail, and the meetings, as planned, promise to be full of help and interest, not only to the leading librarian - whose wants are always attended to- but to the custodians of small libraries, to assistants, and to special workers. It is difficult to estimate the help and inspiration that the conference imparts — it is a storage battery of energy and enthusiasm for a year to come. The personal interchange of question and answer, the intercourse on kindred subjects, the community of interests, and the variety of meth- | ods discussed are, taken altogether, of more immediate benefit than the cut-and-dried program. The papers and the pith of the discussions may be read in print; but those who miss the conference itself cannot gain what they have lost by studying the " Proceedings "valuable No. 7 as these are. The conference spirit is not transferable to paper - and it is the spirit that is the life of the body. NEW HAMPSHIRE has in its new library legislation gone a step further than any of the sister states in providing for what may be called compulsory libraries. It is interesting to note this development as evidence of the continued march of library progress; but it is fairly open to discussion whether a library can wisely be forced upon a community until it has shown by its own voluntary action in taxing itself that it is ready to use that privilege wisely and well. The New Hampshire law provides various safeguards, to be sure, and permits a town by its deliberate act to postpone the establishment of a library from year to year. The compulsory library method was tried, in a sense, in New York half a century ago, and, as every student of the school district system knows, with anything but success. conditions of to-day in New Hampshire and those of half a century ago in New York are not the same, and it is probably not fair to draw a close parallel; but the question is one admitting of very wide differences of opinion, and should be carefully thought out before the example of New Hampshire is followed. It is interesting to note the continued progress of library legislation, not only in this, one of the pioneer states, but in other states as well, during the current year. The MISS HASSE'S papers on the training of library employes answer many of the questions that perplex librarians who have to deal with the question of instruction of assistants. So far as the practical details of organization and administration are concerned, the methods and suggestions outlined are timely and useful; but her remarks as to the advantages of the system itself call for some comment. Miss Hasse contends that the “training class" is a desideratum in every library, and instances as an example a certain library "where the librarian was the only employe, and the experiment proved a decided advantage to both library and pupil." This is a reductio ad absurdum upon which comment is superfluous; but we are |