"

in 1862, and "Idylls and Epigrams" in 1869, and in his "Poems" of 1893 and "Sonnets from Dante, Petrarch, and Camoens in 1896, by occasional verses in the Reviews, has proved himself still loyal to his first love.

The year 1862, which produced the "Poems from the German," produced also the "Relics of Shelley," of whom Dr. Garnett has always been an enthusiastic lover. An apparent break in literary work between 1869 and 1887 may perhaps be accounted for partly by his numerous contributions to the ninth edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica," partly by his appointment in 1875 to be Superintendent of the Museum Reading Room, an arduous office, which may well leave its holder with little inclination to take up evening work. In 1877, as one of the organizers of the first International Library Conference, which led to the formation of the Library Association, Dr. Garnett placed himself at the service of his profession, for whose interests he has ever since been a devoted worker. Of his innumerable speeches as a chairman who is never at a loss for an original remark on any conceivable subject no memorial, it is to be feared, has been preserved. But his recently-published volume of " Essays in Librarianship and Bibliography" records some of his more formal contributions to library-lore. As readers of it know, this volume also forms, in its own pleasantly desultory way, a history of the Museum Library during the last twenty years, and much of it is specially concerned with the printing of the Catalogue of Authors begun in 1880 and to be finished next year. As Dr. Garnett has been the chief historian of this great work, the credit undoubtedly due to his friend and chief, the late Sir E. A. Bond, has been so emphasized that future readers may hardly realize how essentially its initiation and execution have been Dr. Garnett's own work. From the moment it was mooted to the day on which he laid down office, it was his chief concern that nothing, however desirable in itself, should be allowed to stand in

its way or hinder its rapid progress, and to this determination on his part its success is undoubtedly due.

In 1890 Dr. Garnett's services were recognized by his appointment as Keeper of Printed Books in succession to Mr. Bullen. A year or two before this he had been released from the Superintendentship of the Reading Room, and critical biographies of Carlyle (1887), Emerson (1888), and Milton (1890) speedily attested the relief thus afforded him. In 1888 appeared "The Twilight of the Gods," a volume of highly imaginative short stories, which puzzled reviewers and excited the enthusiasm of some better judges. His work as author and editor during the present decade need not be enumerated. Now that he is free from official ties Dr. Garnett's literary activity is not likely to diminish, and since our tale is thus fortunately compelled to be incomplete there is no need to rehearse what will be fresh in the memory of our readers of to-day. We have only to add that his Companionship of the Bath was conferred upon him by the discrimination of Lord Rosebery, and his degree of LL.D. by that of the University of Edinburgh. Honorary degrees are not usually recognized in conversation, but, despite some struggles on the part of its recipient, the LL.D. was seized on at once by the literary world as offering a handle to his name no less ideally right than in the case of another eminent native of Lichfield, the great Dr. Johnson. If we are to mention personal traits we would say that Dr. Garnett is especially interested in the Popes of Romes, the Byzantine Empire, the poetry of Shelley and his contemporaries, South America, and cats, and that no man has ever been known to tell him a story without hearing a better one in reply. If he have any enemies they are more intangible than most ghosts, for we have never met with anyone who knew of them even at third-hand.

5

LIBRARY PROGRESS.

INCE "The Library" was commenced in 1889, nearly eleven years ago, some marked changes have taken place in methods of library administration, and even in ideas of library work of every kind. The oldtime opinion that a library is only a collection of books is gradually being superseded by the more advanced ideal of making it also an instrument for use. Ten years ago the collecting idea was much more common than at present, when, in nearly every department of work, are to be witnessed strong efforts on all hands to subordinate the idea of merely collecting or preserving to the higher and better one of selecting and expounding. The old idea of making every little library-centre a repository for the storage of all printed matter, in emulation of the British Museum, has been abandoned for some years past, and the plan of making the library a Workshop, suited to the needs of the practical life of the present day, is almost everywhere preferred to the Museum or omnium gatherum method. With huge collections in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester, not to speak of other places, the need for hoarding all the rubbish which issues from the press becomes yearly less apparent, so that, as the plan of selecting and expounding becomes more general, the local museum of bibliography idea will gradually become extinct.

And it is only fitting that it should be so. Excepting works of the imagination, very few books published sixty years ago are worth shelf-room in an ordinary public library, and if some of the older catalogues are examined, the truth of this statement will be generally admitted. The people of the present day care nothing at all for the history, travel, science, politics, theology or technology of

fifty or even twenty years ago, and, so far as public ratesupported libraries are concerned, it is an absolute waste of money and energy to provide storage for faded literature of this type. So in their turn will the present-day libraries become out of date, and have to undergo a process of weeding and reconstruction in order to keep abreast of the times. This comparatively modern idea of making the public library a means of education has gradually revolutionized library methods in every detail, as a brief examination of recent developments will amply prove.

A prominent feature of modern library work is to be seen in its periodical literature. Ten years ago one American and one English periodical served every requirement. Now there are six, of which two are American and three English, leaving out of the reckoning altogether the American, Continental, and English periodicals which are exclusively devoted to bibliographical or to trade interests. The six journals mentioned are devoted to the craft of librarianship in all its branches, and four of them make a strong feature of the practical side of the work. Then there are the journals, or bulletins, which are devoted more specially to the work of individual libraries, but which give much space to the description of books and the literature of important topics. This is a perfectly modern movement, common to both America and Britain, and is extending so rapidly, that very soon every public library will have its own little magazine or circular, in which to describe new books. Allied to this idea of expounding the contents of books in special journals is the catalogue or class list, with copious annotations, designed to make clear every obscurity of title-page or question of origin. These annotated lists originated in the need which was felt for some form of descriptive cataloguing to overcome the difficulties interposed between borrower and book by various artificial systems of registration or charging. As a supplement to these endeavours to annotate and describe books, we have had a great revival and extension of the

lecture, used largely as an efficient means of introducing readers to books, authors, and topics which are the best and most influential of their kind. Finally, among all these methods of expounding the book for the public advantage, it must not be forgotten that a certain amount of education in the true use of libraries is being spread among the young by means of school libraries, special juvenile collections, and the introduction to reading-rooms and libraries of very young children, ranging from eight years and upwards. In 1889 only lectures and school libraries were in general vogue, so that an immense stride in the intellectual development of public libraries has to be chronicled. From the professional point of view progress has been equally great, and has been manifested in quite as many different ways. Ten years ago professional literature hardly existed, and the means of obtaining information on technical matters were meagre and insufficient. An examination for assistants was held; but there were no proper text-books of any consequence, while the summer school and local instruction ideas had not even been ventilated. Now there are dozens of text-books on nearly every subject in librarianship, while agencies for the spread of technical knowledge are rapidly increasing. The local library association, with its stimulating influences, was a mere idea in 1889; but both it and the special society for exploiting particular classes of library work are now recognized as powerful aids in fostering and extending professional knowledge and esprit de corps. The Library Association itself, mother of them all, has been recognized by the State as an important factor in the educational movement; and, though lately somewhat prone to favour dullness, flavoured with tame mediocrity, it will doubtless return in time to the brilliancy of its earlier days, when it was more of a free-lance and less burdened with the awful dignity of a charter. The assistants have also banded themselves into an organization for the exclusive benefit of the class, and are doing