A glance at the list of schemes which have been devised is sufficient to convince us of the formidable task it would be to acquire detailed knowledge of each one. This, however, is not essential. Apart from the principal epoch-making schemes, only sufficient attention need be paid to them to trace the development of classification. Bacon’s scheme has had a great influence and must receive full consideration. Sayers’s Introduction contains the most satisfactory outline of this. In the same work brief outlines of the principal schemes are given, and good accounts are available in Brown’s Library Classification. These two books cover sufficient ground for the general student, but those who wish to make a more exhaustive survey of the various schemes will find further details in Edwards’s Memoirs of libraries, _Vol. 2_. Of the schemes in use at the present time the Decimal, Subject, Expansive, and Library of Congress are selected as the most important, and while a good knowledge of the two latter is required, students are urged to concentrate their main study upon and confine their practical exercises to the Decimal and Subject schemes, chiefly because they are almost in exclusive use so far as British libraries are concerned, but also on account of the fact that candidates for the Library Association certificate are required to pass a practical test in these two. Pay particular attention to the Introductions. The popular method of systematically comparing the two class by class is the best. It will be found most convenient to take the classes in the order appearing in the Decimal, and compare with the corresponding portions of the Subject. Make full use of Sayers’s Canons here. Valuable for analysis of the four main schemes. The Indexes should also be included in the comparison. Study carefully the criteria of a practical book classification as given in Richardson’s Classification, page _42_, and consider to what extent these requirements are met. Special consideration must be given to those classes which at various times have been severely criticised, and the student should be completely _au fait_ with the arguments for and against the treatment of the forms and subjects upon which opinions vary, e.g., Biography. Hulme’s Principles of book classification, in L.A.R., Vol. _13_, _1911_, _pp. 354-358_; _389-394_; _444-449_. _Vol. 14_, _1912_, _pp. 39-46_; _174-181_; _216-221_ (summarised in Sayers’s Introduction, Appendix _1_) takes a view of classification not entirely supported by the reading matter set in this course. For this reason the student is advised to reserve his study of these articles until having covered the reading prescribed, so that he may read them more critically and make a clearer comparison of the points of view. READING LIST. Aldred--The expansive classification. _L.A.R. Vol. 7, 1905, pp. 207-219; 196-201._ Brown--Library classification. _Chaps. 3 and 4._