discarding any book when its usefulness is past unless it takes rank as a valuable original authority. At a later stage some suggestions on book discarding or library weeding are given, which may prove helpful. =185.= Book selection should be conducted upon the sound principle of buying only the best representative works on all subjects, whatever may be their cost or place of origin. A more haphazard and ineffectual method of building up a public library than buying cheap series and libraries of reprints can hardly be imagined. It is almost equivalent to advising a committee to buy cheap books by the yard in order to fill the shelves, and let the proper representation of great subjects depend on chance. Books published in “series” or “libraries” are too often mere commercial ventures of small literary or other value; and in the case of editions of standard authors, such uniform series are often the worst form in which a poet or novelist can be presented to a reader. They are full of errors and omissions, and whether the series is devoted to art, science, literature or history, it may be taken for granted that they are simply temporary text-books which possess the doubtful advantage of being bound uniformly, and the undoubted disadvantage of being often uniformly erroneous and misleading. Of course this statement does not apply all round, because there are several well-known series of works of quite exceptional value. Connected with this a word may be permitted on the nationality of text-books. Patriotism in literature and library management may be a fine thing, but it must occasionally lead to sorry results in a public library. The best and most recent scientific works, whether on biology, geology or any other subject, should be bought without regard to the nationality of the authors.