=202. Practical Methods of Selection.=--The number of books which have been published to aid in book selection is somewhat large, but few of them, save, perhaps, Sonnenschein’s publications and Nelson’s _Standard Books_, make any attempt to indicate the best editions of particular authors. It may be assumed that every entry in these lists of best books represents a work which is recommended on account of its merit, literary or otherwise. But something more than this is required by the librarian who is faced with the task of building up a great modern library, and is limited in his selection to books of the most enduring merit, and those which most completely and accurately record the state of the science or subject to which they are devoted. It is a very easy matter to simply order _books_, like the millionaire who fitted up his library by the superficial yard, thereby tempting a bookseller, entrusted with a large order for books of a uniform size in fine bindings, to bind up some hundreds of copies of a cheap “remainder,” in different covers, but with varying titles, in order to provide in dummy form the necessary mileage of books required. Public library formation can hardly be undertaken in this happy-go-lucky manner. =203.= The principal aids to the selection of new books are The Library Association List of Best Books, which is an annotated, classified and evaluated list published weekly in _The Athenæum_, and _The A. L. A. Book-List_, which serves similarly for American books, and the journals of various kinds, which review and advertise books as published. Comparatively few of the literary journals review books in a manner helpful to the would-be book-buyer, because they do not describe the contents of them so much as criticize their literary style, production, printers’ errors, etc. Generally speaking, a modern book review is what it was in the old days of the _Edinburgh_ and _Quarterly_, simply a peg on which to hang the reviewer’s opinions on the subject of the book, and on which to display his knowledge and critical insight. Moreover, it must be remembered that publishers advertise their wares in literary journals, and that fact may, in some cases, not be without influence upon the views of the critics. The subject of the book, its style of treatment, scope, and details of its contents are left to be divined by the reader. Some of the modern publishers’ monthly catalogues are much more helpful than any journal or review, because they add brief descriptive notes to each entry of a new book. A plain, practical note outlining the principal contents and intention of a book is worth pages of critical remarks to the librarian book-buyer. The following is a list of the journals most used by librarians in selecting new books: