=Reference Work.=—By “reference work” is meant work done in assisting the public to use the resources of the library. Dewey defines it as “systematic aid to readers.” A reference book according to Dr. E. C. Richardson “is a book which is to be consulted for definite points of information, rather than read through, and is arranged with explicit reference to ease in finding specific facts.” In this class fall dictionaries, encyclopaedias and hand-books of all kinds. The same answer to almost any question may be found in a number of books in the library by taking the time to examine them carefully, but the object of the reference department is to serve the public as expeditiously and satisfactorily as possible and reference books are the means to that end. Any book referred to becomes for the time being a reference book; but the term “reference book” as used in a library refers to the “ready reference book,” i. e. the books that were specifically written for reference use and to which the definition given above refers. The reference collection is usually a small but exceedingly valuable portion of the library and the reference work does not confine itself to the use of the reference books, but to any book in the library which may contain something which will help towards the desired answer. The reference collection is generally placed in the reading room of the library and in that part of the room most convenient to the public and to the librarian. The reference department is the heart of the library, and the more alive and efficient the members of the department are, the stronger is the beat of its pulse and the more far reaching the results of its work. All other departments exist to make more efficient the work of the reference department. The accessions department purchases books that there may be live material to work with in the reference department. The classifier groups the books so that all the material on the various subjects in the library is placed most conveniently on the shelves. The cataloging department catalogs the books so that the reference department may by the simplest means find what is contained in the library. Without the work of the other departments the reference department would be tied hand and foot and might as well not exist. With their cooperation it becomes the very life of the library, reaching out in various ways into the community to make the influence of the library more strongly felt.