Harper’s encyclopedia of U. S. History from 458 A. D. to 1902. N. Y. Harper. 1902. 10 v. $31. =Poole’s Index and the Reader’s Guide.=—In 1848 William F. Poole, at that time a junior at Yale, and librarian of one of the undergraduate literary societies, began indexing by topics such magazines as were available “for the purpose of helping students in the preparation of their written exercises and society discussions.” Mr. Poole had noticed that the sets of standard periodicals with which the library was well supplied were not used, although they were replete with information on subjects about which inquiries were made in vain every day. Mr. Poole’s manuscript index soon showed serious signs of wear and in order to preserve it recourse was had to printing. An edition of 500 copies, printed in 1848 was soon exhausted, and in 1853 an edition of 1000 of a much enlarged index was published. Mr. Poole’s increasing duties as librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, and later of the public libraries of Cincinnati and Chicago, left him no leisure for carrying on the index, and so at the first meeting of the American Library Association in 1876 he proposed that the work be carried on by co-operation. This plan was adopted and with Mr. Poole as editor-in-chief and Mr. W. I. Fletcher as assistant and with the cooperation of some fifty libraries the work was carried on until Mr. Poole’s death in 1894. The first volume of this cooperative venture appeared in 1882, with supplements in 1888, 1893, 1897, 1903, and 1908, after which the publication was suspended. In 1901 the H. W. Wilson Company of Minneapolis began the publication of a monthly “Readers’ guide to Periodical literature,” with the view to supplying the needs of the very small libraries. It was to be cumulated quarterly and it increased rapidly in scope. In 1903 there was incorporated with it the “Cumulative index to periodicals” which had been published in Cleveland for several years. Two five-year cumulations covering 1900-04 and 1905-09 have been published and have grown rapidly in favor. This publication will henceforward continue the work of the Poole Index. =Public Documents.=—Among the sources of reliable information most prized by the properly trained desk attendant must be reckoned the various series of documents published by the United States Government. While hitherto many depository libraries have been swamped with the output of the Government Printing Office for which the libraries could not provide proper shelf-room, the libraries are now, by a process of selection and elimination, coming to learn what volumes are of most use to their particular clientele. It is better for a small library to buy these from the Government Printing Office than to have a whole lot of documents for which they have no call dumped down on them. Among the United States documents the following will be found the most useful for the average public library: Congressional record.