Exact classification is making its way in all directions. The art of classification is not only an invaluable mental discipline, it may be applied with advantage in every province of work and business. It stands for order and method in all sorts of affairs. Though a classification of books is not the same thing as a classification of things, and may depart in many respects from the exactness of logical theory, there is no better way of inculcating the usefulness of system than by illustrating it in a well-classified library, where the reader can find his way from shelf to shelf, and follow the tracks pointed out for him to other book-cases the contents of which are more distantly connected with his subject. Commercial firms have learned the value of systematic filing. Representatives of business corporations and parties of students from schools and colleges visit the Commercial Library at Manchester in order to examine the vertical file and have its principles explained. It is in the research departments of the technical firms that classification, filing, and indexing are pursued to their furthest reaches. It is to be wished that the librarian’s near relations, the publisher and the bookseller, would make more use of system. When the bookshops are arranged on an intelligible plan, there may be less romance in the Charing Cross Road, but it will be better for business. And, though some might think there was more lost than gained in the second-hand shop if “Americana” were shelved according to Dewey and “Book Rarities” placed in their proper decimal order, there is at any rate no sentimental objection to the scientific arrangement of new books. But, with the notable exceptions of two or three large firms of publishers and the university presses, no one seems to think it worth while to issue classified catalogues of new publications. Booksellers and publishers prefer to arrange their wares and compile their catalogues by the sizes of books, by binding, or by prices--by anything except the subject. Both are sadly in need of a course in librarianship. Publishers have declined to take the expert advice of the Library Association, or to learn anything on the materials, printing, format, or even the kinds of books that are wanted. The fact is, their books, their catalogues, and their methods of marketing are adapted to the momentary satisfaction of a public having no acquaintance with the library arts. When we are each our own bibliographer, these perfunctory ways will have to be dropped, or the reader and book-buyer will want to know why. [Illustration: _Photo by Langley & Sons_ READING ROOM OF THE GOLDSMITH’S LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.]