the format of the books provided for children any more than in their contents; good paper, readable print, and illustrations of artistic merit, are becoming the rule. In the last-named particular children’s books at the present day are immensely superior to the volumes of popular fiction that seem to be perfectly satisfactory to thousands who are obviously their elders, but hardly their betters. The advantages of a closer relationship between education authorities and library authorities are manifest both in children’s rooms in libraries and children’s libraries in schools. The library is certainly part of the educational fabric. On the one hand, the teacher is aided enormously by the child’s work in the library, all the more if that work is spontaneous and enjoyable; on the other hand, the children who find out the vital part a library can play in their work and recreations, who have become familiar with books of reference and periodicals, with the uses of catalogues, the vistas opened by files, albums, and indexes, and the order and intelligibility brought about by a clear system of classification, will have acquired something of inestimable value in the process of self-development to be carried on long after school-days are over. The Adult Education Committee were of opinion that the intimate relationship required could not exist without a common administration; and they would accordingly have placed all our public libraries under the care of the education authorities. There is no need at this point to discuss their proposals, beyond assenting to the argument for the closest bond between school and library. Even if they continue to be managed by different authorities, all library activities in the schools should be worked from the library. Whether school libraries are stationary or circulating collections, they should be administered from the children’s library as the base, and their complementary relation thereto should be an important fact in the mind of every child reader. In England it must not be hastily assumed that every town or even the majority are blessed with all the facilities described above for the benefit of children. Only a few have faced the problem seriously, and hardly any have faced the expense of a thorough service. A town like Toronto employs twenty-one assistant-librarians in the mere work of supervising the school libraries, and many American cities have much larger staffs engaged on this alone. It is obvious, at all events, that no library authority can be expected to carry on such an undertaking except at the cost of the sister authority, ready though it may be to furnish the knowledge and experience of a trained staff. Common administration, or at least harmonious administration under departments of the same supreme body, seems a logical consequence. COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL LIBRARIES.