i34 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



more perfect card index than any one library could ordinarily afford 

 to make, and that at a cost much less than that of manuscript cards. 

 There is every reason to look forward not alone to a great extension 

 of the present work of supplying printed cards to scholars, bibliog- 

 raphers and libraries, but also to an extension of the scheme in the 

 direction of international exchange or purchase of printed catalogue 

 cards. The beginnings of such a movement are to be seen in the bib- 

 liographical labors of the Institute Internationale of Brussels and the 

 Concilium Bibliographicum of Zurich, while the International Cata- 

 logue of Scientific Literature for which the Eoyal Society of London 

 is sponsor is another great step toward international cooperative cata- 

 loguing. 



Bibliography has received a great impetus in the past decade in 

 America. Among other signs is the inevitable one of an organization. 

 Americans, said Agassiz, when they have anything to do, must have a 

 president, vice-presidents, secretary, treasurer and a constitution. The 

 genial Swiss was right. The Bibliographical Society of Chicago is 

 about to become the American Bibliographical Society. Meantime 

 private and corporate activity has produced some noteworthy bibliog- 

 raphies, of which The American Library Association's ' Guide to the 

 Literature of American History,' Mr. Evans's ' American Bibliography,' 

 the ' United States Catalogue of Books in Print ' and the ' American 

 Catalogue ' are perhaps the most remarkable. The list might be in- 

 definitely extended. Bibliography, whether seen in the form of the 

 scholarly treatise, such as the catalogue of the Dante collection of Cor- 

 nell University, or in that of the latest reading list for children, has 

 become a distinct feature of library progress in America. 



There has been no small amount of legislation affecting libraries 

 in the period we are considering. This has taken, as a rule, two direc- 

 tions, first, that of laws creating or amending a general act providing 

 for the establishment of libraries, and second, laws establishing library 

 commissions in the several states. The latter feature is the most 

 prominent in the history of the relation of the state to libraries. In 

 1893 Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut alone possessed 

 these boards. Now twenty states have established them by statute. 

 Generally these commissions are composed of certain state officials 

 ex officio (usually the librarian of the state library and the state super- 

 intendent of public instruction) and certain public-spirited citizens 

 who serve without pay. They have a modest sum to be expended in 

 employing inspectors and organizers. In general their work has been 

 limited to helpful suggestion to the libraries of their states, and to 

 the administration of a system of traveling libraries, another new de- 

 velopment of the decade. In certain states the commission is em- 

 powered to render some small financial support from state funds to 



