It is always difficult to outline any subject in a general way, and so it is with the subject of school libraries, their function in the schools, and relations to other libraries. As there are no two people or communities alike, so there are no two schools and no two libraries with exactly the same needs. There are, at present, many school libraries of from three hundred to one thousand volumes, tucked off in dark corners or shelved in the principal's office. The books are in bad condition, the editions are out of date, there is no plan of classification, no catalog or index, and no attempt to put the books to their best use. Moreover, there generally seems to be a difficulty in obtaining funds to keep a good library in working order. The question then arises, Should there be a permanent collection of books permanently located in a school? Certain books are at all times necessary for use in the same grade; such books we will call reference books. In the primary grades these would be few, but they increase in number as new subjects are taken up. Every room should at least have a good dictionary and cyclopedia. These should be owned by the school board. A number of copies of the same books forming sets of books used for supplementary reading should also be owned by the Board of Education. By a little adjustment of the curriculum it would be possible to furnish considerable variety of reading without great duplication. There are still a great many books necessary for school use. The next problem is to find out what state and city privileges are possible. The laws regarding school libraries vary in the different states. It is recommended that a careful