Book excerpt: A guide to the existence, whereabouts, contents, and other features of a major resource for historians, directories of trades and commerce in specific towns or districts. Enlarged to 2,222 entries from the 1989 edition to include directories published after 1856 and up to 1950 for England and Wales, including London; comprehensive coverage of all Scottish directories published before 1950; and miscellaneous directories of specific trades, which have not been included in previous bibliographies. A 60-page introduction traces the evolution and types of directories and discusses their use in historical studies. The 120 library collections visited are described. The indexes are arranged by publisher, place, and subject. Distributed by Books International. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR