Barnardo and books go well together; Thomas John Barnardo(1845-1905) was an avid reader of books as a youngster, and continued to be so throughout his life. In 1868 he began to write letters in support of the Home for destitute children that he established in East London, and thereafter used the written word with increasing success in the accounts of his work, in his appeals for support, and in the descriptions of his experiences in the back streets of London. Stories containing vivid characterisations and scenes akin to those used by Dickens some years earlier began to appear either under Barnardo's name as author, or as editor of popular magazines produced from what became the Barnardo's Headquarters in Stepney, and published by London firms. The practice of binding a year's issue of these magazines together to form the hardback books known as annuals was the start of a substantial Bibliography which, under the name Barnardo, comprises both a complex biography and an immense act of philanthropy.

A bibliography generated over 150 years is well able to display the merit of the book as a 'written record on paper physically bound in volumes', for its constituent books are nearly all still available through the world-wide network of bookshops, as well as in the great libraries and archives. In assembling it, only books that are such(as opposed to pamphlets), and which contain significant data upon either Barnardo or Barnardo's, have been included. They are listed in the chronological order of publication and the same number is used for the linked notes, to which references are made, in bold type, in developing the Discussions at the end of the bibliography.

Each annotation begins with the physical features of the book, to which are often attached valuable details indicating its context. Technical terms referring to volume size, type of cover, title page, general pagination and chapter headings of the book have been changed to customary English, and the information in its pages is then presented in forms varying from summarising comments to sequential analysis and verbatim quotations, the latter indicated by italics or inverted commas, all with deference to veracity, copyright, and courtesy.

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