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The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the accumulated body of research on Lean in higher education, draw conclusions to help guide successful Lean implementations and propose future research directions to establish a rich base of knowledge that informs both practice and research.

This literature review examines the academic literature regarding the use of Lean in higher education across 64 publications. EBSCO definitions were used to assess and present the synthesized results, which are detailed at the department/unit level and at the organizational level.

Overall, Lean appears to have significant and measurable value when used to improve academic and administrative operations in higher education. Such improvements are effective at the department/unit level or throughout the entire institution. However, implementing Lean within an institution is a serious undertaking that is most impactful if it involves long-term, strategic planning.

The groundwork has been established for the development of conceptual frameworks to further guide Lean initiatives in higher education. Such frameworks, together with further integration of organizational development and change management literature will define best practices when implementing Lean locally and throughout the institution.

At the time of this writing, there has been no systematic review or integration of the published literature about Lean in higher education. This review provides a highly useful starting point for researchers interested in further developing theory about quality in academic institutions.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

An examination of the retrieval from two databases which cover philosophical materials, Philosopher's Index and FRANCIS, revealed that each database retrieved unique relevant items. A philosopher is likely to get relevant ‘hits’ from Philosopher's Index. At the same time, one is likely to miss at least some relevant items if one searches only that database. Some items are included in only one of them, e.g. theses and special issues of journals appear only in FRANCIS. Philosopher's Index, containing the larger collection of philosophical materials, often requires a more restrictive search strategy in order to retrieve relevant items but not large numbers of irrelevant items. There were some ‘misses’ that seemed to be due to journals not being regularly or ever indexed, and some ‘misses’ due simply to indexer error. Among items missed by Philosopher's Index were items in recognizably important journals, items by important figures in the discipline, and important kinds of articles.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

Briefly reviews previous literature by the author before presenting an original 12 step system integration protocol designed to ensure the success of companies or countries in their efforts to develop and market new products. Looks at the issues from different strategic levels such as corporate, international, military and economic. Presents 31 case studies, including the success of Japan in microchips to the failure of Xerox to sell its invention of the Alto personal computer 3 years before Apple: from the success in DNA and Superconductor research to the success of Sunbeam in inventing and marketing food processors: and from the daring invention and production of atomic energy for survival to the successes of sewing machine inventor Howe in co‐operating on patents to compete in markets. Includes 306 questions and answers in order to qualify concepts introduced.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

The main purpose of this paper is to describe the use of e-resources at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), those are being offered through the University Grant Commission – Information and Library Network (UGC-INFONET) consortium. Statistical techniques are applied on usage reports generated by e-resources vendors/publishers to understand trend and seasonality in usages of e-resources in academic libraries. The researchers evaluated gain in popularity of e-resources and drew a comparison in use of various databases of e-resources in terms of volume of downloads over a period of three years. The study would help in designing an instrument to evaluate utilization of e-resources. The cross comparison of databases helps in identifying e-resources, which have been optimally used.

The present study used quantitative approach to express utilization of e-resources in terms of number of downloads of full text research papers from Project Muse, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Springer Links, Taylor and Francis and JSTOR databases, accessible through the UGC-INFONET consortium. The investigation is based on secondary data of usage statistics made available by the UGC-INFONET consortium. The descriptive statistics techniques have been used in the initial phase of the investigation to understand trend in utilization of e-resources and examine robustness of various statistical tests to identify most appropriate tests for the latter phase of the investigation. The robustness analysis has been recommended for graphical and non-parametric tests for advanced investigation, in the latter phase of the study. The with-in cohort analysis techniques investigates numbers of monthly downloads from each database for a period of three years, i.e. 2008-2010 to explain seasonality in volume of downloads of e-resources.

e-Resources have been gaining popularity gradually in academic libraries; this trend is in tune with gaining of popularity of web-based intellectual resources in other sectors. The study established need of library consortium for sharing resources and subscription fee. The investigation proves significant association between numbers of downloads of e-resources from different databases in the same period; thus gain in popularity of one database encourages readers to explore other databases. The study indicates seasonality effect in the usages of e-resources in academic libraries. This seasonality effect is contemporary to the academic calendar. There are large numbers of downloads just before the examinations, which are held twice in a year and negligible number of downloads during and around long summer study breaks. Thus, the bandwidth rendered to the university is not consistently used during the academic session. The coverage of databases in terms of disciplines and numbers of journals varies to great extent. There is overlapping in the coverage of databases. The strength of students and their demands for scholarly works also vary across disciplines, thus cross comparison of numbers of downloads from databases has little meaning until impact of these three parameters are not controlled in the investigation of utilization of e-resources.

The literature shows that no study has been carried out for the use of e-resources by researchers of JNU.

HIS holidays over, before the individual and strenuous winter work of his library begins, the wise librarian concentrates for a few weeks on the Annual Meeting of the Library Association. This year the event is of unusual character and of great interest. Fifty years of public service on the part of devoted workers are to be commemorated, and there could be no more fitting place for the commemoration than Edinburgh. It is a special meeting, too, in that for the first time for many years the Library Association gathering will take a really international complexion. If some too exacting critics are forward to say that we have invited a very large number of foreign guests to come to hear themselves talk, we may reply that we want to hear them. There is a higher significance in the occasion than may appear on the surface—for an effort is to be made in the direction of international co‐operation. In spite of the excellent work of the various international schools, we are still insular. Now that the seas are open and a trip to America costs little more than one to (say) Italy, we hope that the way grows clearer to an almost universal co‐working amongst libraries. It is overdue. May our overseas guests find a real atmosphere of welcome, hospitality and friendship amongst us this memorable September!