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We describe an automatic classroom capture system that detects and records significant (stable) points in lectures by sampling and analyzing a sequence of screen capture frames from a PC used for presentations, application demonstrations, etc. The system uses visual inspection techniques to scan the screen capture stream to identify points to store. Unlike systems that only detect and store slide presentation transitions, this system detects and stores significant frames in any style of computer‐based lecture using any program. The system is transparent to the lecturer and requires no software or training. It has been tested extensively on lectures with multiple applications and pen‐based annotations and has successfully identified “significant” frames (frames that represent stable events such as a new slide, bullet, figure, inked comment, drawing, code entry, application entry etc.). The system can analyze over 20000 frames and typically identifies and stores about 100 significant frames within minutes of the end of a lecture. A time stamp for each saved frame is recorded and will in the future be used to compile these frames into a jMANIC multimedia record of the class.

Is this a fair description of conditions in typical large American libraries? Buildings that once seemed so spacious gradually (rapidly?) fill with books, journals, and other kinds of stuff. We squeeze in more ranges, making aisles too narrow for comfort or efficiency; then add little sections of disjunctive, unmatching shelves in whatever nooks happen to be left. We put big, old, ugly encyclopedic sets on the crowns of shelving units—all right, maybe, for basketball players. Fading papers hang shaggily into space intended for people.

Since the birth of this country, Americans have had a love affair with ice cream. Statistics show that United States residents consume more ice cream per capita than residents of any other country in the world. In recent years, with the advent of what are called “designer” ice creams such as Haagen Dazs, Bassetts, and Carvel, the population's passion for this dessert has increased even more. However, it is this author's strong belief that we spend much more time eating the stuff than writing about it. Some cookbooks are available, but not one periodical is devoted exclusively to ice cream, and the majority of articles in general interest magazines focus only on the competition for a share of the market among manufacturers of premium ice cream. There are two classic textbooks in the field, and they devote a good deal of print to examining and explaining the composition, butterfat content, percentage of air, and other qualities of ice cream. Obviously, it is much more fun just to sit down and enjoy a big bowl of vanilla, America's favorite flavor, and let someone else write about it.

I AM INFORMED, reliably (I judge), that the severity of the expenditure cuts recently inflicted on the London Borough of Kingston‐upon‐Thames library services—an authority bereft of either chief librarian or deputy these several months past—has stimulated action beyond the mere expression of professional consternation from the Library Association.