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Despite the new ‘needs driven’ criteria for public funded admission to nursing homes, there remains concern that older people are entering such care inappropriately. However, neither previous research or policy makers have sub‐divided such inappropriate entries into their constituent groups: those who are inappropriate because they are too independent and those who are inappropriate because they are too dependent. The aims of this study were to determine the extent of inappropriate nursing home admission amongst older people in nursing homes in six areas of England and Wales between 1995‐96. This was done through a retrospective case‐note review using a structured data‐collection pro forma. Although the study found no evidence of extensive inappropriate placement, extrapolation of these data suggests that 6,750 of those admitted to nursing care could have coped in a more independent environment. The inappropriately admitted group were more likely to have lived alone, be female, elderly and not to have seen a geriatrician. It is concluded that the most effective way to prevent such admissions would be to ensure the involvement of specialist geriatricians in the multidisciplinary team involved in admission decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of international benchmarking studies as drivers for e‐government development.

The paper shows that after reviewing 44 published e‐government benchmarking reports (2000‐2006) and evaluating their validity and acceptance in academic and practitioners' literature, the paper systematically compares and contrasts ten established international e‐government benchmarking methodologies. The comparative analysis is conducted utilizing a proposed conceptual framework (CMBP), which specifically assesses the context, methodology, type of benchmarking and social paradigmatic tendency of each of the reports studied.

The paper finds that regardless of the methodology adopted‐international e‐government benchmarking does have an imperative role in driving e‐government development, only when the exercise is accompanied with a long‐term iterative adaptation and reform mechanism.

The framework proposed in this paper provides public administrators with a valuable conceptual lens for understanding the value of each benchmarking study to better assess its applicability in driving development of their e‐government initiative. The paper also contributes to the limited body of academic literature investigating e‐government benchmarking and proposes a methodical framework for understanding the role of international benchmarking reports in e‐government development.

The Branch held a week‐end conference at Hertford College, Oxford, from 17th to 19th April, on the theme ‘Educating the user’. Mr Gordon H.Wright, County Technical Librarian of Hertfordshire, in a paper on ‘Educating tomorrow's potential information user’, discussed critical thinking and the art of communication. Mr J.E.Terry, Information Officer, AERE Harwell, described the course on information sources and library services which is run for scientific officers at AERE. Mrs Irene Veasey of Blackwell's urged that Aslib appoint advisory officers to discuss with representatives of organizations the practical aspects of information dissemination within their own concerns. Mr Jack Bird, Education Officer, Aslib, and the three speakers were on a panel to discuss points arising from the papers, and open discussion then followed.

In today’s globalized world, countries are becoming increasingly multiethnic. This raises questions about the different dimensions of consumers’ territorial identities, and how these dimensions are differentiated, interrelated and interlinked. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Using qualitative interviews, this paper investigates how (40) respondents from two different ethnic minorities in a country that is not necessarily considered multiethnic perceive these dimensions of territorial identity (ethnic, regional and national) as a constituent element of their own person and of their behavior.

The authors highlight that these three dimensions of territorial identity co-exist as independent entities; they are distinct but interrelated and interconnected. Furthermore, idiosyncrasies in the ethnic sub-samples are investigated and described. These are related to the connection to the country of residence (being born there vs having immigrated there). Finally, avenues for future research, such as expanding the concept of territorial identities and its connection to consumer behavior, are suggested.

The authors extend the bipolarity commonly used in territorial identities (global vs local or ethnic vs national) to three conceptually independent dimensions. The authors explore the relationships between these dimensions of territorial identity and show that they may not conflict but, instead, co-exist.