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This paper aims to put forward the view that, when the owner‐managers or drivers of a successful business have to give responsibility to a new management, careful succession planning can minimize the risk of damage and enhance the value of the business.

Explains the various aspects of good succession planning, and how they can be put into practice.

Emphasizes the importance of optimizing the contribution of existing management, staff and workforce through, for example, job rotation, training, coaching and mentoring. Concedes, however, that it will not be possible to promote from within in all cases.

Contends that employees will be prepared to make a deeper commitment to an enterprise that invests in them and their route to achieving their personal ambitions, perhaps through promotion.

Advances the view that the future performance of any company depends on the thoroughness and vigor of today's succession planning.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential role of micronutrients and omega‐3 fatty acids in promoting healthier ageing.

A literature review was conducted using Medline and key words relevant to ageing, nutritional status, nutrient intake and disease risk. Data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) were used to determine micronutrient adequacy.

The NDNS showed that intakes of vitamin A, B2, B6, folic acid, iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc and iodine fell below recommended levels for groups of older people. Vitamins and mineral supplements may improve nutritional status, lower the risk of deficiency, and impact favourably on disease markers.

The evidence suggests that dietary interventions and supplementation may become increasingly important in maintaining health and quality of life in older people.

This paper highlights the positive role of nutrition in healthy ageing.

Historically, Panama has always been “a place of transit.” While technically the isthmus formed part of Colombia in the nineteenth century, it was linked geopolitically to the United States soon after the California gold rush, beginning in the late 1840s. The first attempt at building a canal ended in failure in 1893 when disease and poor management forced Ferdinand de Lesseps to abandon the project. The U.S. undertaking to build the canal could only begin after Panama declared itself free and broke away from Colombia in 1903, with the support of the United States.

Gallstone‐related illnesses are one of the most common reasons for emergency hospital admissions, often with serious complications. Standard treatment of uncomplicated gallstone‐disease is by laparoscopic cholecystectomy, which can be safely and cost‐effectively performed during a short hospital stay or as day‐case. This paper aims to evaluate the referral pattern of patients with gallstones, which treatment is given and whether patients admitted as emergency could have benefited from earlier elective referral. The management of these patients is examined in the context of payment by results to determine cost and potential savings.

The approach takens was prospective clinical audit and patient questionnaire in a district general hospital. Cost comparisons were made using secondary care income (NHS tariff) and estimated cost of hospitalisation, investigations and treatment.

Between May and July 2007, 114 patients were admitted with symptomatic gallstones, 62 (54.4 per cent) were emergencies. Cholecystectomy was performed in all 52 elective patients and performed or planned for 59/62 (95.2 per cent) emergencies. A total 17/62 emergencies (27.4 per cent) presented with complications of gallstones. 38/62 (61.3 per cent) had similar symptoms before, with 21/38 (55.3 per cent) diagnosed in primary care or by another hospital department. 11 (52.4 per cent) of these had not been referred for a surgical opinion; taking account of age, co‐morbidity and data acquired for elective admissions, the cost of their treatment could have been reduced by at least £16,194.

A large proportion of patients admitted with symptomatic biliary disease could have been referred earlier and electively. Such referral practice could improve the quality of care and reduce cost for the NHS both in primary and secondary care.

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.

IPSWICH gave an interesting lead to the libraries of this country in its Book Week, which occurred last month. By a wise co‐operation between the National Book Council, the Local Booksellers and the Public Library, two book exhibitions—one of new publications in the local Y.M.C.A., and the other of book‐making processes at the Public Library—were held, and lectures at the Library by Sir Ernest Benn, representing publishers; Mr. Maurice Marston, booksellers; Messrs. G. A. Stephen and Berwick Sayers, librarians; and Mr. Michael Sadleir, authors, attracted good audiences. Posters of a most original kind “declared war” on the ignorance of the value of books in the town. The affair must have stimulated reading to some extant in Ipswich; and we hope it may find imitators elsewhere.

The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the history and development of transaction log analysis (TLA) in library and information science research. Organizing a literature review of the first twenty‐five years of TLA poses some challenges and requires some decisions. The primary organizing principle could be a strict chronology of the published research, the research questions addressed, the automated information retrieval (IR) systems that generated the data, the results gained, or even the researchers themselves. The group of active transaction log analyzers remains fairly small in number, and researchers who use transaction logs tend to use this method more than once, so tracing the development and refinement of individuals' uses of the methodology could provide insight into the progress of the method as a whole. For example, if we examine how researchers like W. David Penniman, John Tolle, Christine Borgman, Ray Larson, and Micheline Hancock‐Beaulieu have modified their own understandings and applications of the method over time, we may get an accurate sense of the development of all applications.

Neuro‐linguistic programming (NLP) is a popular form of inter‐personal skill and communication training. Originating in the 1970s, the technique made specific claims about the ways in which individuals processed the world about them, and quickly established itself, not only as an aid to communication, but as a form of psychotherapy in its own right. Today, NLP is big business with large numbers of training courses, personal development programmes, therapeutic and educational interventions purporting to be based on the principles of NLP. This paper explores what NLP is, the evidence for it, and issues related to its use. It concludes that after three decades, there is still no credible theoretical basis for NLP, researchers having failed to establish any evidence for its efficacy that is not anecdotal.

Our occasional plea for more candidates, representing all sides of librarianship, for the Library Association Council, seems to have been over‐adequately satisfied this year. The rotation system of election provides only five vacancies each year; for these there were seventeen candidates. The voters were as indifferent as usual. The entire number of votes for all candidates was 10,396, and this from a membership of well over 8,000, each with five votes to cast. Possibly this shows the proportion of members who are really active in their interest. The results, however, cannot be called unsatisfactory, although the loss of Mr. Seymour Smith is to be regretted on the London representation. His successor, Mr. F. C. Francis, is a welcome addition, as he increases our connexion with the British Museum, and thus recalls the early years of the Association. From the Country representation we have lost the chief librarians of Glasgow and Newcastle‐upon‐Tyne, and the County Librarian of Denbighshire. The three successful candidates, Miss F. E. Cook (Lancashire), Mr. Duncan Gray and Mr. E. A. Clough, merely return to the Council. This presents a sort of election puzzle, as those who were displaced were also on the Council last year. Possibly some of them formerly represented branches or sections; there is certainly a solution to the puzzle. We say with confidence that any one of the candidates, successful or unsuccessful, would be an excellent councillor. For examples, many would like to see Cambridge University Library represented by Mr. E. Ansell, and it seems impossible that Glasgow is not represented or that the work Mr. Paterson has done should not have kept his seat safe; while few men of recent years have done more for the education of librarians than Mr. Austin Hinton. But the difficulty is that much the same sort of eulogy might be made of those who have been elected.