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Over the past 90 years, 50% of all mergers have been judged failures by the executives responsible for them.

The meeting, held on 17 May 1990, was opened promptly by the Chairman Andrew Nicholson, who welcomed everyone to the Seminar and introduced Tony Harman, who gave a very good review of the present situation of cleaning electronics assemblies before turning to future developments. In his paper ‘An Assessment of CFC Replacements—Proposed UK Collaborative Programme’, Tony developed the ideas which had led the UK Government to support this work. He did, however, point out that the funding was only now becoming available and this had delayed the start of the programme. Nevertheless, the itinerary of the cleaning trials had been decided and the practical work would commence shortly. In general terms, the programme will cost £¾m and will use between 600 and 700 test boards. As this programme is funded by Central Government, the results will be widely disseminated, especially to Small and Medium Enterprises.

IN THE END IT IS NECESSARY to consider what overall picture emerges from the survey. If one remembers that the original purpose involved the deliberate choice of the city as one with problems of a universal urban nature, then many interesting patterns show themselves. These patterns may or may not repeat themselves in other cities in the series — but if they do, they will most likely occur in Liverpool and London. Some facets are specifically Scots, and are the more interesting in that they are fitting increasingly into the patterns laid down in Curzon Street for the development of both secondary and further education. This may show the like‐mindedness of Her Majesty's Inspectorate in both countries, it may show the increasing importance and hence centralization of education as a major spender of national resources.

Milk is big business today in many nations, particularly those in Europe and North America. Thirty‐five countries produce 85 percent of the world's supply; the Soviet Union alone produces 20 percent of that total. The cow is the major source of milk, although the milk of sheep, goats, horses, water buffalo, camels, asses, reindeer, and llamas is also consumed by humans.

The appearance of a memorandum prepared by the Association of Teachers in Technical Institutions, together with the Association of Principals of Technical Institutions, on relations between colleges and the representatives of Industry Training Boards, gives public recognition, at least by implication if not by direct statement, to difficulties which have for some time existed in the working of the 1964 Industrial Training Act. A year ago, W. M. MacQueen referred to evidence which suggested that … the Industrial Training Act is being misinterpreted to the detriment of our technical education service and consequently of our industry, and more recently, EDUCATION, the official journal of the Association of Education Committees, commented that Resentment against the training officers attached to industry training boards has been steadily hotting up in colleges of further education. Some of them, the technical teachers say privately, are butting in like self‐styled HMIs, and presuming too far to tell the teachers their business. And some local authorities, the teachers allege, instead of defending the teachers, have been turning a blind eye to the interference because of the undeniable financial benefits which accrue to the education service from investment by industry.

IT is rare nowadays to discover in the annual or other reports of libraries any reference to current losses of books. There are many sides to this, as to every problem. Formerly it was held that a loss of one volume in an issue of a thousand was a reasonable loss; this our readers know. We do not recall a pronouncement based upon a count of stock and circulation recently. As our pages, and those of other library journals, have shown, the check and control of losses is a really costly business. Nevertheless, as long as we can remember, it has been impressed on librarians that we are custodians of a certain form of public property which we are expected to keep for as long in safety as that property retains its value. It can also be asserted that the discovery of whereabouts in the accounts of a bank a single shilling is missing may occupy hours of staff‐time; it is probably necessary to make it, and this was done a few years ago, and maybe is done now. To pose this problem nowadays, when there is so much else to be done, may be a little tactless. In the present conditions of public regard, or want of it, for the property of others, especially communal property, our eagerness to serve our people without let or hindrance, and the consequent removal of all barriers, wickets and entrance checks even in very busy libraries of large size—are we sure that we are absolved from all responsibility for the care of books?

A sustainability audit of Holme Lacy College is described. The approach adopted a “triple bottom line” assessment, comprising a number of key steps: a scoping review utilising a revised Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors project appraisal tool; an environmental impact assessment based on ecological footprinting and a social and economic impact assessment. The college has a number of unsustainable features. Its ecological footprint is equivalent to 296 ha and some 866 tonnes of CO₂ were emitted from the site over a one‐year period. The social impact of the college and its staff is significant over a wide range of stakeholders and the region. The economic impact indicates that the college contributes up to £5.3 million to the local and regional economy.

The earliest law of the adulteration of food imposed divisions among the local authorities of the day in functions and enforcements; most of the urban and rural sanitary authorities possessed no power under the law. Provisions dealing with unfit food — diseased, unsound, unwholesome or unfit for human food — were not in the first sale of food and drugs measure and there duties were wholly discharged by all local authorities. Rural sanitary authorities were excluded from food and drugs law and boroughs and urban authorities severly restricted. Enforcement in the rural areas was by the county council, although local officers were empowered to take samples of food and submit them for analysis to the public analyst. Power to appoint the public analyst for the area was the main criterion of a “food and drugs authority”. The Minister had power to direct an authority with a population of less than 40,000 but more than 20,000 to enforce the law of adulteration.

THIS issue opens the new volume of THE LIBRARY WORLD and it is natural that we should pause to glance at the long road we have travelled. For over forty years our pages have been open to the most progressive and practical facts, theories and methods of librarianship; our contributors have included almost every librarian who has held an important office; and we have always welcomed the work of younger, untried men who seemed to have promise— many of whom have indeed fulfilled it. In the strain and stress of the First World War we maintained interest and forwarded the revisions in library methods which adapted them to the after‐war order. Today we have similar, even severer, problems before us, and we hope to repeat the service we were then able to give. In this we trust that librarians, who have always regarded THE LIBRARY WORLD with affection, will continue to support us and be not tempted because of temporary stringency, to make a victim of a journal which has given so long and so independent a service.

This article reports the outcomes of a study on communication support, commissioned to develop a borough‐wide strategy in 2003 by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.The research stems from a recognition of communication as a key to successful delivery of public services and enhancement of a multicultural community.The focus is on ‘communication’ (rather than ‘language’), since it captures issues beyond the exchange of information through words: interpersonal interactions and relationships, techniques and modes of organising information exchange. Language is a key component within the broad ambit of communication mechanism and skills. Hence interpretation and translation are perceived as models of communications support alongside advocacy, integrated team, multilingual professional team, family/friends and minors, supported language, symbols and signs, and Plain English.While engaging in the debate and highlighting some of the broader issues concerning communication support services, the focus is on the following main issues:• policy frameworks and guiding principles in communication support• methods and techniques for needs assessment, monitoring and evaluation of communication support• communication support provision in Tower Hamlets including quantifying need, actual state of provision and users' perceptions.Probably among the first of its kind, the strategy draws on existing knowledge and good practice to develop a common framework for public services in Tower Hamlets. It is believed that it will serve a pioneering role in co‐ordinated existing and developing coherent approaches to communication support.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight a selection of poetry titles from the Poets House Showcase of 2006.

This article provides reviews of selected titles from the 2006 Poets House Showcase.

This review represents a wide‐ranging selection of contemporary poetry collections and anthologies.

This list documents the tremendous range of poetry publishing from commercial, independent and university presses, as well as letterpress chapbooks, art books and CDs.

The final report of the Butter Regulations Committee has now been published and it is earnestly to be hoped that Regulations based on the Committee's Recommendations will at once be framed and issued by the Board of Agriculture. It will be remembered that in an Interim Report the Committee recommended the adoption of a limit of 16 per cent. for the proportion of water in butter, and that, acting on this recommendation, the Board of Agriculture drew up and issued the “Sale of Butter Regulations, 1902,” under the powers conferred on the Board by Section 4 of the Food Act of 1899. In the present Report the Committee deal with the other matters referred to them, namely, as to what Regulations, if any, might with advantage be made for determining what deficiency in any of the normal constituents of butter, or what addition of extraneous matter other than water, should raise a presumption until the contrary is proved that the butter is not “genuine.” The Committee are to be congratulated on the result of their labours—labours which have obviously been both arduous and lengthy. The questions which have had to be dealt with are intricate and difficult, and they are, moreover, of a highly technical nature. The Committee have evidently worked with the earnest desire to arrive at conclusions which, when applied, would afford as great a measure of protection—as it is possible to give by means of legislative enactments—to the consumer and to the honest producer. The thorough investigation which has been made could result only in the conclusions at which the Committee have arrived, namely, that, in regard to the administration of the Food Acts, (1) an analytical limit should be imposed which limit should determine what degree of deficiency in those constituents which specially characterise butter should raise a presumption that the butter is not “genuine”; (2) that the use of 10 per cent. of a chemically‐recognisable oil in the manufacture of margarine be made compulsory; (3) that steps should be taken to obtain international co‐operation; and finally, that the System of Control, as explained by various witnesses, commends itself to the Committee.

ARTICLES have been written from time to time in our professional journals dealing with the question of local collections. These articles have, however, dealt with the formation of such collections, the principles of collecting, methods of storage, and the best means of classifying and cataloguing the same. But I do not remember any of the writers advocating the establishment of what may be termed county libraries, i.e., special libraries in each county for the accumulation of everything relating to the county. All works that do not deal in some way or another with the locality would be outside the scope of such libraries.

Future legislation relating to the control of the national milk supply formed the subject of discussion in the House of Commons on the 5th March. Although no new points were brought out, the need for fresh legislation was emphasised in this discussion, especially the need for a general Act that would, while giving the central authority increased powers, do away “with the piecemeal, voluntary, and local enactments at present in existence. It is evident that if any radical change in the present system is to be effective it must not only be general as regards this country, but it must also be imperial” and international; inasmuch as it must deal both with the supplies that are produced at home and with those imported from abroad. It would obviously be in the highest degree unfair to the English farmer to make his stock, workpeople, and premises liable to the frequent expert inspection demanded, and, at the same time, to allow milk to enter this country from abroad without the application of an equally rigorous inspection on this side, and without some form of guarantee from the government of the country of origin. In all matters connected with food supply improved methods of preserving and sterilising as well as increased facilities for international commerce have resulted, as time has gone on, in a large number of food preparations of all kinds being thrown upon the markets. The trade in cheese and butter substitutes as well as that in canned and otherwise preserved meats, and the supply of cereal preparations, afford well known instances, and the milk trade is not singular in the circumstance that a considerable and increasing amount of, milk is treated in various ways, both at home and abroad, for consumption in this country.

ANOTHER Annual Meeting has come and gone. It was scarcely to be expected that the meeting at Bradford would be a record in the number of members attending, seeing that it is only three years ago since the Association met in the neighbouring city of Leeds, and that Bradford cannot boast either the historical associations or the architectural and scenic setting of many other towns. For the most part therefore the members who did attend, attended because they were interested in the serious rather than the entertainment or excursion side of the gathering, which was so far perhaps to the advantage of the meetings and discussions. Nevertheless, the actual number of those present—about two hundred—was quite satisfactory, and none, we are assured, even if the local functions were the main or an equal element of attraction, could possibly have regretted their visit to the metropolis of the worsted trade. Fortunately the weather was all that could be desired, and under the bright sunshine Bradford looked its best, many members, who expected doubtless to find a grey, depressing city of factories, being pleasingly disappointed with the fine views and width of open and green country quite close at hand.

We confess that we get a little tired of the claims of originality put forward by librarians or their admirers, often for things that have been in use for a quarter of a century. The public events diary, exhibitions of holiday literature, this or that form of reading list, library lessons, and what not, all of which have been familiar to us since the beginning of the century, have all been claimed recently by some library or other which is “showing the way.” Originality, alas, is very rare; and the claim might be avoided we think. At the same time, we much prefer the librarian who faces a problem himself, and shouts with delight at his solution, to one who faces nothing.

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.

Extant literature exploring service user (SU) involvement in clinical psychology training has been limited by its sampling from singular training programmes and its restricted application of psychological theory. This research seeks to counter limitations by exploring SUs’ experiences across multiple clinical psychology training programmes in the UK and by deductively applying psychological theory relating to power, recovery, identity and group development.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 participants. A deductive thematic analysis was used to analyse qualitative data.

Five main themes were identified: environment determines sense of safety; meeting challenges; sense of purpose, worth and value; the person you see now is not the person I was; and wanting to break the glass ceiling.

Carers are underrepresented and the sample does not contain SUs who were no longer involved in training.

It is important that the environment fosters psychological safety for SUs, via positive and supportive relationships with trainees and staff, with SUs being treated as equals and financially reimbursed as such. SUs and professionals need to explore managing and sharing power to enable SUs to feel valued and to reap benefits from involvement, including developing a positive sense of identity.

The research is part of the early literature exploring SUs’ experiences of involvement in clinical psychology training and is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the first to explore the personal effects of involvement across multiple programmes.