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THE Department of Library Science at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria was founded in 1968. Its foundation is regarded as an offspring of the Sharr report of 1963. The department was formerly known as the Department of Librarianship until the 1971/72 session when the name was changed to the present one. Its objective is the training of professional librarians at all levels.

IT SEEMS THAT librarians, in common with many other forms of mankind, do not learn from history. One of the more interesting sessions of the recent La Public Librarians' Conference in Aberdeen dealt with the need for many more librarians in school libraries, and the kind of qualifications which would best fit them for the work. Clearly, professional training in librarianship and knowledge of the educational process are both relevant and valuable.

ONE OF OUR readers has suggested that, to help a busy eye scan the pages of this section of NLW for instant recognition of topics of interest to it, these notelets should highlight in bold type certain keywords which give a clue to their content. Then harassed children's librarians, for example, can ignore the small type immediately surrounding the accentuated words ‘opulent bosom’ as being quite obviously beyond his/her realm of professional interest.

IN JUNE, I broke my 18‐month‐long moratorium on public speaking—a blessed rest!—to travel to the Isle of Wight to talk to the members of HATRICS assembled for their AGM. I attempted to repay the kindly hospitality of Hampshire County Librarian John Beard, IoW County Librarian Len Mitchell and his Deputy, Mike Howley, by a lengthy disquisition on the endlessly fascinating topic of myself, at the end of which I woke up the assembled company in time for tea by banging on the table with my trumpet, whereat they sneezed and expressed themselves well satisfied.

ONE OF MY oldest friends in the profession of librarianship retires next month from the post he has held for the last 19 years —that of City Librarian of Westminster.

I SUPPOSE that the library profession holds few more agreeable experiences for an individual than that he should be made the subject of editorial contumely in that piccolo among wind‐instruments, the Assistant librarian.

Extending knowledge of the cultural shaping and variegating of white identity that occurs through the commercial diffusion of identity myths, we examine the reception of Southern identity myths promoted in the oppositional narratives of New South commercial media. We characterize oppositional narratives as texts which operate by eliciting an interpretive reading that devalues rather than supports the surface narrative, and explain the duplicitous text as one intended to seduce a dominant power, while empowering and bolstering identity of a marginalized group. After elaborating how oppositional discourse can serve to reinforce the identity frame constructed by regional media producers, we report on a study examining how urban and rural Southerners read and respond to this discourse. Our findings highlight mediators in the relationship between individuals’ oppositional readings and their alignment of identity in a manner responsive to it.

A key development in early adolescence is the active construction of individual identity; for autistic young people, integrating the idea of “being autistic” forms part of this process. The purpose of this paper is to explore identity development from a contextualist perspective, foregrounding young people’s experiences within mainstream educational settings.

A longitudinal, qualitative methodology was used: semi-structured interviews were conducted annually with 14 autistic young people, their parents and teachers between school years 6 and 9.

Young people felt different from their neurotypical peers and their acceptance of their diagnosis changed over time as they managed their developing personal and public identities. In pursuit of being treated “normally,” many camouflaged their differences at school, which sometimes involved opting out of school-based support. Adults described their own understandings of autism and discussed the responses of others in the school environment to autistic differences.

The influence of sociocultural discourses of autism on young people’s identity development is discussed and implications for both school based and post-diagnostic support for young people and their families explored.

THIS number will appear at the beginning of the Leeds Conference. Although there is no evidence that the attendance will surpass the record attendance registered at the Birmingham Conference, there is every reason to believe that the attendance at Leeds will be very large. The year is one of importance in the history of the city, for it has marked the 300th anniversary of its charter. We hope that some of the festival spirit will survive into the week of the Conference. As a contributor has suggested on another page, we hope that all librarians who attend will do so with the determination to make the Conference one of the friendliest possible character. It has occasionally been pointed out that as the Association grows older it is liable to become more stilted and formal; that institutions and people become standardized and less dynamic. This, if it were true, would be a great pity.

In this review paper, the authors are particularly interested in the growth in the scholarly investigation of the efficacy of developmental interventions for doctoral and early career researchers. This paper aims to provide a “State of the Art” overview of the emerging fields of research and suggest areas that command more research.

A foundation of key disseminations relating to the new discipline has become established, and it is the outputs of these that the authors look to first in their review. However, much of the work is reported in the proceedings of two specific conferences, known to the authors and does not appear in database searches, which results in a concentration of research in two specific countries, namely, the UK and Australia. Relatively little is found from database searches, however approached, but the authors also report on this work.

There is a general gap in the depth of the body of work in all areas of literature relating to research on the practice of developing researchers. We have identified specific areas as the most limited in terms of the body of published research including research governance; work life balance; engagement influence and impact training and creativity and innovation training.

There is much work as yet unpublished and the practice of rigorous study and publication is not yet generally embedded in this research discipline.

Without the depth of rigorous and robust findings of research to provide us with evidence of good practice, the emergent discipline will struggle to have integrity in its practice. Continued growth in research in this emergent discipline is essential.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first review of its kind looking at the published research in respect of the development of researchers.