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In this paper, I demonstrate an alternative explanation to the development of the American electricity industry. I propose a social embeddedness approach (Granovetter, 1985, 1992) to interpret why the American electricity industry appears the way it does today, and start by addressing the following questions: Why is the generating dynamo located in well‐connected central stations rather than in isolated stations? Why does not every manufacturing firm, hospital, school, or even household operate its own generating equipment? Why do we use incandescent lamps rather than arc lamps or gas lamps for lighting? At the end of the nineteenth century, the first era of the electricity industry, all these technical as well as organizational forms were indeed possible alternatives. The centralized systems we see today comprise integrated, urban, central station firms which produce and sell electricity to users within a monopolized territory. Yet there were visions of a more decentralized electricity industry. For instance, a geographically decentralized system might have dispersed small systems based around an isolated or neighborhood generating dynamo; or a functionally decentralized system which included firms solely generating and transmitting the power, and selling the power to locally‐owned distribution firms (McGuire, Granovetter, and Schwartz, forthcoming). Similarly, the incandescent lamp was not the only illuminating device available at that time. The arc lamp was more suitable for large‐space lighting than incandescent lamps; and the second‐generation gas lamp ‐ Welsbach mantle lamp ‐ was much cheaper than the incandescent electric light and nearly as good in quality (Passer, 1953:196–197).

For thirty‐five years the Council of the Scottish Library Association fought for new legislation. Despite opposition from other bodies, refusals from succeeding Secretaries for Scotland to countenance differing proposals, and financial crisis and war, the Council never wavered in its campaign. Memorandum after Memorandum was produced, each succeeding version containing additional points.

Librarians and members of library committees will read with interest the views expressed in the following Symposium by writers who have lived their lives in immediate contact with most of the policy and administrative problems discussed in the Roberts report. Mr. Ashby had service in libraries at Watford, Hitchin, and Kettering: he is now County Librarian of Surrey; Mr. Corbett served at Birmingham, Mitcham, Ealing and Croydon: he is now Librarian at Wandsworth; Mr. Dow served at Glasgow and Bolton: he is now Librarian of Coatbridge; Mr. Haugh served at Liverpool and Westminster: he is now City Librarian of Bristol; Mr. Lace served at Manchester: he is now County Librarian of Essex; Mr. A. Shaw Wright served in the Counties of Middlesex and Cheshire: he is now County Librarian of Herefordshire.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

In our last number we presented an article by Mr. J. C. Harrison of the Manchester School of Librarianship on “The Library Schools and a Historical Dilemma” in which professional education and examination policy were reviewed. The following comments are to hand on the article.

THE beneficent work of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust in connection with libraries continues to demand the attention of everyone concerned with them. This year it is evidenced by the publication of the Report of the County Library Conference held last November, the papers by the delegates to America last year now gathered under the title Aspects of the American Public Library Service, and by the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Trust itself. These excellent publications, which are distributed with a generosity that we cannot too warmly appreciate, show undoubtedly that the Trust is the most active force in the library world at the present moment. This has been due not merely to the command of financial means which the Trust possesses, but also to a strong and consistent policy in which it has implicit faith. When it is remembered that ten years ago what are now called County Libraries were almost unknown in this country, the pace will be seen to have been remarkable. In no small measure has this been due to the eloquence, tact and abundant energy of Colonel Mitchell, who has been possessed with a missionary spirit of a quite unusual type.

The International Society for Hybrid Microelectronics invites the submission of technical papers for presentation at the above event. All original unpublished papers on microelectronics related topics are welcomed.

This chapter examines the framing of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement in mainstream media. An analytic sample of 4,303 articles collected from the Dow Jones Factiva database reveals variation in depth, breadth, and intensity of BLM coverage in the following newspapers between 2012 and 2016: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Al Jazeera English. We review contemporary literature on racial inequality and employ Media Framing and Critical Race Theory to discuss the implications of our findings on public perceptions, future policy formation, and contemporary social protest worldwide.

Despite considerable research on psychic distance (PD), research into the topic is confounded by a general failure to precisely define and fully operationalize the construct. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new measurement scale to assess psychic distance (the PD scale), and also to investigate the impact of the PD scale on the adaptation of international marketing strategies.

The paper uses data collected by mail questionnaire in a sample survey of 301 export firms. The results were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Various statistical tests show that the results are reliable and valid.

Findings reveal that psychic distance is a higher‐order construct composed of two dimensions: country distance and people distance. The results also indicate that both dimensions of the PD scale are positively and significantly associated with cultural distance and the adaptation of product, promotion, pricing and distribution strategies to the foreign market.

The paper develops a new scale, the PD scale, which is a measure of psychic distance and addresses a gap in the literature by testing its impact on the adaptation of the international marketing strategy.

The authors consider a group of commercial vendors who may be potential agents or players in electronic document supply. The group examines five potential providers of products/services: Dow Jones, Geac, OCLC, Faxon, RLG using Malone's 1989 comments on electronic markets as a framework, and using Porter's analytics to describe competition, and the role of technology in conferring advantage. The authors suggest that electronic document supply has produced an observable shift in exchange relationships between suppliers and buyers: the former are regrouping into partnerships which offer a confusing range of options to clients.