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International standards are produced and made available by a variety of organizations, some with worldwide authority and others with a special geographical or subject responsibility. They are usually referred to in the literature by code number and it is necessary to understand these codes before trying to locate the standards. A number of on‐line data bases are concerned solely with, or include, standards. In the UK collections of standards are maintained by the larger public libraries, some academic libraries and in research organizations. By far the best collection is at the British Standards Institute which also provides a first‐class information service.

This is the first of three articles on the various series of standard specifications which are most often referred to by industry and government in the United Kingdom. Information officers, standards engineers and librarians are frequently asked to supply and identify standards. An account is given here of what standards have been issued, where they can be consulted, borrowed or bought. The standards will be dealt with in the following order: British Standards Institution publications; other British non‐BSI standards; and finally international and foreign standards.

An account of the practical steps involved in building up, maintaining and exploiting a specialized collection of trade literature, standards and specifications, data compilations, and related material to produce a user‐orientated service (World Metal Index WMI). The origin and scope of the collection is outlined, together with the basic routines of updating (management responsibility, job allocation, delegation and supervision). The problems involved in co‐ordinating input from manufacturers, government organizations, national standards bodies, material users and commercially published sources in many languages are covered. The organization of files, indexing rules, etc. is described. The ‘spin‐offs’ and by‐products of the WMI are indicated. An attempt is made to answer the questions: Is the collection a successful information tool? Does it benefit the user? Finally, possible future developments are mentioned.

There is a growing desire amongst students of architecture to work, either in the UK or in developing countries, in situations where technical and cultural change is rapid and resources are scarce. At the same time self organizing local communities have become recognized as the most effective client and interlocutor for generating meaningful debate on the transformation of their everyday environment. Diploma Studio 6 at the Department of Architecture and Spatial Design of London Metropolitan University has worked with specifically local, low income and marginalized communities in Kosovo (2000 + 2001) and India: Gujarat (2002), Meerut (2003), Delhi (2004 +2005) and Agra (2006) to generate proposals for meaningful change and improvement. This paper seeks to draw out some of the major themes of debate which have emerged.

The role of the public reference library today is unclear. As a result there is a loss of purpose, staff are confused and collections are being weakened or broken up. Examines the history of the large urban reference libraries and the aims and motivations of their protagonists and early librarians. Concludes that many of these aims are still valid. The decline of the reference library coincides with the rise of information science, new service philosophies, and the weakening of public access to our printed heritage. Argues that there is a need to develop regional book and information centres, a need therefore for regional reference libraries.

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

CONCLUDING THAT much of the ennui which afflicted me during 1980 must have been due to my forfeiture of the mid‐winter skiing holiday to which I have become accustomed in recent years, I have arranged to be back among the mountains of Austria at the time when this issue of NLW is committed to the mercies of the postal services. (Postage rates having just gone up, do let me know if your copy reaches you earlier than usual — that would be called ‘productivity’!).

Positive cash flow ‐ LAMSAC, which is an acronym denoting Local Authorities Management Services & Computer Committee—an odd bird, by the sound of it, is to carry out a ‘major research study into income generation in public libraries in England’ for the Arts Minister.

WE begin a New Year in circumstances far removed from those in which any former year began. We were at war last January, it is true, but the actuality of it had not advanced over our own threshold as it has since done. The history of 1940 from our library viewpoint must await the assessment of more tranquil times, but in the cardinal tests to which libraries have been subjected we are convinced that they have been proven good. Fortunes have varied from the total destruction—except for 20,000 salvaged reference books—of the Gulson Library at Coventry to the loss of some glass or ceilings in other towns, but everywhere there has been remarkable resilience and an attempt, nearly always successful to restart the library service with little or no interruption. And the public has been most appreciative as letters we have seen prove: Richmond even received a congratulatory telegram from a reader. The contrast in this war between the desire for libraries and the continuous spurious economy “council” and “press” attacks upon them in the last one has been a significant social phenomenon.