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The training needs of owner‐managers of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) have been consistently neglected by management development models. To address this lack of support in such a vital economic sector, researchers in Ireland have produced a bespoke, competency‐based personal development model.

This chapter outlines a unique collaboration between industry, academia and education to embed sustainability across the hairdressing sector. The chapter is in two parts with the first part written by Dr Denise Baden from the academic perspective. Dr Baden begins by outlining why the hairdressing sector is especially important to engage with respect to sustainability. Three projects run by the Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, and funded by the Economics and Social Research Council (ESRC) are then described. Lynda Whitehorn then expands upon the context of hairdressing practice, training and education from the perspective of Vocational Training Charitable Trust (VTCT) – a specialist awarding organisation which offers vocational and technical qualifications in a variety of service sectors, including hairdressing and barbering. In the process, we show how the collaboration between academia, industry and education enabled sustainable practice to become embedded across the sector.

THE inaugural meeting of the London and Home Counties Branch of the Library Association shows great promise for the future. The fact that between 70 and 80 members and friends attended this meeting only goes to prove that energy and stimulus only were needed to make the monthly meetings of the parent body successful ventures.

A PILGRIMAGE to West Cornwall can be heartily recommended to any librarian in search of rest, fresh air, and complete change from the monotony of town life. Here he will find abundance of interest and novelty in connection with the habits and customs of the ancient Britons still extant, and derive many impressions of pleasure from the magnificent rock scenery with which the coast abounds. Dairy‐farming, tin‐mining, pilchard fishing, druidical monuments, and wild flowers can also be studied with profit; and even Public Libraries, in a condition of arrested development not uncommon in other districts of England. Cornwall is pre‐eminently the county for Public Libraries. Geographically it is remote from the populous parts of England, and the Great‐Western Railway Company, with commendable forethought, have taken enormous pains to maintain this seclusion by a most pitiful and inadequate service of trains. I was once assured by the Public Librarian of Penzance that no thief would ever raid his institution, for the simple reason that it was impossible to get away quick enough to avoid detection ! A place thus difficult to get away from, is manifestly one which requires strong home interests to make it attractive, and, as theatres, music halls, and other light diversions, find little favour in Cornish towns, the Public Library, with its wealth of varied reading, is practically the only after‐dark resource left. But there are other circumstances which make Cornwall an ideal county for a liberal provision of Public Libraries. The decline of the mining industry has driven many of the men away to other centres, such as South Africa, and it is well‐known that, at the present time, more money is coming into the county from exiled sons abroad than is being made locally. There is thus an enormous surplus of that great natural reader— woman—and to her should be offered in profusion plenty of romantic and other reading as a solace and compensation for the loss of her natural companion—man.

NOW removed to Chaucer House, Malet Place, London, W.O., the Library Association is in its permanent home adjoining University College and the new National Central Library. Some strenuous work has yet to be done by the secretary and his staff before the ceremonial opening, but when Chaucer House is completed it should not only facilitate and permit the growth of the work of the Library Association; it should also form a meeting place of great value. We refer not only to meetings of a formal character, although room for these, for council and committee meetings and for examinations will, for the first time in our record, be adequate; we refer rather to the clubbable meetings that have hitherto been rather difficult. For many years librarians have advocated a professional club, where meals might be taken, friends might meet, and some of the social amenities generally be possible. There seems to be an opportunity here; but, clearly, no such club idea can be realized unless there is a definite desire for it, and, what is more, practical use made of it. If the London members dropped in regularly some catering scheme could be arranged which the provincial members could take advantage of too whenever they visited London. Can this be done? Other professions have managed it. It is merely sense to recognise that the provision of refreshments and other necessaries can only be made if there is a regular demand for them which will at least pay their cost.

On this Wednesday evening it will come as no surprise to you when I say that the BBC is on the air. Indeed, it would come as something of a shock, if I were to tell you that it is not! You will immediately think of BBC‐1 where Magic Roundabout is about to cast its spell. Or Radio 4 where William Hard‐castle is bringing listeners PM Reports; or Choral Evensong on Radio 3; or contrasting music on Radios 1 and 2. And then there's BBC Local Radio—in London with a programme about Local Government. But many of you, perhaps, would not immediately think of the BBC's External Services, nearly all of which are broadcast on short wave, the BBC World Service broadcasting in English for 24 hours a day and further services in 39 foreign languages on the air at different times of day and night. At this moment, for example, programmes are being broadcast from London in Maltese, Finnish, Roumanian, Persian, Arabic and German, while various World Service transmitters are carrying two separate programmes: a regional service for Africa and the mainstream for the rest of the world.

THE purpose of this article is to describe two methods, which may be employed independently of chemical analysis and within their limitations, to classify steels.

A significant amount of experimentation in virtual collection building and public service has been underway for the past few years. The time has now come to stop experimenting and commit instead to building collaborative, scalable and sustainable programs to meet patrons at their point of need. Our failure to do so will mean a relegation of libraries to the back ranks of information gatherers and suppliers. While it is unlikely that libraries will disappear altogether, they will become afterthoughts unless librarians consciously rethink their roles in society and academia becoming less the passive retainer and more the active participant in the creation and maintenance of information and knowledge. The resources and means are available to make librarians viable and necessary contributors to efficient information retrieval. However, do librarians have the will, the imagination and the confidence to do so? This chapter will evaluate the development of virtual reference services and will suggest a road map for where to go next.

MANY and sundry are the worries which fall to the lot of the librarian, and the matter of book‐repair is not the least among them. The very limited book‐fund at the disposal of most public library authorities makes it imperative on the part of the librarian to keep the books in his charge in circulation as long as possible, and to do this at a comparatively small cost, in spite of poor paper, poor binding, careless repairing, and unqualified assistants. This presents a problem which to some extent can be solved by the establishment of a small bindery or repairing department, under the control of an assistant who understands the technique of bookbinding.