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First of all I must stress that my remarks do not necessarily, or even probably, reflect Intercom's attitude — and I trust that you will treat this as personal data, in the spirit of the Act.

No doubt there are quite a few managers who flinch at the prospect of listening to Clive Jenkins — and paying for it.

“Managerial unionism” commented one writer recently “consititutes an emergent industrial relations phenomenon of major significance”. Long established in the public sector the movement of junior and middle managers into trade unions is indeed becoming increasingly evident throughout private industry. Rising job insecurity, dissatisfaction with salary levels and a decline in the individual treatment of managers by employers are some of the factors encouraging this development. New unions have been created and existing ones adapted to meet the demand. There are now more than a dozen unions catering exclusively for managerial and executive grades, as well as the more general white‐collar unions which recruit managers, notably Clive Jenkins' Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs.

Union leader, Clive Jenkins, says that management should acknowledge the “historic inevitability” of the Bullock Committee's proposals and confidently predicts that legislation will lead to the appearance of employee representatives in company boardrooms by January, 1979. While there may be those who disagree with both this assumption and forecast, it would be a mistake to believe that the committee's recommendations will fade into oblivion. Here, the issue is debated by British Home Stores and former ICI chief, Sir Jack Callard, and author and industrial consultant, Graham Turner. Both were speaking at a recent British Institute of Management conference on the Bullock report.

Trade unions are concerned about the right of individuals to control information about themselves. Computerisation causes particular concern because it enables easier cross‐reference between data sources so that individuals are less sure that information collected for one purpose will not be used for another, unknown, purpose. A further related concern regards the accuracy of such stored information. It may be misleading if used for another purpose. Our concern is not just with information held on computers.

If trade union officials are to take a more active part in industrial management, it follows that they will need to know more about how companies' operate. But proposals to beef up training and education — embodied in the Employment Protection Act — are hampered by obscure guidelines laid down by the Government's advisory body on the matter and, more seriously, a desperate shortage of cash. Report by David Harvey.

AS A RESULT of present economic problems in Britain and attendant cuts in spending, there is a need to achieve maximum cost‐effectiveness in all sectors of public spending including libraries. This article examines a simple method by which economies could be made in buying multiple copies of books. It is assumed that unless librarians have freedom to buy a single copy of any book they choose, they will not achieve the breadth and depth required of first‐class libraries, be they in the public sector or in academic institutions. Perhaps second copies need cause little concern, but a pilot survey of a polytechnic library revealed cases where as many as four, six or even eight copies of the same edition had been bought on one occasion before the effectiveness of a lesser purchase could have been evaluated.

January: Special couriers are des‐patched from the Central Office of Information with the Folio edition of the Works of George Orwell. Book Marketing Council special promotion for National Book Sale is 101 answers to 1001 questions (Guinless Superlatives). Management buy‐out of British National Bibliography is followed by an agreed takeover of The Standard Book Numbering Agency Ltd. Avon County equips mobile libraries with CB radio. Aslib Marketing Group buys European rights in new personal computer for information managers, the Avocado. In a draughty ceremony at Walton Corner, Maurice Line is given the freedom of Thorp Arch Industrial Estate, and invested with a Gannex raincoat. Task Force to consider LA insignia merchandising operation meets at offices of Touche Ross. Unusual weather conditions at Heathrow delay departure of Royal Party for Trinidad and Tobago.

The recent wave of strikes, official and unofficial, in all kinds of economic and public activity, affecting all kinds of persons from children to pensioners, occasioning suffering, misery and harm to the community in general, has caused January 1979 to be called ‘Black January’. Yet ten years ago, in January 1969 a White Paper entitled ‘In Place of Strife’ [Cmnd 3888] was published. The White Paper set out a policy for Industrial Relations. It was the policy of a Labour Government and had been designed in the light of the report of the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers Associations which had been published in June 1968 [Cmnd 3623]. The main recommendations of the Report [called the Donovan Report] were embodied in the proposals for an Industrial Relations Act which is Appendix I in the White Paper. That paper, following Donovan, boldly states in para 2:

The achievement of an orderly industrial society requires much more original thought than has been evidenced in Britain thus far, but there are signs that things are changing. Prince Charles has outraged some managers (and consoled a goodly number of employees) by suggesting that there's nothing wrong with the British worker that American industrial relations techniques couldn't put right if only British managers would take note. An American public relations agency, Burson‐Marsteller, has started to pioneer some of those techniques in the UK with role‐playing “disaster program‐mes” between managements and workers on sensitive issues likely to disrupt harmonious industrial relations unless the right dialogue is found.