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Understanding how to effectively and lawfully gain information from a prospective employee is an important skill for business managers to master. The decision to hire an individual results in long‐term consequences‐turn‐over rates, levels of productivity, training costs, and company image. Because getting the right person in the right job is so important to the success of any business, many managers personally want to interview the potential employee. Yet few can boast of making a perfect hiring decision. In fact, half of all new hires in America stay with a company no more than six months; and each mis‐hire can cost 30 to 50 per cent above annual salary in lost productivity and expense of replacement (Bacas, 1987).

The former speaker of the U.S. House, Thomas P. O'Neil, remarked “all politics is local”. We would elaborate upon these wise words by adding “all innovative teaching is local”. As instructors who use interactive distance learning, we stress that successful teaching results when links are established between campuses and local communmities. These partnerships, assisted by modern technology, create advantages for all individuals who participate in projects such as the ones discussed in this article.

Positive relationships between management and employees at the work place can enhance the climate of the organisation. By examining management/employee relationships, one can predict the success or failure of a teamwork initiative. As one individual illustrated, “My work environment is a lot like a dog‐sled. Unless you are the lead dog, the scenery is always the same”. This dramatic visualisation illustrates the approach many companies embrace when they begin the teamwork approach to management; i.e. only a few managers and a few workers receive teamwork training.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact on health and well-being of participation in dance and arts activities by older people living in the community.

A small-scale, mixed methods research design comprising pretest-posttest evaluation of a three month dance and arts programme. Two groups of older people underwent physical measures and completed a self-report quality of life questionnaire. Written comments and interview data were also gathered.

Physical tests (n=14) demonstrated improvements in posture, shoulder mobility and balance in both groups following the intervention, with some measures reaching statistical significance. Quality of life evaluations (n=21) also showed improvement, with the mental health subscale reaching statistical significance. Qualitative data showed that participants enjoyed the programme and felt physical, psychological and social benefits.

The research involved only a small sample of volunteers and a limited programme length which limits its generalisability. The absence of a control group means that causality cannot be inferred. Future research should extend recruitment to a wider geographical area and a longer intervention which includes a control group.

Future arts interventions for older people should include consultation prior to, and throughout the project. Commissioners should consider supporting arts for health projects, building in additional funding for evaluative work.

This study has added to the evidence base through combining art forms within a mixed methods framework, illustrating the interplay between the art forms, the outcomes and the potential role of social context.

Increased competition in the banking sector coupled with long queues in the banking hall has necessitated the introduction of internet banking among banks in Ghana. As a result, internet banking has attracted a great deal of attention from both academicians and practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of internet banking on the performance of banking institutions in Ghana.

In total, 20 banks in Ghana were selected from the Bank of Ghana website for the study. The financial information about the banks’ operations was retrieved from the financial statements of the respective banks for the end of the year 2016. The data envelopment analysis-bootstrap approach with principal component analysis and cluster analysis was used to estimate 49 models.

The findings of the study indicated that the integration of internet banking into traditional banking methods has led to superior bank performance in Ghana. It was observed that while the independent application of internet banking as a strategy to raise performance was not yielding higher returns due to the low patronage of internet services among banking consumers, its integration with possible traditional methods is widely observed among the top performers in the banking industry.

Traditional banking methods, integrated banking service strategies and the internet banking service-oriented strategy emerged as the main banking strategies among the banks.

Extant literature is quite silent on the effect of internet banking on bank performance in Africa. However, this paper is among the first significant attempts to examine the effect of internet banking on bank performance.

WE write on the eve of an Annual Meeting of the Library Association. We expect many interesting things from it, for although it is not the first meeting under the new constitution, it is the first in which all the sections will be actively engaged. From a membership of eight hundred in 1927 we are, in 1930, within measurable distance of a membership of three thousand; and, although we have not reached that figure by a few hundreds—and those few will be the most difficult to obtain quickly—this is a really memorable achievement. There are certain necessary results of the Association's expansion. In the former days it was possible for every member, if he desired, to attend all the meetings; today parallel meetings are necessary in order to represent all interests, and members must make a selection amongst the good things offered. Large meetings are not entirely desirable; discussion of any effective sort is impossible in them; and the speakers are usually those who always speak, and who possess more nerve than the rest of us. This does not mean that they are not worth a hearing. Nevertheless, seeing that at least 1,000 will be at Cambridge, small sectional meetings in which no one who has anything to say need be afraid of saying it, are an ideal to which we are forced by the growth of our numbers.

There has not been much movement in the British library field since we wrote last in these pages. Such reports as come to hand indicate increased work, and even more difficult conditions, in the various libraries of the kingdom; and there are indications of an anxiety, very natural, as we think, as to the results of the new National Service Act upon the future. So far the Government has dealt not unwisely with local government staffs, and as many librarians are engaged in war‐work in addition to their ordinary duties, they will receive consideration no doubt. The removal of all eligible municipal staffs under the age of 51 would be a weakening of many war efforts which the central Government has devolved upon local authorities; and in these efforts librarians have in general taken a more than generous share.