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Ayers’ recent suggestions for a Universal Standard Book Number, logically generated from a catalogue entry, and therefore applicable restrospectively to bibliographic files, have been implemented and tested on two one‐year cumulations of BNB MARC files. The proportion of unique entries provided by the USBN was found to be about 91%. Revisions to the coding tables were made on the basis of a detailed analysis of the results and of determinations of the frequencies of characters in the data elements used. These resulted in improvements to the method, giving an increase in the proportion of unique entries to approximately 96%.

The history of the Universal Standard Bibliographic Code (USBC) is traced from its original concept as a machine generated control number to its present status as a means of merging catalogues, eliminating duplication and providing quality control in machine‐based bibliographic databases. Details are given of the early research work, the feasibility study that was carried out in connection with the United Kingdom Library Database System (UKLDS), the DOCMATCH Project and the work on expert systems. A resumé is given of the present work and proposed areas for research.

Details are given of a survey carried out in a large scientific special library on the comparative accuracy of the author and title information which the user brings to the catalogue. The sample was restricted to requests for book material. The results are analysed in detail and show the title to be more accurate. Some suggestions are made for extending this type of survey.

This paper describes the technical aspects of a feasibility study funded to test a new concept in bibliographic control based on the manifestations of a work. A new type of hierarchical bibliographic record structure was used to store sets of bibliographic records in a relational database (Microsoft Access) on a PC. This was then used for an experimental Windows‐based OPAC. The overall success of the idea was evaluated and any problem areas identified with a view to a more substantial study.

The loans control system used at AWRE is described in detail. Punched cards produced in the library are used as input to a computer to provide the necessary control tools: reminders, borrower, and date listings. Details are given of a method of using the computer to perform a sort in UDC number order. Plans to integrate and mechanize the cataloguing and ordering operations using an IBM 870 system and an IBM 360/30 computer are also described.

This article does not fully cover the background and philosophy behind BOPAC2. This is done by a number of published articles and reports. The present BOPAC2 which is available on the Internet and is being accessed from all over the world is the result of two Research Projects which were funded by the British Library. The first Project attempted to simulate the new type of OPAC which we believed could be the forerunner of a much more efficient and effective library catalogue than any of those presently in use. Our aim was to utilise some of the facilities that were becoming widely available on the computer desktop. Features of most GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) such as scrolling displays, highlighting text and pull down menus clearly offered improvements to many information systems of which OPACs are only one.

IN a preface of Smiles' you will find the statement: “Without exaggerating the importance of this class of biography, it may at least be averred that it has not yet received its due share of attention.” The truth of this statement holds good to‐day. That our national industries lie at the root of national progress is recognized by library authorities, inasmuch as efforts are continually made to bring into prominence books on the useful and industrial arts, without, however, bringing under public notice biographies bearing very closely on the history and development of certain British trades and industries. There may be a feeling that this “class” falls under the head of “lives of very great inherent importance indeed, but which appeal to comparatively small circles of readers, from the large demand they make upon the possession of special culture or knowledge.” In point of fact, accounts of industrial processes (be they ever so clearly written) have little fascination for the general reader, but the lives of men who have created or developed those industries seldom lack incident and romance, and thereby appeal to the popular mind. On the ground of its democratic character, industrial biography deserves the librarian's attention —life‐records in most cases of men “ignorant of letters; without art; without eloquence; who yet had the wisdom to devise and the courage to perform that which they lacked language to express.”

In his paper to the Aslib conference on Cooperation in Cataloguing David Batty mentions the development of two systems to enable a library to exploit the MARC II format for bibliographic data, including of course the BNB and Library of Congress literature tapes. These systems were (a) at the Fondren Library, Rice University, Texas, and (b) the AMCOS (Aldermaston Mechanised Cataloguing and Ordering System at AWRE which will commence full operational tests in March 1970.

The purpose of mechanisation in libraries is to have basic records in machine readable form so that the processing capabilities of machines can be exploited, (a) to maximise access to and ease of use of the literature, and (b) to help relieve the problems produced in libraries by the ever increasing output of literature.

Discusses DOCMATCH, the project designed to test the feasibility of automatically matching document requests derived from database hosts with articles on the ADONIS workstation, achieved using Universal Standard Bibliographic Codes (USBCs). Considers the problems of matching requests that did not originate from database hosts where the bibliographic information was of a poorer quality. Finally, examines the relative merits of different serial article identification schemes.