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Reliability evaluations for new electronic components and assemblies regularly require extensive test cycles that are both time consuming and costly. Objectives of such test batteries are to identify failure mechanisms and the relationship between these mechanisms and product design or processing features. Optimisation of these critical factors or process steps results in optimised reliability. Statistically designed experiments can facilitate the optimisation process by minimising the amount of testing needed to identify factors affecting reliability, and by providing insight into how these factors can be specified to ensure optimum product design. Designed experimentation was utilised in this study to look at product design and process factors affecting the reliability of inner leads for tape automated bonding (TAB) components. Four factors are considered: outer lead compliancy; chip immobilisation; downset; and tape stiffness and rigidity. Experimental details and results are presented which assess the relative importance of these factors in determining ultimate inner lead reliability, and also provide guidance for final product design considerations.

UNTIL the end of 1948 Mr. Nowell remains our President and his occupancy of the office has fulfilled all that we expected of him. It has been forceful and, we think, has left its mark upon us, his general statesmanship and complete sanity of outlook being shown whenever he had occasion to direct meetings or to speak to them. He does not now go into retirement as our past four presidents‐have done by the fiat of superannuation schemes ; he has what President Cashmore called the glory of going on for a number of years yet. He will therefore continue to exercise profound influence on public and other librarianship with the wisdom and power with which, as President, he has won general thanks.

THERE are now so many meetings of the Library Association and its branches and sections that the good custom of recording meetings and the discussions at them has fallen into desuetude. In a way it is a gain, for when the discussion was commonplace the account of a meeting became a mere list of those who attended and spoke, bones without flesh; but in the days when The Library Association Record really was a record, its reports were a part of the educational and informational material of every librarian. Something should be done about this, because 1938 opened with a series of meetings which all deserved the fullest report. The principal one was the investiture meeting of the President of the Library Association on January 17th. The attendance was greater than that at any meeting of librarians in recent years, of course other than the Annual Conference. Chaucer House was beautifully arranged, decorated and lighted for the occasion, an atmosphere of cheerfulness and camaraderie pervaded the affair. The speeches were limited to a few preliminary words by the retiring President, the Archbishop of York, before placing the badge on his successor's neck; a brief, but deserved panegyric of Dr. Temple's services by Mr. Berwick Sayers; and then a delightful acknowledgment from His Grace. The serious point the Archbishop made was his surprise at learning the wide extent of the library movement and his conviction that it must be of great value to the community. His lighter touch was exquisite; especially his story of the ceremonial key, which broke in the lock and jammed it when he was opening a library in state, and of his pause to settle mentally the ethical point as to whether he could conscientiously declare he had “opened” a place when he had made it impossible for anyone to get in until a carpenter had been fetched. Altogether a memorable evening, which proved, too, as a guest rightly said, that one cannot easily entertain librarians, but, if you get them together in comfortable conditions, they entertain themselves right well.

This article reviews the international literature of the last two decades on self‐injurious behaviour in prisons and jails and introduces the risk factors associated with this behaviour. Studies from a variety of countries investigated different samples (e.g. in jails or prisons; female or male inmates). We only chose those studies using a control group of inmates without self‐injurious behaviour. The findings on potential risk factors for self‐injurious behaviour are largely contradictory because of the differences in sample selection and dependent variables (deliberate self‐harm without suicidal intent vs. suicide attempts). We also discuss some methodological problems in predicting self‐injurious behaviour.

THIS is the month when librarians and library workers everywhere, their holidays over, turn to their winter plans. There are, however, some interesting events to take place before the darker and more active months come. The first is the meeting at Oxford on September 21st and subsequent days of the Federation International de Documentation. This will be followed by and merge into the ASLIB Conference, and there is in prospect an attendance of over three hundred. Our readers know that this organization produces and advocates the International Decimal Classification. It is not primarily a “library” society but rather one of abstractors and indexers of material, but it is closely akin, and we hope that English librarianship will be well represented. Then there is a quite important joint‐conference at Lincoln of the Northern Branches of the Library Association on September 30th— October 3rd, which we see is to be opened by the President of the Library Association. Finally the London and Home Counties Branch are to confer at Folkestone from October 14th to 16th, and here, the programme includes Messrs. Jast, Savage, McColvin, Wilks, Carter, and the President will also attend. There are other meetings, and if the question is asked: do not librarians have too many meetings ? we suppose the answer to be that the Association is now so large that local conferences become desirable. One suggestion, that has frequently been made, we repeat. The Library Association should delegate a certain definite problem to each of its branches, asking for a report. These reports should form the basis of the Annual Conference. It is worthy of more consideration.

RELIEF, which came to Europe in the early morning of September 30th, will be felt no more keenly anywhere than in libraries. Since Richard de Bury implored peace because war was the worst enemy of the book, we have had reason to know for ages what war may mean for our collections. Already, indeed, library staffs had been drawn upon for service in the Forces, in Air Raid Precautions and other urgent war work and some have not returned to their usual places yet. In the last war the proceedings began for libraries with drastic retrenchments and these were restored only when it was found that even at such a time the book was a necessity and not a superfluity.

THE new President of the Library Association, a handsome portrait of whom appears in the December Library Association Record, brings to the office the influences of a career of fine public service. We, in common with every journal that speaks to and for librarians, assure him of loyalty and congratulate ourselves on this addition to the roll of distinguished men who have served librarianship. The Record is wise in reminding us that we are more than a librarians' association and the regular election of men of affairs as presidents is a policy that used to be followed and should now be continued. The policy need not exclude in normal circumstances an alternate librarian president.

Buildings have a considerable impact on the environment being responsible for a substantial proportion of global energy consumption, thus contributing significantly to the anthropogenic CO2 emissions, which evidence suggests is the main cause of climate change. Mitigation and adaptation measures are required to tackle the challenges of climate change. Adaptive measures – structural and behavioural strategies – are the focus of this paper. Structural strategies include flexible and adaptive structural systems; while behavioural strategies cover the spatial, personal, and psychological control measures which may influence the design and operations of buildings. The study explores the adaptive thermal comfort of occupants and examines the design strategies for adapting buildings to climate change in the tropical context, with a view to determine the effectiveness of these strategies as observed in the case study. The study was conducted during the rainy and dry seasons in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria, located in a warm humid climate zone.

The Institute of Venture Design student hostel was used as case-study to conduct the survey on a sample of 40 respondents by means of structured questionnaire. The respondents' thermal sensation and access to thermal controls were determined, and their thermal sensation and thermal adaptability in both seasons comparatively analyzed. Indoor environmental parameters including air temperature, mean radiant temperature, relative humidity and air velocity were also measured. The data were analyzed using relevant descriptive and inferential statistics. The study discussed the effectiveness of design strategies available for building adaptation in an era of climate change within the warm humid environment, concluding on the need for greater synergy between the techno-structural and socio-behavioural dimensions of building adaptation.

ONE or two questions raised by the writer of “Letters on our Affairs” this month are of some urgency. The first, the physical condition of books, is one that is long over‐due for full discussion with a view to complete revision of our method. The increased book fund of post‐war years, and the unexpected success of the twopenny library, have brought us to the point when we should concentrate upon beautiful and clean editions of good books, and encourage the public to use them. “Euripides” is quite right in his contention that there is too much dependence upon the outcasts of the circulating library for replenishing the stocks of public lending libraries. We say this gravely and advisedly. Many librarians depend almost entirely upon the off‐scourings of commercial libraries for their fiction. The result, of course, is contempt of that stock from all readers who are not without knowledge of books. It is the business of the public library now to scrap all books that are stained, unpleasant to the sight, in bad print, and otherwise unattractive. Of old, it was necessary for us to work hard, and by careful conservation of sometimes quite dirty books, in order to get enough books to serve our readers. To‐day this is no longer the case, except in quite backward areas. The average well‐supported public library—and there are many now in that category—should aim at a reduction of stock to proportions which are really useful, which are good and which are ultimately attractive if not beautiful. The time has arrived when a dirty book, or a poorly printed book, or a book which has no artistic appeal, should be regarded as a reproach to the library preserving it.

Any scheme whereby the treasures of a public reference library are made more widely known is sure of the sympathetic consideration of all serious librarians, for it is a lamentable fact that reference libraries generally, and especially those in the provinces, are very sparingly appreciated. Their primary function is largely defeated by the ignorance of those most likely to be benefited. When there is displayed any considerable use of the facilities for research and study, analysis will often show it to be a mere prostitution by competition‐mongers and acrostic‐solvers; the genuine student is seldom much in evidence.