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“Companies, particularly those which sell goods or services direct to the public, regard their trade marks (whether brand names or pictorial symbols) as being among their most valuable assets. It is important therefore for a trading nation such as the United Kingdom to have a legal framework for the protection of trade marks which fully serves the needs of industry and commerce. The law governing registered trade marks is however fifty years old and has to some extent lost touch with the marketplace. Moreover it causes some of the procedures associated with registration to be more complicated than they need be.” This introductory paragraph to the Government's recent White Paper on “Reform of Trade Marks Law” indicates that reform is in the air. The primary pressure for reform has emanated from Brussels with the need to harmonise national trade mark laws before the advent of the Single European market on 1st January 1993. To this end the Council of Ministers adopted a harmonisation directive in December 1988 which must be translated into the national laws of member states by 28th December 1991.

The ideal top executive keeps his desk clear. Any letters or other material appearing on it are dealt with at once and removed by a secretary. Any special papers required are brought promptly on the push of a button or at a spoken request into a loud‐speaking telephone.

This paper is the first of what is intended to be an annual survey of the literature of documentation, covering both special librarianship and information work. Its aim is to select from the year's publications, whether books, pamphlets, periodical articles or any of the other miscellaneous items which form an important part of the stock of special libraries, those which are most likely to be of practical value in day‐to‐day work. It is designed specifically to help personnel in small libraries, and is directed particularly towards those who have not yet completed their library training or, in the case of information officers, those who have not yet had much experience.

Information and special library work is at present a profession that is in the process of formation and struggling for recognition, and entry into it is entirely uncontrolled. People with the most varied backgrounds and levels of education find themselves made responsible for setting up or running library and information services, without any previous knowledge of the work. Often they are in remote places and without any contact with more experienced colleagues who could give them advice, and their only means of getting the knowledge necessary for the efficient carrying out of their duties is from reading. But, owing to the unsettled state of the profession, the literature is voluminous and scattered, and much of it is of a low standard, or occupied with pure theorizing or polemics. Moreover, the literature that the novice is most likely to see, namely the articles on documentation which are occasionally printed in technical journals, is not always the most helpful for a person who has no background of experience against which he can evaluate it. In these circumstances the new entrant needs a guide to the literature if he is not to be discouraged or adopt practices and systems which are not really suitable to his circumstances. It is to meet this need that this annual review of the literature, now in its sixth year, has been written. It attempts to select those books and papers which are most likely to be of direct help in running a small information department or library, eschewing all pure theorizing and polemics, and only including literature on large libraries where it is felt that it contains ideas capable of application in smaller organizations. To these are added a selection of the most important works of reference, including some that the information officer may wish to know about and consult in other libraries, even though his own library does not possess them. The list is not restricted to work published in 1957, but is intended to be representative of items received in British libraries during the period under review. Owing to restrictions in space, the selection has to be rigorous, and is inevitably, to a certain extent, a personal one. No two people would probably agree on all the omissions, but it is hoped that all the items included will be of positive value to the type of reader for whom the review is intended.

Patents are very old. Their origin is lost in history but we know that the Greeks in 500 B.C. at Sybaris encouraged inventive cooks by granting them patents for new table delicacies.

Before I describe the work of the Business Archives Council I may perhaps be allowed to refer to my personal approach to the matters we are discussing here today, since my personal attitude is bound to colour all I have to say. I start from the position that whether we like it or not, and whatever we say here today, and whatever the business men of today do about it, the people of future generations will study history and write history. It is a study that satisfies something in our human nature—hosts of people, far outside the ordinary circles of scholarship, have a taste for history and will make some effort to satisfy that taste. And history has some educative value: it helps us to maintain a reasonable perspective when facing apparently novel situations. History will therefore continue to be written whether we do anything about business archives or not. The practical question is not between history and no history, but between history based on well‐assorted materials and history based on lop‐sided materials. For some materials will be preserved, in one way or another, particularly those relating to government and to legal questions, which have to be preserved for highly practical reasons. If business records are by‐and‐large destroyed, the picture drawn by future historians will be lop‐sided.

Appraisal is recognised as a crucial step towards the development of human resources and their performance. This article proposes an integrated, innovative model for managing the performance appraisal process of full‐time faculty members at the Palestinian public universities in the West Bank. The integrated model SOFIA is a result of an empirical study of the impact of performance appraisal process on faculty members in five major universities. In constructing this model, several issues including setting a clear institution’s strategy, participation in goal setting, coaching, two‐way communication between faculty members and their superiors, feedback, developing and rewarding faculty members have been emphasised. Also, it is recommended that external factors that may influence faculty members’ performance, appraisers’ training and top management support and ownership of the process must be seriously considered. The obstacles to the application of the proposed performance model and possible solutions have been explored. In light of the above, relevant conclusions have been reached.

To keep this paper within measurable compass, I propose not to discuss the history of British Patent Law except to point out that the 1624 Statute of King James, which covered the original law of patents in a single clause, has been replaced in the 1949 Act by 103 clauses followed by three formidable schedules, this being the 32nd Patents Act to be placed upon the Statute Book.

We have been considering the preservation of business records today from three points of view: that of the owner, the custodian, and the user. The term ‘user’ really comprises two different kinds of people: the owner and his staff, who may wish to use the records for purposes bearing directly on the conduct of the business; and the student of history, who sees in them the raw materials out of which his work must be fashioned. Professor Sayers has been speaking of the Business Archives Council, its activities in advising owners on the problems concerning the preservation of records and access to them. My task is to consider the wishes and needs of historians in more general terms.