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Howis technical information handled in industry? Very badly on the whole. Why is this so? Why doesn't industry get a better service? One of the reasons is that most companies have not woken up to the fact that they need help in handling technical information. There is not much use in saying a great deal about such companies, as they are not represented here and waking them up is a long business of education and publicity. All your organizations have wakened up to the extent of appointing you, and show their enlightenment by sending you to an Aslib conference.

FROM 5th to 8th October, 1951, Aslib was fortunate in holding its Annual Conference again at Ashorne Hill, near Leamington Spa, and our thanks are due for the third time to Colonel and Mrs. J. H. Alexander and their staff for the excellence of the catering and domestic arrangements. The weather also co‐operated and sunshine displayed all the autumn beauties of the garden and countryside.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

The narrative below has been written to illustrate various difficulties which may arise, in regard to copyright, in the work of Aslib members. The events described are all imaginary and all names are fictitious.

Sir Raymond Streat, C.B.E., Director of The Cotton Board, Manchester, accompanied by Lady Streat. A Vice‐President: F. C. Francis, M.A., F.S.A., Keeper of the Department of Printed Books, British Museum. Honorary Treasurer: J.E.Wright. Honorary Secretary: Mrs. J. Lancaster‐Jones, B.Sc., Science Librarian, British Council. Chairman of Council: Miss Barbara Kyle, Research Worker, Social Sciences Documentation. Director: Leslie Wilson, M.A.

The paper describes the development of CONCORD, a free‐text retrieval package enabling the creation of databases designed and implemented in an educational environment. It traces its origins in user studies involving major online systems, and in the choices made when a program for IBM and similar microcomputers is designed for students, teachers and librarians for whom mainframe packages are too complex or costly. Each choice is reviewed and a technical section is added to demonstrate some of the opportunities and pitfalls of further development in this area. Finally, a brief account is given of one implementation at a law school.

The 28th annual conference of Aslib, held at Nottingham University from 11th to 14th September, 1953, proved to be the largest that Aslib has so far organized. A list of those present is printed on pp. 254–260. Yet again Aslib was glad to be able to welcome a number of overseas guests and members, including Dr. and Mrs. Lancour and their small daughter from the U.S.A., Drs. and Mrs. van Dijk and Miss Rom from the Netherlands, Mr. M. S. Dandekar and Mr. J. V. Karandikar from India, Miss D. M. Leach from Canada, and Mrs. T. Collin from Norway. Mr. Walter A. Southern, a Fulbright scholar from the U.S.A. affiliated to Aslib during his year's study in the United Kingdom, represented the Special Libraries Association, and Mr. J. E. Holmstrom attended as an observer on behalf of Unesco.

The immense strides made by technical research and therefore in technical education during the past thirty years have been readily appreciated. What is less obvious is that west London—an area which for this purpose lies between Staines and Kensington—has developed with remarkable rapidity during that period too. A quarter of Britain's light industry is now concentrated in that region, and in it are located no less than 3,800 firms of various sizes.

This paper reports a selection of results from a sample survey on the use of technical information in the British electrical and electronics industry, commissioned by the dsir and carried out by the Government Social Survey in 1956. For further details the report of the survey should be consulted.

While larger firms have set up information departments and libraries, or have appointed information officers assigned to the work of collecting and disseminating information within the concern, the great majority of smaller firms either do not appreciate the value of internally organized supplies of information or feel that they do not possess the resources for taking action. This state of affairs has been underlined in the reports of a number of investigations and surveys made in recent years.