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Developments in education for library and information studies at Manchester Polytechnic over the last eleven years are reviewed. Outside influences have included the impact of information technology, a growing awareness of the need to provide wider access to courses and the need to prepare new graduates for both the traditional library and information profession and posts in information management. Resources have been enhanced to support these developments. The Learning Resources Unit and Information Technology Unit came into being about ten years ago and have been developed so that they now represent an unrivalled facility. Developments in the department′s main courses are also reviewed.

This paper explains at least some of the major problems related to the subject indexing process and proposes a new approach to understanding the process, which is ordinarily described as a process that takes a number of steps. The subject is first determined, then it is described in a few sentences and, lastly, the description of the subject is converted into the indexing language. It is argued that this typical approach characteristically lacks an understanding of what the central nature of the process is. Indexing is not a neutral and objective representation of a document’s subject matter but the representation of an interpretation of a document for future use. Semiotics is offered here as a framework for understanding the “interpretative” nature of the subject indexing process. By placing this process within Peirce’s semiotic framework of ideas and terminology, a more detailed description of the process is offered which shows that the uncertainty generally associated with this process is created by the fact that the indexer goes through a number of steps and creates the subject matter of the document during this process. The creation of the subject matter is based on the indexer’s social and cultural context. The paper offers an explanation of what occurs in the indexing process and suggests that there is only little certainty to its result.

It is important that all those involved with education and training for online searching are aware of the teaching aids which have been produced and are used. This paper aims to provide some of this information by describing primarily aids which have been developed and are used within the UK schools of librarianship and information science; however aids which are used by other organisations in various parts of the world have also been included.

The purpose of this study is to examine the evolving landscape of e-learning, which has become a transformative educational approach accelerated by technological advancements and the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to explore the adoption and impact of e-learning across diverse educational settings, focusing on its effectiveness, quality and potential challenges. Furthermore, this research delves into the often-overlooked role of psychological resources and capabilities, particularly Psychological Capital (PsyCap), in enhancing academic performance among university students engaged in e-learning. By investigating the influence of psychological resources and their intersection with e-learning, this study seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of the factors that shape successful e-learning experiences and academic achievement.

In this research methodology, data was collected from an e-learning institution, with a focus on students in various computer science semesters to ensure comprehensive representation. To minimize standard method bias, a random sampling technique was employed, and data collection was conducted with the support of locally hired research associates. Participant confidentiality and anonymity were carefully preserved, and ethical approval was obtained. The study began with demographic data collection and an assessment of PsyCap dimensions. Most measurements were self-reported, except for GPA, retrieved from the institute directly. The study initially involved 468 students, but only 213 provided complete responses, resulting in a 46% response rate. Demographic data included age, marital status and gender. The sample featured diverse generational representation, with 58% from Generation Z, 13% Millennials, 22% Generation X and 6% Baby Boomers. This comprehensive data will help analyse generational influences on e-learning outcomes.

The study’s findings underscore the significance of self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism in e-learning success. Higher self-efficacy positively impacts student engagement, aligning with previous research. PsyCap, which includes these traits, proves relevant in educational settings. Resilience is notably beneficial, aiding students in overcoming challenges and bolstering their self-belief. Hope enhances problem-solving and adaptability, while optimism fosters a proactive attitude and perseverance, both vital for academic excellence. These insights have broad implications for e-learning practices, emphasizing the need to nurture psychological resources. Incorporating PsyCap-based interventions can enhance the educational experience, promoting student success.

This study has certain limitations that should be considered. It focused exclusively on computer science students, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. Future research should encompass a wider range of academic disciplines for broader applicability. The study was conducted within a specific cultural and regional context, emphasizing a collectivist culture in an Asian setting. To enhance the applicability of the results, it is crucial to explore different regions and cultural contexts. While the study controlled for generational cohort effects on academic performance, further investigation is warranted to understand how different generational cohorts perceive e-learning. Additionally, the study suggests examining how psychological resources influence students' perceptions of e-learning as a stressor or motivator. Furthermore, a comprehensive study comparing the impact of PsyCap on academic performance in both e-learning and traditional education, involving diverse samples and various cultural settings, is needed to provide a more comprehensive understanding.

This research contributes by thoroughly examining the impact of e-learning in diverse educational settings, focusing on its effectiveness, quality and potential challenges. A novel aspect is the exploration of the often-overlooked role of PsyCap in enhancing academic performance among university students engaged in e-learning. This sheds light on the intersection of psychological resources and e-learning. Additionally, the study’s rigorous research methodology underscores its commitment to ethical and responsible research conduct. The research also presents valuable demographic data on generational cohorts and gender, offering insights into how these factors influence e-learning outcomes. These original contributions collectively enhance our understanding of the multifaceted dynamics of e-learning and the pivotal role of psychological resources in academic success.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which hubristic behaviour on the part of Thomas Farrow contributed to the downfall of Farrow's Bank in 1920.

The article traces the way in which Thomas Farrow's behaviour changed over the course of his managerial career using primary sources obtained from various British archives, including: court records, witness statements, auditors' reports, newspapers, journals, and personal letters. The article then evaluates Farrow's actions in relation to the criteria outlined in Petit and Bollaert's “Framework for diagnosing CEO hubris” so as to assess how far he can be said to have become afflicted by managerial hubris.

All the collected evidence points to the conclusion that Thomas Farrow had, by the time of the Bank's collapse in 1920, become afflicted by managerial hubris. This was reflected most clearly in the fact that he increasingly came to view himself as being somehow above and beyond the laws of the wider community. As a result, he felt little compunction about fraudulently writing-up the Bank's assets so as to cover the huge losses that his reckless investments had produced.

The Farrow's Bank episode confirms that the probability of management hubris materialising is enhanced when external control mechanisms are either lacking or inefficiently applied. On top of this, the amateurish organizational set-up of the Bank also suggests that the likelihood of hubris syndrome developing is enhanced when organizations themselves grant too much discretion to their leaders.

The paper breaks new ground by applying the latest management and psychology theories on the subject of leadership hubris to the field of financial management. Its value lies in the fact that it provides scholars and practitioners with an in-depth insight into how hubris syndrome can develop in organizational settings.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the historical development of library and information science (LIS) teaching and research in the University of Sheffield's Information School since its founding in 1963.

The history is based on published materials, unpublished school records, and semi-structured interviews with 19 current or ex-members of staff.

The School has grown steadily over its first half-century, extending the range of its teaching from conventional programmes in librarianship and information science to include cognate programmes in areas such as health informatics, information systems and multi-lingual information management.

There are very few published accounts of the history of LIS departments.

“The year covered by the report starts in July, 1945, and ends in September, 1946. During this time the Council has had many complicated administrative tasks to perform because the period is the first almost complete year covering the change‐over from war to peace. In July of last year the ice cream trade was in the middle of one of the most phenomenal sets of conditions in the whole of its varied existence. It will be remembered that 60 per cent. of the pre‐war usage of sugar and an allocation of shimmed milk powder was still available to the trade, but the quantities were relatively small compared with the enormous public demand for our product, and the ice cream trade had begun to attract the attention of unscrupulous speculators. Every effort was made by the Ministry of Food, who alone had the power to exert any regulation whatever, to prevent unauthorised persons from entering the trade. These efforts were not always successful, but the Association took whatever steps lay in its power to assist the Ministry to prevent firms who had never been in the trade before starling the manufacture and the sale of ice cream, to the detriment of the established trader who had been doing his very best against almost overwhelming obstacles. The loose interpretation of the right of a caterer to make and sell ice cream was for a long time a most difficult problem, but during the year the Ministry of Food Executive Officers have managed to curtail a great many of the unauthorised sales of ice cream which were taking place at points far distant from the caterer's premises when the product had been made with materials obtained under a catering licence. In many of the large cities this type of trade brought the whole industry into disrepute because various forms of ice cream were being sold to the public at fantastically high prices. The whole problem of the manufacture of ice cream has been the subject of discussions by the members of the Technical Advisory Committee, mainly on the subject of proposed standards of quality and bacteriological purity. The Executive Council is indebted to the painstaking efforts of the members of this Committee for their careful researches and many long discussions. The work undertaken by the Ministry of Food and the knowledge it has gained in dietetic values during the years of war‐time feeding of the British population has been considered very carefully and the point of view of what constitutes the maximum nutrition in ice cream has altered from the pre‐war knowledge of rating the value of ice cream in accordance with the highest possible milk fats content. Professor Sir Jack Drummond, when he was the Nutritional Officer to the Ministry of Food, emphasised the need in the everyday diet of both children and adults, of the maximum amount of milk minerals and milk solids not fat. In normal times when ingredients are in free supply there is no difficulty with either children or grown‐ups in obtaining plentiful supplies of fat, but almost all of the value of the milk solids not fat has been forgotten or else brought into disrepute following the laws which were passed many years ago compelling tins of condensed skimmed milk to be marked ‘Unfit for Babies.’ The Technical Committee, taking all of these facts into consideration, has evolved a standard which has been agreed by the Executive Council and submitted to the Ministry of Food, designed to give the best type of ice cream, planned in such a way that the maximum amount of milk‐solids‐not‐fat can be included. This skimmed milk powder can be incorporated into the mix and still keep a reasonable quantity of fat, which in the Committee's opinion should consist only of milk fat. After the most careful research and discussions, having in mind the interest of the small trader who cannot install very elaborate machinery, it was agreed by the Committee that, when fresh dairy cream becomes available again, a minimum standard of milk fat in ice cream should be arranged to include the use of both fresh dairy milk and cream as well as enough skimmed milk powder to bring the total to a correct balance of ingredients which would freeze in the average type of freezer without becoming sandy or crystallised. There was a good deal of experience on which the Committee could base its findings, obtained from the use of the standards put into force by the Government of Northern Ireland before the war; these were not fully balanced and required some adjustment. Negotiations on the question of the standard between Ice Cream Alliance and the Wholesale Ice Cream Manufacturers' Federation were conducted at great length and the different points of view were examined with the utmost care. It has been found, however, that the proposals by the different Associations cannot be reconciled to form one standard common to the best interest of the members of both Associations. The Ice Cream Alliance has been safeguarding the welfare of the general public and thereby the future trade of its members, and it has insisted that the minimum standards which its Technical Committee has recommended should not be varied in principle to comply with the somewhat wider interpretation of the Wholesale Federation. One point upon which the Technical Committee lays great stress is that the tests for the standard should always be conducted by sampling the finished ice cream as delivered to the consumer, and not the ice cream mix as made in the factory. This would place definite limitations on the amount of over‐run which could be permitted and would prevent any ice cream manufacturer, regardless of his type of machinery, from giving a smaller quantity of fat or milk solids to the consumer, than his competitor who might have less elaborate and expensive machinery. It has, of course, been made clear that all questions relating to a standard for ice cream refer not to the present period of emergency, with its substitute ingredients, but to the time when all ingredients can be purchased free of any restriction by every ice cream manufacturer. There is no doubt that if it were possible to evolve a standard of substitute ingredients it would be of the greatest advantage to the trade, but this cannot be done until the right ingredients, namely skimmed milk powder, fat and sugar are made available to every member of the trade in equal proportions. Your Executive Council has approached the Minister of Food on various occasions seeking an interview to put these points before him and to emphasise the need for better and more consistent supplies of the right types of materials so that ice cream can be made worthy of its name by all manufacturers. It is also anxious to remove the difference in the allocations as between the larger manufacturer who receives 70 per cent. of his datum usage of fat and the ice cream trader who made his product in pre‐war days only from fresh milk, and who is now prohibited from making an ice cream for consumption with more than about 2¼ per cent. fat. The serious world position and shortage of food materials has, of course, worked against this project, and until there is some easing of the supply of raw materials for better distribution within the world as a whole, the British Government has found it is unable to provide supplies of the right ingredients. Your Chairman and Executive Council are, however, using every effort to bring about the desirable situation as quickly as possible. In recent months there had been major disasters to the trade which had been caused by the outbreak of typhoid fever conveyed through carriers of this disease to members of the general public through the medium of ice cream. These outbreaks have led to a tremendous amount of wrongful reporting in the daily Press and the many quite unjustified allegations against both the ice cream traders and the Local Government officials, particularly the Sanitary Inspectors and Medical Officers of Health, who are responsible for the interpretation of the 1938 Food and Drugs Act controlling the registration of ice cream manufacturing premises, and who have worked very hard to help both the trade and the public. It must be agreed that many ice cream manufacturers have been working without very much knowledge of the responsibilities of their trade and under enormous handicaps, due to the dilapidations caused by six years of war and their inability to have building work and decorations carried out to make their small factories suitable for the manufacture of ice cream. These years of war have also led to a much greater wear and tear on ice cream plant than would normally have been the case, because the trade has had to put up with flour instead of skimmed milk powder even before it was shut down in 1942. Deterioration and rust during the shut down period from September, 1942, until December, 1944, was even greater than if the plant had been in constant use even with substitute materials. The result has been that many ice cream traders have been faced with enormous difficulties of plant renewals at a time when machinery is unobtainable, with the result that unhygienic vessels and utensils have had to be kept in service, which in the ordinary way would have been scrapped many years ago. The Alliance is taking every step possible with the other Associations that manufacture plant equipment and utensils, to improve supplies to those who need the articles, but here again supplies of raw materials to the machinery equipment manufacturers are growing worse and worse. It is because of this situation that in the negotiations with the Ministry of Health regarding the compulsory heat treatment programme the greatest latitude is being requested so that no regulations would be brought into force until the trade is in a position to comply with them without undue hardship. We would like to record our appreciation to the other Associations who have expressed their willingness to collaborate with us for the good of the trade as a whole.”

Observes that the future of mobile communication networks lies not only in how successful people are in deploying technologies (2.5G or 3G with a high degree of coverage and roaming between operators), but also in how well people can create a functioning environment and usage situation for end‐users in which they can get a homogeneous and continuous usage experience, despite the very heterogeneous world in which they, after all, will live. Concepts are advanced that support this observation (network independence, UI/device flexibility, and user experience continuity), and a possible solution is proposed that would take people in that direction (the personal server).