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A survey on the relative importance of various library functions, including interlibrary lending, introduces this review. Various national library systems are considered, with emphasis on the degree of centralization involved. A central lending collection is proposed for France. Both decentralized and centralized solutions are put forward for India and Japan. The latter also claims an international role. Unplanned decentralized systems in the Netherlands and Belgium are described and the planned decentralized system in the Federal Republic of Germany is defended. The accuracy of location information in the USA is considered briefly. A number of items on interlending in Australia are reviewed, with particular attention to the effects of the new voucher payment system.

The Documentation Centre of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) is developing PASCAL, a documentation system whose aim is to meet the traditional needs of scientists and engineers as well as more recent needs of users having little time to gather information and who wish, nevertheless, to keep up to date.

Computer typesetting is—or should by now be regarded as—an everyday technique which links the electronic digital computer and tape‐driven composing machines into a system which, on the one hand, can overcome the traditional limitations of the computer line printer and, on the other hand, may offer a more effective alternative to the manual compilation and composition of large‐scale publications.

THE RELATIONSHIP of a library with those it serves and the writers and other communicators who form its sources is both interesting and complex; and one in which many facets remain to be explored. One aspect of this, the importance of which is not always adequately appreciated, is the role of the library as agent for different sectors of society.

The first European conference on research into the management of information services and libraries (EURIM) was held at Unesco Headquarters, Paris, from 20–22 November 1973. It was conceived and organized by Aslib with the co‐sponsorship of the Association Nationale de la Recherche Technique, the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, the Consiglio Nazionale delle Richerche, the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Dokumentation, NOBIN and NORD‐FORSK. The organization was an exercise in international co‐operation; the outstandingly high attendance—touching the 300 mark—could never have been achieved without the energetic publicity efforts of all the sponsors. Nor was this attendance confined to the sponsoring countries. Delegates were drawn from Algeria (2), Austria (3), Belgium (17), Czechoslovakia (1), Den‐mark (2), Finland (1), France (105), Germany (20), Ireland (1), Italy (6), Luxem‐bourg (3), Netherlands (37), Norway (4), Portugal (1), Roumania (2), Sweden (3), Switzerland (7), Tunisia (1), Turkey (2), United Kingdom (78), USA (2), Yugoslavia (1). The luxurious accommodation and impeccable arrangements at Unesco made an ideal setting for this event and artistic relief of the highest order was provided by the conducted visit, arranged by the Delegation General de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique with the generous co‐operation of the Directeur des Bibliothèques de France, the Directeur du Bureau National de Documentation and the Directeur des Musées de France, to the outstanding exhibition of paintings by Georges Braque at the Musée de l'Orangerie.

Somewhat paradoxically workers in information are just as typically human as in any other profession in the matter of order in their own backyard. To put it mildly, the situation in our periodicals—their genesis, use, purpose, and efficiency—is just as haphazard, if not more so, as in the whole field of communication. Perhaps we have the lame excuse that we are too busy working out remedies for the bibliographical mess in the literature of the sciences and the technologies. Nevertheless, we must cast a critical eye on the problem, which will have to be tackled both nationally as well as internationally through IFLA, FID, and Unesco.

In the year 1900 Koch expressed the view that human and bovine tuberculosis were distinct diseases, that the bacillus of bovine tuberculosis could not produce this disease in the human subject, and that the bacillus of human tuberculosis could not set it up in the bovine species. As is now well known. these conclusions have not received the slightest confirmation from other workers in the same field, and it may be said that the consensus of scientific opinion is now to the effect that the bacilli of human and bovine tuberculosis are identical—at any rate, so far as the effects attributed to them are concerned. The Royal Commission appointed in 1901, and consisting of the late Sir MICHAEL FOSTER, Drs. SIMS WOODHEAD, SIDNEY MARTIN, MACFADYEAN, and BOYCE, have issued a further interim report on their investigations. The first interim report was published in 1904, the conclusions stated in it being to the effect that the human and animal diseases were identical, and that no characteristics by which the one could be distinguished from the other had been discovered. The report now issued shows that these conclusions are confirmed by the results of a very large number of fresh experiments. The main conclusions set forth in the present report are as understated :—

A selection of recently published empirical and conceptual studies of the retail industry is reviewed and possible important future developments analysed. In particular, the four areas considered are: (1) the retail environment; (2) strategic issues, (3) operational considerations; and (4) monitoring and measuring costs and performance. These areas are especially viewed in the light of the influence and operation of the large firms.

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the changing food culture of Ireland focusing particularly on the evolution of commercial public dining in Dublin 1700‐1900, from taverns, coffeehouses and clubs to the proliferation of hotels and restaurants particularly during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Using a historical research approach, the paper draws principally on documentary and archival sources, but also uses material culture. Data are analysed using a combination of hermeneutics (Denzin and Lincoln, O'Gorman) and textual analysis (Howell and Prevenier).

The paper traces the various locations of public dining in Dublin 1700‐1900 and reveals that Dublin gentlemen's clubs preceded their London counterparts in owning their own premises, but that the popularity of clubs in both cities resulted in a slower growth of restaurants than in Paris. Competition for clubs appeared in the form of good hotels. The Refreshment Houses and Wine Licences (Ireland) Act 1860 created a more congenial environment for the opening of restaurants, with separate ladies coffee or dining rooms appearing from around 1870 onwards.

There is a dearth of research on the history of Irish food and commercial food provision in particular. This paper provides the most comprehensive discussion to date on the development of commercial dining in Dublin 1700‐1900 and suggests that the 1860 legislation might be further explored as a catalyst for the growth of restaurants in London and other British cities.