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Mr James Boyden has been transferred from the Department of Education and Science and Miss Jennie Lee has joined the Department, assuming duties different from those of Mr Boyden. James Boyden has been a member of the Inter‐departmental Committee on Industrial Training, his place on which has now been taken by Mr Reg Prentice.

Earlier this year the Department of Education and Science sent out Circular 14/64 requesting information about the intention of colleges to provide courses for the training of training officers. As a result of the information received, Circular 33/64 was issued on 23rd October 1964.

Bruce Kemble reviews the progress to date of the Adult Education enquiry of the Russell Committee.

Work in progress is reported for a research project aiming to improve multiprofessional teamworking in operating theatres through iterative educational intervention. Experimental design is combined with collaborative inquiry. The hypothesis is: will planned, complex educational intervention focused upon improving communication in teamwork lead to better patient safety? The project is embedded in a wider educational agenda promoting democratic working practices, and this is reflected in the participative inquiry aspect of the research where operating theatre staff take ownership of the project through establishing common meanings for “good practice”. The cohort involves 300 personnel (surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and support staff) spread across two theatre complexes (11 theatres in total) in a large UK hospital. The focus of this paper is necessarily upon design and methodology, as the first data set is being gathered and analysed at the time of writing. Future papers will focus upon results and offer conclusions and recommendations.

Amid all the talk of present‐day industrial revolutions, when everything around him is becoming the subject of modernisation programmes, it is to be expected that the personnel manager and his role should come under a more intense and critical scrutiny. Criticism of the function of personnel management is not new: ever since the first personnel manager came on to the industrial scene persistent doubts have been voiced about what personnel management is all about.

On 24th January this year the new and long‐promised legislation for public libraries in England and Wales made its bow in the shape of the Public Libraries and Museums Bill. Its first reading took place in the House of Commons on that day, and the unopposed second reading was on 5th February. As we write, future timing is uncertain, and it may be that by the time our readers are perusing these pages that the Bill will hare been passed in all its stages. The 23 clauses of the Bill occupy only 12½ pages. Briefly, the Bill will place the development of the public library service under the superintendence of the Minister of Education, and will set up two advisory councils as well as regional councils for interlibrary co‐operation. Non‐county boroughs and urban districts of less than 40,000 population which are existing library authorities will have to apply to the Minister for approval to continue as such. Clause 7 states that every library authority has a duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service, while the succeeding clause provides that, apart from certain exceptions, no charges shall be made by public library authorities. The Bill places considerable powers upon the Minister. Like most Bills, there is much in it which is open to interpretation. Does, for instance, clause 8, subsection (1) mean that those library authorities which are at present charging for the issue of gramophone records will have to cease doing so? This would seem to be the case, and we hope it is the case. On the other hand, which precise facilities are meant in subsection (4) of the same clause? Librarians will be disappointed that there is no reference to the need for library authorities to appoint separate library committees, nor is there a duty placed upon them to appoint suitably qualified persons as chief librarians. The Minister is given the power of inspection, and few library authorities or librarians will fear this. On the other hand no state financial assistance to library authorities is mentioned. In the 1930s and 19405 many wanted state aid but feared the consequential inspection. Now we have got the inspection without the money! When the Bill appeared, The Library World asked several librarians for their brief first impressions and in the following symposium will be found the views of a city librarian, a county librarian, two London librarians, a Welsh librarian, the librarian of a smaller town, and a member of the younger generation whose professional future may well be shaped by this new legislation.

Industrial Training: Mr Marsh's progress report By the end of this year the Government hope to have set up Training Boards for the electricity, water, gas industries, the group of industries covering quarrying and the manufacture of cement, bricks, pottery and glass, woodworking and furniture, part of the textile industry, motor vehicle repair, passenger transport and road haulage. So stated Mr Richard Marsh, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour, speaking at the recent sixth Managing Directors Conference at Eastbourne.

There is an undoubted emphasis on industrial training and technical education in the new Session of Parliament. It cuts across party lines and is unchallenged, even by the most diehard opponents of increasing Government expenditure.

The Minister of Education has rejected a suggestion from Mr Denis Howell (Lab, Small Heath) that he should reinstate the cuts made in the estimates of the CATs for the current financial year, in view of the Government's acceptance of the Robbins Report.

Although the popular image of social movement protest is tied to youth, this image is not generally extended to younger children. Children throughout history have participated in social movements, and yet the social construction of children as wholly innocent acts as a barrier to their perceived involvement. Childhood itself is viewed as a protected and universalized space, thereby denying its multiple social locations. Indeed, if children were viewed as inhabiting a socio-political location this might actually be seen to warrant their movement participation. As it stands, however, the reality of children clashes with the preferred image and therefore children appear to be the most understudied of all social movement participants.