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Considers the changes taking place in the information and library sector ‐ changes which are due, in the main, to fast developing technologies and the resulting information explosion. Traditional skills and methods of working are coming under increasing pressure and are no longer sufficient. Assesses the impact of these information technology changes on information staff, who are having to extend their traditional skills and develop new expertise. Considers staff management issues, especially resistance to change, and the effect of training and communication programmes. Concludes that maintaining the balance between technology and individual needs is the key to success.

The purpose of this paper is to present a discussion of three “grey” areas which emerged from a study on adult learning provision both within and outside public libraries in England – formal and informal learning, promotion and attracting learners, and evaluation and feedback.

The paper utilises a literature review, interviews with the regional agencies of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), and interviews with a purposive select sample of public library services in England.

The public libraries sampled demonstrated their expertise in reaching out to a range of different social groups and their willingness to work with a variety of partners to provide the wide range of courses and services needed. Good reciprocal partnership relationships have been established. The need for more sophisticated market research and promotion is identified. Evaluation and feedback are subject to various interpretations and form an area surrounded by difficulties.

The study undertaken for the MLA is the first phase of a project on public libraries and adult learners.

Examples of reciprocal arrangements and their implications are provided. The impact on library staff roles of the grey area between informal and formal learning is identified with different expectations for staff by different library authorities. The variety of methods used to promote adult learning services could be more sophisticated and specifically targeted in some communities. Highlights the conflict between obtaining robust feedback and the effect this may have on tentative learners by changing a relaxed informal atmosphere.

The paper draws on a study undertaken for the MLA that selectively reviews adult learning provision within and outside public libraries in England and identifies key strengths in public libraries for adult learners.

OCLC Europe has recently introduced serials control to its local systems range. This module, SC350, runs on the M300 workstation and is available in stand alone mode or as a complement to the minicomputer‐based LS/2000 system. While it is the same version of SC350 that works in either mode, it is on the LS/2000 view of the system that this account concentrates. The development path adopted for serials is different from that of the core LS/2000 system, taking a heavily distributed approach and making optimum use of the local processing capabilities of OCLC's M300 workstation, a modified PC. Used in conjunction with LS/2000, the serials control module performs functions such as checkins, prediction calculations and claims review on the micro, and interfaces with the LS/2000 minicomputer system for exchange and update of bibliographic records, of holdings details etc., all of which are then accessible via the Online Public Access Catalogue. In stand alone mode, the user has facilities for communicating with and downloading from the OCLC Online Union Catalogue on the Shared System in Dublin, Ohio; this is seen as the most likely way in which users will create their files, though an optional data entry facility is also provided for those wishing to use it in true standalone mode. The software was originally developed by MetaMicro Library Systems Inc as their micro‐based serials system and has since been taken on board by OCLC who have jointly with MetaMicro worked to enhance the package and to develop the communications interfaces with LS/2000 and the Union Files of the Shared System. A analogous development is proposed for Acquisitions. This package, to be known as ACQ350, is presently being developed with OCLC specifying its features and MetaMicro doing the programming. It is expected to be publically available in late 1986. From the beginning it will be both a single and a multi‐user system and will be available in standalone and LS/2000 forms.

This is a most important study of an essentially modern situation. The first part, “Getting in Print”, introduces the way short‐run publications can be produced without sacrificing quality or being priced out of the market. There has been considerable polarisation in the publishing trade as huge multinational combines have continued to take over smaller units and now dominate the publishing, marketing and distribution of English language titles worldwide. This could well have made it difficult indeed for authors of low‐volume, less profitably saleable works to find a publisher. Paradoxically, however, helped by computer technology it has opened up the field for enterprising new small‐scale publishers, with an eye for scholarly specialist subjects and new authors, to issue short‐run editions and even to achieve a better return on capital and higher profit ratios than do the major publishers. The total number of titles produced has actually grown, causing bibliographical problems for librarians who need to keep track of publication, and greatly increasing the number of works going out of print before they can be acquired. The reprint trade is similarly in confusion because the economics of reprinting have become more chancy for some works and potentially easier for others.

This chapter examines how opponents of same-sex marriage have used rights discourse to construct an identity of themselves as victims, and construct gays and lesbians as deviant “others.” I find that conservative rights discourse has been more effective outside the courtroom than in it. This is because these arguments rely on implicit discriminatory stereotypes which are frequently exposed under the scrutiny of dispassionate judicial actors. However, in a popular arena, they are free to operate with considerably less scrutiny. Here, rights discourse is used to mask discriminatory stereotypes and lend legitimacy to positions that would be rejected if made explicitly.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

WITH, several days later, some residue yet of disbelief, allow me to tell you that at the end of October L actually went dancing. After an interval of 15 years since I last electrified my system in similar fashion, I may further tell you that dancing is no longer what it was.

Lancashire County was formed, following Local Government Reorganisation in 1974, from eighteen constituent parts, including the former County and several independent Borough Authorities.

The recent “reverse”¹ discrimination decisions by the Supreme Court involving the admissions decision-making policies at the University of Michigan² illustrate the underlying need for private and public entities to justify the need to reach or maintain diversity within an organization. Clearly, the equality of the decision-making methodology and criteria used to obtain and maintain diversity was an issue, but perhaps more pressing was the question of whether such programs were necessary. The issue of parity is at the very center of these cases. If the normal admissions process would have resulted in obtaining the predicted number of minority admissions then there may no longer be a need for such programs. While the university cases have been most publicized recently, matters involving affirmative action plans and governmental programs to enhance diversity (such as minority contractor set-asides) face similar questions of parity.

The purpose of this paper is to explore young people's experiences of youth justice supervision with particular reference to the efficacy of participatory practices. This paper is based on findings from a study concerning the extent and nature of children’s participation in decision-making in youth justice. The paper uses Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, as a heuristic/practical device, to investigate children’s ability to express agency and shape or influence the content and format of interventions and approaches in youth justice.

The researcher’s interest in understanding the perceptions and experiences of youth justice supervision led to the adoption of the qualitative approach and specifically in-depth interviews and participant observations. The researcher interviewed front-line professionals (n = 14), operational managers (n = 6) and children under youth justice supervision (n = 20). This study involved 15 months of fieldwork undertaken between 2016 and 2017 at a youth offending service in England.

Several young people were seeking to exert minimal energy to achieve a type of passive compliance with court order requirements, adopting a “ready-to-conform” mindset. Professionals were concerned that they were also participating in this type of “game playing”.

A relationship-based practice that is conducive to meaningful participation can help to facilitate positive changes to lifestyles and circumstances. This paper exposes its pivotal role in bolstering children’s involvement in supervision, reducing passive compliance and preventing inauthentic transactional arrangements from forming.

In spite of the significant interest in the work of Pierre Bourdieu, his “thinking tools” have seldom been used to investigate the experiences, attitudes and behaviours of youth justice professionals and those under youth offending team supervision at.