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The problems of One‐Man‐Bands (OMBs) began to be taken seriously in the early 1980s when the Aslib OMB group was formed. The group received considerable attention in the professional press, and became the object of a study by Judith Collins and Janet Shuter who identified them as “information professionals working in isolation”. Many of the problems identified in the Collins/Shuter study remain — not least of these being the further education and training needs of OMBs. These needs are studied in this report. The author has firstly done an extensive survey of the literature to find what has been written about this branch of the profession. Then by means of a questionnaire sent to the Aslib OMB group and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (INVOG), training and education needs have been pinpointed. Some of these needs have then been explored in greater detail by means of case studies. The author found that the most common deterrents to continuing education and training were time, cost, location, finding suitable courses to cover the large variety of skills needed and lastly, lack of encouragement from employers. The author has concluded by recommending areas where further research is needed, and suggesting some solutions to the problems discussed.

This monograph is something of a new departure, both for the Library Management series, and for the authors. It is perhaps best to begin by saying what it is not:

IFRRO is the central forum for information exchange and mutual action for organisations concerned with reproduction rights for copyright materials. More than 45 national and international organisations from 19 countries participate.

At a time when librarians are faced with greater and more diverse community needs, coupled with changes in technology and available resources, the development of a marketing approach should result in increased objectivity and responsiveness to individual needs. Marketing techniques are examined which should help librarians avoid the usual pitfalls and rescue difficult situations.

Copies of three journals are spread before me. One journal is Rather Old (but Younger than NLW) — the new improved Library Association Record, but the other two are quite new. All arrived at about the same time and have sat for some days on a pile of editorial detritus including a few PR handouts I'd like to handback with appropriate sidelining were it not to give them the attention they seek but don't deserve.

Whether they can legitimately be described as virtuosi or one man (sic) bands, information professionals working in isolation have become something of a cause célèbre recently. This study looks first at their contribution to the collection, analysis, synthesis and dissemination of information in a single field — that of employment studies. Then, using the test of relative job satisfaction as a function of effectiveness, the characteristics, problems and satisfactions of the workers themselves are examined. The present work is based on two reports of a survey undertaken on behalf of the British Library Research and Development Department in 1983.

Information is the fourth factor of production. Information enables us to manipulate labour, land and capital to achieve the goals of the enterprise. As industry becomes increasingly information‐intensive so the need for the effective and efficient management of information becomes of growing importance. The manager's job thus increasingly becomes an information‐handling and information‐processing job; like the management of time and money, the management of information is essential to success.

A research project which began with specific intentions and ended by doing something entirely different is presented as a case history and evaluative report in Part I of this monograph. The report narrates and comments on the events which led to changes in direction; attempts to identify and explore factors which influenced outcomes, and derived generalisations applicable to other funded research. Part II — a series of guidelines and check‐lists on the conduct of research and the presentation of business reports — is based on Applied Business Research courseware produced by the Faculty of Professional Studies of the International Management Centre from Buckingham.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

On its stated terms as “a descriptive conspectus” of the 550 titles registered in British Library publications 1988, together with the many newsletters and priced and unpriced ephemeral literature emanating from its multifarious services and agencies, this careful compilation will no doubt fulfil a need for students and teachers of librarianship and information science here and abroad. There is a select bibliography of two pages and a 28‐page index. Proof reading is excellent, just a few slips, e.g. the Dainton Committee was set up in 1967 not 1957, IOLR had c.400,00 books ands serials, not 4 million.