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Over the past ten years, geographers have contributed to the growing body of interdisciplinary research developing new ways of undertaking research with children. Traditional research methods which do not directly involve working with children, such as the large scale observation of children, have been criticised for carrying out research on rather than with children. Instead, drawing upon the increasingly important children’s rights movement, researchers have been developing inclusive and participatory children centred methodologies, which place the voices of children, as social actors, at the centre of the research process. In this paper, we draw upon two ongoing postgraduate geographical research projects with children to reflect upon our own experiences of adopting children centred research methodologies. We also critically evaluate our own use of different innovative children centred research techniques, such as photographs, diaries, in‐depth interviews and surveys.We also highlight the importance of considering the impact of the spaces in which we conduct our research.

In those frightening years between the two Wars and governments in France came and went with dismal frequency, it used to be said that any French Government which permitted food prices to rise had no chance whatever of surviving, and the result was that food was bountiful and incredibly cheap. Times have changed dramatically but not the attitude of people to the price and availibility of food and, in particular of political control; this is very much the same as always. Mostly, it revolves around the woman and what she sees as an abuse, greed and taking mean advantage of prevailing conditions and, make no mistake, this will be reflected in the political field; in the way she votes. It has happened in previous elections; it will happen in even greater degree in the next election and, although not decisive, it can have a not insignificant impact. None know better than the housewife how meaningless is the smug talk of the politicians when it comes to food prices. Their attitude may not have been the main factor in throwing out the last Conservative Government; this was undoubtedly the fear that their continuance in office would result in widespread strikes and the serious effect these upheavals have on food prices (and other household necessit ies), but the votes of woman were an unimportant contribution. As it was, it mattered little to the muscle men of the trade unions which party is in power. Women's talk around the shops and supermarket's, up and down the High Street to‐day is one long grumble and disillusionment with politicians generally.

The requirements for producing a current database, Chemical Business NewsBase (CBNB), updated weekly, including the data content, are briefly outlined. The use of BASIS for data capture, validation, manipulation, and output of the data is discussed with particular reference to the features which support the human element in production and which are used for quality control. Routine production and distribution of CBNB are further examined.

The predicted effects of the collapse of the Net Book Agreement are compared with what has actually happened in the book trade, including: numbers of booksellers; stockholding in bookshops; discounting; book output. The situation in America is addressed. Changes in the trade as a whole are discussed. Changes in library supply in higher education are examined, particularly the price war between suppliers, and the continuing provision of services together with larger discounts. The move to consortium buying is considered. The development of electronic delivery of materials is discussed.

The Professors of the Imperial College of Science and Technology have addressed to Lord Crewe, the Chairman of the Governors of the College, a memorial urging the necessity of the encouragement of science and of research. In commenting upon this document the Journal of Chemical Technology observes that “a satisfactory feature of the memorial is the recognition on the part of the signatories that scientific education should be on broad lines.” “We have always contended that an indispensable preliminary to a professional career should be a thoroughly sound general education. Whether or not the study of science is the best kind of study may be a debatable point, but it is certain that exclusive attention to science is thoroughly bad. A man's mind is narrow when he is unable to recognise the importance of things outside his own particular sphere of action, and it is precisely this state of mind that the exclusive study of science tends to produce. It is, therefore, the more necessary, in seeking to secure greater attention to scientific studies in the reform of our educational system, to take care that nothing be done which may curtail the period required for the acquisition of general knowledge. It is far better to delay than to hasten specialisation. A step in the right direction has been made when scientific men themselves state that they do not believe that “an education which includes good teaching of science need be a narrow education,” but we wish that this opinion had been positively rather than negatively expressed. The memorial refers to the “lethargy, misconception, and ignorance” of the public regarding national education. It is pertinent here to remark that when anything goes wrong and no particular individual or individuals can be held to be, or will acknowledge themselves to be, responsible, the “public” is blamed; the public being everybody with the exception of the denunciator and his friends. In the present instance the fault is not, even for the greater part, with the people. They are, naturally enough, interested in education only in so far as it is expressed in terms of school and college accounts and of wage‐earning capacity. Of the bearing that improvement in education and the advancement of physical science has on the welfare of the community the average man knows little and cares less. He has to be educated in the value of education. He is not, and probably never will be, interested in education as an abstract good. What interest he has in it is purely utilitarian. If he sees that the knowledge which he himself does not possess carries with it but doubtful prospects for the future, poor remuneration in the present and a social position little better than his own, he is unlikely to be impressed with the value of education. The fact is that there is a lamentable want of opportunity for the intellectual classes in this country and until this state of things is remedied the public will continue to display—and with every justification — “lethargy, misconception, and ignorance” in respect to national education.

With reference to the report of the Annual General Meeting of the Pure Food and Health Society of Great Britain, which was published in the February issue of THE BRITISH FOOD JOURNAL, and to the speech delivered by MR. GOSLIN upon the proper handling and purveying of meat, an article which has subsequently appeared in The Standard is of considerable interest. It is pointed out that no one who gives the matter serious consideration can approve of the present methods. “Many years ago Oxford made its protest against carcasses or joints being exposed in open‐fronted shops. It is just possible that when the powers that were objected to and forbade this proceeding they thought more of the æsthetics than the science of it, but they most certainly did a good thing when they took flesh foods away from the contamination of street dust and the variations of temperature that are dependent on every gust of wind or every moment of sunlight or shadow.”

An OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) Directory Service has recently been standardised in accord with the CCITT's X.500 recommendations. This OSI Directory (or X.500 Directory — the terms are used interchangeably) was developed with the priMary intention of providing support for electronic mail services, address look‐up of networked applications, and also white and yellow pages directory services. However, the OSI Directory has many of the features required for providing access to widely distributed bibliographic information. It offers the possibility of a unified bibliographic information framework; homogeneous access to bibliographic information; built‐in facilities for distributed searching; ‘natural’ integration with other OSI services which may be used to provide bibliographic services, for example, electronic mail and file transfer. This paper first provides a brief tutorial on the OSI Directory. The paper then considers how the OSI Directory might be used to provide access to a range of bibliographic information, and be used in tandem with other OSI services to allow the retrieval of documents. The paper then examines some of the problems of providing access to bibliographic information given the current version of the X.500 standard. A project (ABDUX — Accessing Bibliographic Data Using X.500) to investigate some of the ideas described in this paper is being funded by the British Library, and the paper notes the goals of this project.

States that marketing of any commercial product is beset with problems which become exacerbated by demand for the product declining over time. Presents the findings of a study into the regional differences in consumer attitudes to eggs and their usage, sponsored by the Eggs Authority. Investigates the consequences of this to the effectiveness of advertising and the advertising message to the consumer. Shows that consumers” usage of eggs does vary regionally and because of this there could be important implications for generic advertising.