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This paper is not so much about electronic publishing — as about change. More importantly it is about our professional institutions and their response to change. In many ways it is appropriate that I give this paper at an Aslib conference. In 1983 Aslib changed, if not its main name, then its subtitle to the Association of Information Management. This implies that Aslib has extended its interest beyond the field of just libraries and information bureaux, to information per se. In this respect, Aslib appears to be saying that its business is information, irrespective of its presentation and form. Such an approach seems both sensible and closely in line with modern developments; more importantly it is one which our other professional institutions could do well to follow.

The U.K. code for consultants, which was developed by the Library Association and Institute of Information Scientists, essentially establishes a proper working relationship between the consultant and client. This basis is to some extent the strength of the code, but it is also its weakness. The code provides a guide to good practice, but it stops there, and does not prescribe penalties for those who ignore its dictates. It does not require registration of qualified consultants and/or establish de‐registration procedures. The text of the code is appended.

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.

We are at present inundated with a mass of documentation covering electronic publishing. Most of this covers with varying degrees of depth—and accuracy—the technology. What is becoming increasingly clear, however, is that technical factors alone will not determine the speed of take‐up of most electronic products. Already in many areas technology has outstripped our ability to find applications. Despite this, relatively little attention has been paid to other moderating factors such as economics, market forces and user attitudes. It is concern with these areas that has prompted this paper.

Results of an in‐depth study of the electronic publishing (EP) industry, with particular emphasis on the consumer marketplace, are presented. EP was defined as the use of electronic media to deliver information to users in electronic form or from electronic sources. EP is contrasted to electronic‐aided publishing, which is the use of electronic means to format and produce a conventional information product. An “information chain” model of the information flows between publishers (or producers) and users was helpful in understanding the boundaries of EP and defining its markets. Following a review of the conventional publishing industry, a model of the forces driving the EP industry was derived. Although technology is the strongest driving force, it is by no means the only one; the others are economics, demographics, social trends, government policies, applications growth, and industry trends. Each of these forces is described in detail in a “cause and effect” scenario, from which keys to success in the EP marketplace are derived. Although there is some turmoil in the industry, with new services continuing to appear and disappear, the overall picture is one of optimism. EP should be a significant part of consumers' lives by the end of the decade.

The development of a society reliant on information is traced from the scientific revolutions of the mid‐seventeenth century. Throughout Europe (and later the world) this led to new methods of dissemination and control of published information, through libraries and other institutions, and more recently through the application of electronic technology. The term “information society” should not be restricted to an IT‐based culture: the roots are much deeper and the concept of information continues a long tradition.

There is now no shortage of complex and expensive database software for business use and information retrieval but not all applications need the full sophistication of a relational programmable package costing close to £1,000. Indeed overkill can be a mistake because big systems do not always do simple tasks well. It is, therefore, worth looking to see what the other end of the spectrum has to offer. The “Key” data handling package is just such a system, intended for use in education and designed to be simple enough for pupils themselves to use. At a cost of only £7.95 (BBC B computer) or £9.95 (Research Machines Nimbus computer) including a 72‐page spiral‐bound handbook, one would not expect much, but in fact the system can record information of up to 255 characters length in a number of varied types of field, store simple drawings associated with the records, and plot positions on a map. Searching is possible for beginnings, endings and part words and is surprisingly fast.

Paul Outlet. International organisation and dissemination of knowledge: selected essays of Paul Otlet translated and edited with an introduction by W. Boyd Rayward. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1990. xi, 256 pp. $115.50/Dfl.225. 0 444 88678 8. (fid 684) Paul Otlet was born in Brussels in August 1868 and died there in December 1944. A lawyer who grew to be ‘bored with the law’ and became absorbed with books, libraries and information, he is probably principally remembered in connection with the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC).

Unethical behavior hurts everyone, including the offending person or organization. Unfortunately, the effects of unethical behavior are often long delayed, so the consequences are thus often attributed to the wrong cause. When librarians purchase automated systems, unethical practices—whether committed by consultants, vendors, or librarians—will cause significant harm to the libraries because they can not only acquire inadequate systems, but encounter many managerial and operational problems as well. In this symposium, five major consultants—Rob McGee, Howard Harris, Jose‐Marie Griffiths, Susan Baerg Epstein, and James Rush—share their experiences and thoughts on related issues.

Two of the first questions I was asked to decide when preparing this paper were these: did I want to use visual aids (they asked the BBC); and what did I want to call it. A letter the Association sent to the BBC said this about the first: ‘The main purpose of using visual aids is to communicate information more effectively than is possible by speech alone.’ From that day on, we have hidden the letter from our colleagues in BBC Radio. And I want to speak on behalf of them, as well as Television.