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Hybrid benchmarking was developed by HM Customs and Excise. They have used the methodology for three years as part of the drive to deliver continuous improvement at lower cost. After establishing the need and clearly defining the service to be delivered in terms of the outputs, managers empower staff to decide how best to deliver. The service is then benchmarked against similar activities in the public and private sector to test quality and cost. Service delivery and efficiency are monitored through a system of service level agreements. Results are comparable to those achieved through competitive tendering exercises and hybrid benchmarking is now attracting attention in the European Union, and further afield.

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

The following is the text of Mr. JOHN BURNS' Bill for securing the purity of articles of food and preventing the misdescription thereof, which was introduced in the House of Commons on August 6:—

In a previous monograph a discussion took place on stages one and part of stage two of the three stage process in an unfair dismissal action, namely the employee having to show that he has been dismissed (stage one), and some of the reasons for dismissal which fall within the statutory categories, namely the employee's capability and qualifications; misconduct and redundancy (part of stage two). In this monograph an analysis is proposed on the two remaining reasons, these being the contravention of a duty imposed by an enactment and some other substantial reason. There will then follow a discussion on the test of fairness as constituting the third of the three stage process and on the remedies available when the tribunal finds that the employee has been unfairly dismissed.

The formation, in May, 1949, of the new Aslib, incorporating the Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux and the British Society for International Bibliography, led to a change in the dating of Aslib's financial year, which will now run from January to December instead of from July to June. This report, therefore, extends over eighteen months and links the activities of the old organization with those of its successor.

Movement is an inescapable element in human life. Lacking it, man would still be enduring the laborious existence he knew when he first appeared on the world's stage. Since that time all progress has depended on movement, the rate being governed by whether it was sluggish or sharp.

An employee who is eligible to make a complaint for unfair dismissal has to prove that he has been dismissed by the employer if the employer contests that the employee has in fact been dismissed. If the dismissal is not contested, all the employee has to do is to show that he has been dismissed. This constitutes the first stage of the proceedings in an industrial tribunal.

THE Conservative Government elected on June 18th last has lost no time in putting into practice its avowed principle of reducing direct taxation. Late in July it flew a kite through an inspired leak showing that it intended to save millions on education, one small part of which would be £10 million, purporting to be “saved” by making readers pay for books borrowed through public libraries. First indications of this were in a story included in The Guardian, Daily Telegraph and other papers, and as this story was not denied by the Government, the Library Association thought it proper to issue a press statement immediately, with the message that the Association was totally opposed to the introduction of such charges.