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This paper is an attempt to give the picture of a somewhat different approach from that at Harwell. Descriptions of the systems and the data bases being used at Aldermaston have already been recorded in some detail, especially by L. Corbett, and so will not be repeated here. I would on the other hand like to say something about the policy behind the decision to use external data bases, to include some more up‐to‐date assessments of the use being made of these services and their present costs, and finally some plans for future developments.

To the two aspects of the title—external information and attitudes—I would like to add a qualifying extension, namely, observations of a pragmatic special librarian seeking some necessary development routes from the passing conven‐tional library to the current and future library/information centre concept. I will keep to practical matters and problems of today and not fly into ‘futurology’ which appears to have become a fashion.

The purpose of mechanisation in libraries is to have basic records in machine readable form so that the processing capabilities of machines can be exploited, (a) to maximise access to and ease of use of the literature, and (b) to help relieve the problems produced in libraries by the ever increasing output of literature.

Our object is to develop computer aided systems to alert our staff to current literature relevant to their interests. In the last few years a fair proportion of the rapidly growing current scientific and technical literature's bibliographic references have become available on magnetic tapes. Our policy is to exploit these tapes by using information retrieval systems which are available from external sources, have been developed and proven, and are compatible with our computer facilities.

My originalthis paper was to take, from the literature, examples of successful solutions of practical problems found in using external information services. This would have been fine if there had been any examples in the literature, but there were none that I found. No one has said in print what happens when tapes are held up for three months in a dock strike, or how much it costs to re‐profile when the thesaurus is revised without consultation with the user, or how much extra work is involved when the record format is changed at short notice. No one has actually stated in public that he allowed two hours per profile and it actually required ten, or that the programming costs were three times as large as his (and his Computer Department Manager's) estimate. These things happen—but one naturally does not admit to them in print, even though by so doing one could be of inestimable value to one's professional colleagues.

Human selection of periodical references from the full text, for inclusion in the Mass Spectrometry Bulletin, is compared with the retrieval from the same source material by the mechanized current awareness SDI services of CT and ASCA. Results show human selection to have retrieved substantially more references than SDI using brief, high relevance profiles. Experiments with CT using a larger profile show an increase in recall but a drop in precision. Precision is assessed in relation to the selection/rejection policy for the Bulletin, which is briefly discussed. The effectiveness of the SDI services as a means of indicating references in periodicals outside the range of those examined in detail is also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of increasing employees’ level of continuous improvement (CI) empowerment, i.e. employees’ knowledge and understanding of CI, the possibility of open communication and support from the work environment regarding CI, in the implementation of CI over time.

Based on the theory of structural empowerment, the authors test the research question using evidence from a case study in a European financial services provider. Data are gathered with questionnaires on a team level and cover a period of 2.5 years including 780 participants.

The findings show that after conducting a CI programme in the case, there is a significant increase in employees’ CI empowerment over time, which has a positive but time-lagged relationship with the level of CI implementation.

Implications are that CI empowerment can be created sustainably and is an important factor in establishing CI in a company, but that it takes time until empowerment leads to changes in behaviour. However, it has to be considered that these implications are solely derived from empirical results from a single company.

Financial service providers should invest in establishing CI empowerment and consider a delay in realising measurable benefits in terms of the level of CI implementation.

This paper is the first empirical study to examine the relationship between employee CI empowerment and the implementation of CI from a longitudinal perspective.

By contrasting a contingency with a universal approach to business excellence models (BEMs), the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of size on the use of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) model by organizations that were officially “Recognized for Excellence” in Spain. It considers the potential differences between large organizations and SMEs on the level of adoption of EFQM criteria and on the impact that enablers-criteria may have on key performance measures.

This study uses actual sub-criteria and criteria scores attained by organizations in their assessment for EFQM recognition. Scores of a population of 216 organizations are analyzed via analysis of variance, factor and structural equations models.

Although there are some criteria in the EFQM model that appear to be universally adopted irrespective of size, the empirical analyses indicate that size may shape the adoption of other criteria and the impact that enablers can have on results, thus supporting a contingency perspective. Moreover, the findings call for the revision of the relationships embedded in the EFQM model.

In contrast to most previous research, which relied on surveys of managers’ perceptions, this study uses the actual scores achieved by organizations in their assessment for EFQM recognition. It addresses the effect of size on the whole model, which so far has been neglected in the literature. All in all this study contributes to the literature on contingency approaches to best practices, and more specifically to BEMs. To the practitioner, it provides guidelines for addressing perceived performance gaps in their pursuit of recognition for excellence.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how quality award‐winning organisations have used lean Six Sigma to assist their efforts to improve their business excellence scores.

This paper uses a case study approach and uses data collected by interviews and at public workshops. In addition, publicly available materials such as award applications were also examined. Two organisations were studied, one in New Zealand and one in the USA.

The results show that lean Six Sigma can contribute strongly to each category of the business criteria for performance excellence. There was no evidence of compatibility problems between the lean and Six Sigma components.

This paper is based on two case studies of award‐winning companies that had adopted lean Six Sigma after a long journey using a wide range of improvement approaches. More work is needed to examine the use of lean Six Sigma in the early stages of the business excellence journey.

Some literature on lean Six Sigma suggests that the tools associated with each component are used in a sequential fashion or dominant/subordinate roles. This research showed that the choice of lean Six Sigma tools by project teams was decided more by the complexity of the project rather than following some particular sequence.

Business excellence awards are common in many parts of the world. Organisations are continually seeking ways to improve their performance and to advance up the scoring scale. This paper shows how two award‐winning companies have harnessed lean Six Sigma to improve their operations and improve their scores.