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With the rapid growth of the video and VCR market since the 1980s, librarians have increasingly used videos for staff training and development, as well as for instructional purposes. As a medium, video provides a potentially stimulating and accessible alternative to other training approaches. In many training and instructional situations, video can clarify technical procedures, step‐by‐step, using such functions as slow motion and replay. For training programs emphasizing soft skills development (including communication, supervisory, and management skills), video can enhance role playing and behavior modeling. It can also provide opportunities for self‐observation and evaluation through the taping of simulated or actual interactions.

The planning and production phases of the project Interactive Video on Microcomputers in Libraries were funded jointly by the British Library Research & Development Department, Brighton Polytechnic Department of Librarianship, and the Polytechnic of Central London Library Services. The duration of this phase of the project was 1 September 1985 to 31 August 1986. The research, analysis and planning stages were completed between September and December 1985. During the eight months from January to August 1986 production was completed and limited evaluation attempted.

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with orientation to library facilities and services, instruction in the use of information resources, and research and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the fifteenth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1988. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.

There are many encyclopedias available but finding out how good they are for use by particular sets of people is by no means easy. So there certainly is room for this guide which examines the wide range on offer in the USA and Canada and some elsewhere, describes the form and content of the volumes and attempts to evaluate them in comparison with each other. It is an entirely new work, current to 1 March 1986 and has title and subject indexes. There is even a bibliography of selected other books and articles on the evaluation and use of encyclopedias. Surprisingly it is quite readable and interesting to dip into in spite of the density of bibliographical details contained. Of course it deals mostly with North American publications but sometimes these are “the best” anywhere and librarians should know about more than their own country's publications.

The following is an annotated bibliography of materials published in English in 1975 on orienting users to the library and on instructing them in the use of reference resources. Included are publications on user instruction in all types of libraries and for all types of users from elementary to graduate students. It should be noted that the literature on this subject is increasing and a growing number of the publications listed are concerned with evaluating library instruction and its effect on users and libraries. As in previous years, the library literature also includes many references to publications on user instruction in foreign countries. However, such publications, except for British and Australian references, have been omitted from this annual review.

This book by Rod Cowley — ALS: A Guide for Librarians and System Managers — plunges me into some perplexity. For what is the object of this series of which we seem to have here the first volume? According to the back cover, it is to help librarians or system managers — a frightful term. I do hope that the “managers” are also librarians and not upper echelon bureaucrats with their eyes firmly fixed on the statistics produced by computers. However, the book seeks to help them choose an automated system by examining the different products now available. A good move, for librarians wishing to automate their systems often have great difficulty in making a choice in the face of commercial‐cum‐technical engineers well versed in the techniques of salesmanship. Often there is a risky choice — that of one system rather than another based on hazardous rule of thumb and word of mouth. This indicates the potential value of a series which should enable us to form an opinion of different systems by an analysis of their strengths and weaknesses. Rod Cowley is a former assistant librarian at Bromley Public Library which has an ALS system and former Secretary of the ALS Users Group. Today, he is UK Sales Manager of Automated Library Systems Ltd.

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.

The decade of the 1980s was unique for the sheer quantity of education reform reports and legislation. Virtually every state enacted education reform legislation, including reforms of teacher education, licensing, and comprehension. According to Darling‐Hammond and Berry, over 1,000 pieces of legislation related to teachers have been drafted since 1980, and “a substantial fraction have been implemented.” As I discussed in my 1989 RSR article, “Five Years after A Nation at Risk: An Annotated Bibliography,” two waves of 1980s reform reports were identified in the enormous body of primary and secondary literature dealing with education reform. The reform publications of the early 1980s stressed improvements in curricular standards, student performance outcomes, and changes to the education programs, such as salary increases, teacher testing, and stricter certification requirements. The second‐wave reform publications emphasized more complex issues centered around the concepts of restructuring the schools and teacher education programs, as well as empowering teachers to become more involved in curriculum and governance issues.

This paper aims to examine the effects of purchase environment, product type and need for touch (NFT) on cognitive response, affective response and overall product evaluation in the USA and India.

Two experiments were conducted in two different consumer markets. In Study 1, participants evaluated haptic and non-haptic products and gave responses on cognitive response, affective response and overall product evaluation measures in the US market. In Study 2, the authors replicate Study 1 in a culturally different market of India and extend Study 1 by examining the moderating role of instrumental and autotelic dimensions of NFT on the effect of purchase environment on cognitive and affective responses.

Research findings suggest that cognitive and affective responses are the underlying mechanism between the purchase environment and overall response only for haptic product among Indian consumers. In contrast, affective response is the underlying mechanism explaining this relationship among US consumers. Furthermore, the instrumental dimension of NFT moderates the impact of purchase environment on cognitive but the autotelic NFT moderates the effect of purchase environment on affective response only for the haptic product but not for the non-haptic product.

The study uses a relatively homogenous sample in the Indian market in contrast to the US market.

Results advance the understanding of the importance of haptic information processing in consumer decision-making across different purchase environments, product types and NFT using psychological distance (proximity) as a theoretical underpinning. With non-haptic shopping environments (i.e. online and mobile) growing rapidly, the results have critical implications for development of marketing strategies in Asian and US markets.

Empirical research examining the underlying mechanism by which purchase environment influences overall evaluation for haptic product is scarce. Additionally, understanding of the differential roles of instrumental and autotelic dimensions of NFT on cognitive and affective responses is very limited. This research fills this void and provides an understanding of the specific environment in evaluating haptic and non-haptic products in two distinct markets.