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This paper describes the type of drug information service available in the UK, its scope, limitations and possible future development. A survey was carried out in which information pharmacists in the sixteen major drug information centres in the UK were interviewed. All centres have access to a large number of information resources and, in addition, have developed a resource which reduces the delay before published information is retrievable from their own system. Some centres receive large numbers of enquiries and have little time for active dissemination of information whilst other centres with few enquiries actively disseminate information to hospital staff. Some centres send bulletins to general practitioners, retail pharmacists and community nurses. Most information pharmacists refer enquiries concerning drug therapy in patients with which they may have difficulties to clinical pharmacologists or other medically qualified personnel. General practitioners use drug information services less often than hospital doctors. Most information pharmacists plan to extend their services to medical and paramedical staff in the community. In the future, information pharmacists plan to use improved technology to provide a more efficient service, open for longer hours, provide clinical opinion with the help of clinical pharmacologists and increase the functions of drug information centres (e.g. adverse drug reaction monitoring).

Describes the recent economic and land reforms in China, and the consequent changes in the emerging Chinese property market. Analyses the need for property management valuation skills in China in the light of problems of country size, regional differences, the scale of economic reforms and the speed with which they are being implemented, administration and the difficulty of educating a large number of property professionals.

This paper seeks to provide an overview of The Admiral Nurse Academy, which provides a web‐based resource for the clinical and academic development of all admiral nurses. Its role is to: facilitate changes to practice development and group supervision; support knowledge development and learning and regulate the Admiral Nurse Induction Programme. The introduction of the Admiral Nurse Competency Framework in 2003 marked its beginning.

The paper provides background on the development and role of Admiral Nursing and an overview of The Admiral Nurse Academy in providing training.

The need for Admiral Nurses to develop a transparent framework of regulating their practice and learning is consistent both with developments in nursing more widely and with recent UK policy emphasis on enhancing the quality of the dementia care workforce. In addition to offering a clinical and academic pathway tailored to each Admiral Nurse, the academy offers a route for those practicing at an advanced level to ensure their clinical expertise and leadership skills are commensurate with master's level qualifications. Dementia UK promotes and maintains the business development of admiral nursing. A senior Admiral Nurse group maintains and oversees the academy.

At a time when public sector resources are shrinking whilst demands on care services and calls for improved care quality are increasing, The Admiral Nurse Academy offers a timely reminder of the importance of practice development for specialist nurses working with people with dementia and their family carers wherever they may be in the service system and whatever their level of need.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the design and development of a final year undergraduate mathematics module designed to address professional skills development at a UK university, including via input to curriculum and assessment from employers, and to investigate student acquisition of skills from this module.

Literature on skills development in mathematics informs module design and development. Students optionally completed Likert-style competency questionnaires before and after the taught module content, and reflected on skills development via an end of module questionnaire. Data collection took place over three academic years.

Several key competencies exhibit median increases over the course of the module in each academic year, indicating a perceived skills development. Problem solving and presentation skills are particularly highlighted.

Numbers of students were small, though the study is repeated with three different cohorts. Some students study mathematics jointly with another discipline and hence may have experience in skills development from the other subject.

This study indicates that innovations in teaching style and assessment in mathematics modules can enhance student confidence and competence with key professional skills.

Undergraduate modules in mathematics which have a focus on professional skills development are still fairly rare in UK universities. Often such modules do not embed the professional skills development activities with subject-specific technical tasks and projects as this module does. There are few formal studies of the effectiveness of this style of module, especially longitudinal studies covering several academic years.

This paper considers the impact that contractual procedures have upon the client's control system's ability to deal with unexpected problems. An analysis is made of the relevant procedures set out in the New Engineering Contract (NEC) and a comparison is made to those set out in the Standard Form of Building Contract 1980 Edition (JCT 80). The comparative analysis is based upon a model of problem solving which identifies four critical stages in the problem solving process. The objective of the paper is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of JCT 80 and NEC in relation to the stages of this model. The aim of the paper is to make some recommendations which could be incorporated into future contracts to improve problem solving effectiveness. This work is a continuation of a research project which is considering the communication and behavioural aspects of the problem solving process in construction projects.

An effective client briefing process and the selection of an appropriate building procurement system both contribute to the attainment of client objectives with respect to time, cost and quality for construction projects. The present paper documents the results of an empirical study into the nature and effectiveness of the project briefing process, and the selection and effectiveness of procurement methods in the attainment of client objectives. A national questionnaire survey was administered to clients, architects, quantity surveyors, engineers, project managers and general contractors in South Africa. The results show that room for improvement exists in the manner in which project briefing is conducted and the manner in which procurement methods are selected.

The Primary Communications Research Centre started its life at the University of Leicester in 1976, closing down ten years later in 1986. Its objective — to study all aspects of primary communication — was unique at the time. This retrospective survey by the Project Head looks at the thinking behind the foundation of the Centre and assesses its activities.

The purpose of this paper is to report a study designed to identify qualifications and skills that library and information science (LIS) students should have when they graduate.

The reported research examines the curriculum of 49 institutions in three countries which offer programs in LIS. Course descriptions are studied through the web and the module specifications presented there.

The study identifies 59 qualifications/skills that were central to graduation in the field of LIS.

Course specifications have some limitations as they do not always include the detailed description that would be desirable.

The paper examines the orientation of institutions that provide LIS programs and, more importantly, the way that orientation is integrated into their programs of study.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

Introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

Provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.