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Reports on research by the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals and TARP Europe Ltd into the effectiveness of customer service as a marketing tool and whether companies are really as customer focused as they maintain. Classifies UK companies into three classes: those who deliver effective customer service; those who do not have any department or individual responsible for customer service and deal with it in an ad hoc manner; and those who fit between these two. Concludes that in the UK there is some way to go before companies actually achieve the levels of customer service which they maintain they have already reached. Proposes that when this is attained, companies will be in a better competitive position.

The article describes the design and implementation process for developing an academic library website at De Montfort University (DMU) and gives practical guidance and advice. The aim of the website is to provide access to quality information services for students and staff at a large decentralised university. The article discusses resources and subject areas that are specific to DMU’s teaching and learning environment. However it aims, where possible, to give generalised advice to any academic library that is considering building a website in the hope that others will benefit from the DMU experience.

Recent efforts to go beyond gross domestic product as a measure of economic performance raise important questions about the nature of the economy, including: what is the best measure of a sound, flourishing economy, and what is the purpose of ‘doing well’ in economic terms? One possible measure of the soundness of an economy is the extent to which it results in better lives for humans – a thought that has inspired measures such as the Human Development Index, among others. In the bigger picture, a sound, flourishing economy should also be consistent with good, and perhaps optimal, lives for non-humans, and well-functioning ecosystems. On this measure, economics should not be an altogether anthropocentric enterprise. To go beyond anthropocentric notions of economic performance, a degree of integration between economics, philosophy and biology is required, with Umwelt theory and biosemiotics indicating a way forward. A merely economic outlook can easily lead to the commodification of each and every organism and natural resource, thus neglecting the agency, interests and intrinsic value of animals and other non-humans. To truly ‘serve all’ in an Anthropocene-era world, where the living conditions of practically all organisms on the planet are affected by human economic activities, economists need to acknowledge that there are economic stakeholders beyond humans. This would make economics more compatible with current outlooks in normative ethics with regard to the value of animals, biodiversity, etc., and could be part of a radical reconceptualization of the nature of the economy, in which economic value is situated within value theory in a wider sense.

The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has approved for publication a Supplementary Report presented to the Food Standards Committee by their Preservatives Sub‐Committee, making recommendations about the use of colouring matters in foods. An earlier Report on this subject by the Sub‐Committee was published in January, 1955. The main recommendation in that Report was that the Public Health (Preservatives, etc., in Food) Regulations, 1925–1953, should be amended so as to permit the use in foods of specified colours only. The present position under the Preservatives Regulations is that, with a few specified exceptions, the addition of any colouring matters to articles of food is permitted.

To provide a list of non‐fictional books, as published, for the use of Librarians and Book‐buyers generally, arranged so as to serve as a continuous catalogue of new books ; an aid to exact classification and annotation ; and a select list of new books proposed to be purchased. Novels, school books, ordinary reprints and strictly official publications will not be included in the meantime.

WORK study was discussed at some length during the Committee stage of the Science and Technology Bill. It was ably expounded and strongly supported by Mr. Graham Page, Member for Crosby, whose speech we reported in March. The principal opposition to it came from Mr. Maurice Orbach, Member for Stockport South, whose remarks appeared in our April issue. On both occasions we refrained from any editorial comment so that readers could make their own objective assessment of the case.

WE place this special Conference number in the hands of readers in the hope and belief that it will offer features of distinct interest which will increase the value and enjoyment of Brighton. There can be no doubt that the organizers of Library Association Conferences have endeavoured to surpass one another in recent years; almost always, it may be said, with success. Brighton, like Blackpool if in a rather different way, is a mistress of the art of welcome, and it will be long before another town can surpass her in the art. She is at her best in September when the great, and to some appalling, crowds of her promenades have thinned out a little. This year, then, librarians have an interesting time ahead; although, as we glance over the programme again, we fear that the outdoor and other pleasures we have subtly suggested will occur only fitfully. There will be so much to do in the way of business.