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The Internet looks set to have a major influence on information seeking behavior, although there is very little hard data around as to what these changes will be or where they will occur. This British Library funded study set out to gather such data from the media using open‐ended interview techniques. Several hundred journalists, editors and media librarians were interviewed. The early findings indicate that the Internet is not impacting in the way forcasted. Change appears to be slow and variable; the issues of information overload and the authority of Web data seem not to worry users; and there is little evidence that other information sources are being significantly displaced because of Internet use. However, it is still too early to determine the full impact of the Internet although it is best judged away from the Information Centre/Library.

THE burr and its elimination are a major problem throughout the Aerospace industry. Removing burrs costs the industry millions of pounds each year. Burrs afflict a variety of processes. Punching, shearing, drilling and routing operations on metal all result in some degree of burr formation. Most manufacturers will need to eliminate burrs to ensure safer handling of parts and to improve the appearance and the quality of the finished product. Moreover, allowing burrs to remain will impair the functionality of the part. This is particularly true where metal parts are being manufactured to close tolerances such as the Aerospace industry.

Weighs up whether a dumbing down has taken place in the British tabloid and broadsheet press. Material is presented from The Sun, The Daily Telegraph and The Times, and also from a number of television channels for comparison. Provides evidence which suggests that, while there has been changes in news reporting it is not strictly one way and down; indeed, there is some evidence to indicate an upmarketing amongst the tabloid press and television.

There is very little qualitative data on what impact the Internet is having on information seeking in the workplace. Using open‐ended interviews, questionnaires and observation, the impact of the Internet on the British Media was assessed. The focus was largely on newspapers, with The Guardian being covered in some depth. Over 300 journalists and media librarians were surveyed. It was found that amongst traditional journalists use was light. Poor access to the Internet – and good access to other information resources – were largely the reasons for this. Of the journalists it was mainly the older and more senior journalists and the New Media journalists who used the Internet. Librarians were also significant users. Searching the World Wide Web was the principal Internet activity and use was generally conservative in character. Newspapers and official sites were favoured, and searches were mainly of a fact‐checking nature. Email was used on a very limited scale and was not regarded as a serious journalistic tool. Non‐users were partly put off by the Internet‘s potential for overloading them with information and its reputation for producing information of suspect quality. Users generally dismissed these concerns, dealing with potential overload and quality problems largely by using authoritative sites and exploiting the lower quality data where it was needed. Where the Internet has been used it has not been at the expense of other information sources or communication channels, but online hosts seem to be at most risk in the future.

Al Bastakiya (now Al Fahidi) historic neighborhood in Dubai stands as one of the last remaining residential historic neighborhoods in a city notoriously known to favor newness. Among the existing research about the neighborhood, most focuses on the allure of the neighborhood’s 13-meter-high wind-catching towers and private courtyards, but some delve into the histories of the merchant families who lived in the neighborhood. I argue that the existing literature does not capture the multiplicity of experiences of Al Bastakiya residents, especially the experiences of women. In fact, at times it sits in opposition to it.

This paper is part of an ongoing research project titled Ayesha Al Bastaki and the Windtower Houses of Old Dubai, which seeks to challenge the male-centered rendition of Al Bastakiya by re-introducing women as active agents in the narrative of Al Bastakiya. Ayesha Al Bastaki is a well-established Dubai-based architectural engineer with over 50 completed projects.

Using her memories in one of the biggest houses in the neighborhood, the Abbas House (now demolished), and the collective memory of her community in Al Bastakiya in the 1970s and early 1980s, a story is told about the role of women in the development of the Al Bastakiya neighborhood and their negotiation of their built environment.

Bringing to the forefront for the first time, women of the Al Bastakiya.

A content analysis of the coverage of European Union stories in British daily newspapers. Three months of newspapers were scanned an a daily basis and their pro and anti stance monitored. Includes an analysis of websites. The results show that for both hardcopy newspapers and their online equivalents the anti‐European press is passionate in its beliefs, whereas the pro‐European press largely solid but unexciting in theirs. Concludes with the view that in political and newspaper speak Europe is just not a ‘heart’ issue.

Most theories of environmental instrument choice focus exclusively on differential compliance costs. But compliance costs comprise only part of the total costs of environmental protection. Administrative costs - particularly the costs of measuring emissions and monitoring compliance - can differ significantly between environmental instruments. Those administrative cost differentials may offset the compliance cost advantages commonly associated with economic instruments, such as tradeable permits and effluent taxes. Moreover, measurement and monitoring constraints may increase ex ante uncertainty over the differential costs and benefits of alternative regulatory policies. That uncertainty may militate against selecting regulatory instruments that appear superior from the perspective of models focusing exclusively on compliance-cost differentials.

The meteoric rise of the Internet has left information science researchers struggling to keep pace, so that much discussion about the phenomenon has been based on assumption, anecdote and sheer hype. This paper reports on a major British Library funded project seeking hard evidence as to what is really happening in the information landscape, with the media being a case study. Discussed here are results pertaining to user characteristics, with particular reference to age. Contrary to received wisdom, it is the old, more experienced journalist pioneering Internet use, rather than the stereotypical young computer whiz kids. Several factors are emerging, including information needs characteristics, job security, Internet access, experience with online systems and, for senior managers, economic implications. The wider context is considered, such as early adoption generally of technological innovations, and evidence suggests that the newsroom environment may be characteristic of a general pattern of end‐user Internet adoption.

In a recent reference to changes brought about by the local government reorganisation of 1974, we criticised some of the names given to the new areas. Some of these name changes have made difficulties for those who follow from afar the doings of local authorities, as well as raising the ire of local people. Local names, however, are not the only casualty. The creation of new and larger governmental organisations rarely, if ever, results in economy and as anticipated, it was not long before the new local authorities were being directed to embrace financial stringency and all that it incurs. One such other casualty has been the loss of so many of the annual reports of local authority departments, very few now arriving at BFJ offices. In every case, the reason has been the same—severe restrictions on spending. Not that this was not necessary in many fields, but in respect of annual reports, we are convinced it was false economy. For so many of the reports, it was our pleasure to review them in the pages of BFJ. A prominent Labour politician was once heard to refer to them as “hard and dry reports for hard and dry officials”. It all depends probably on what you are looking for in them. Statistics there must be but most enforcement officers and public analysts, endeavour to keep these to the minimum, the general impression being that these are “dry”. If you are looking for trends, for comparison of the year under review with preceding years and then for comparing the results reported in one part of the country with another, where the population, eating habits, consumer reactions may be different, the tables of statistics are highly important.