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Paul Outlet. International organisation and dissemination of knowledge: selected essays of Paul Otlet translated and edited with an introduction by W. Boyd Rayward. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1990. xi, 256 pp. $115.50/Dfl.225. 0 444 88678 8. (fid 684) Paul Otlet was born in Brussels in August 1868 and died there in December 1944. A lawyer who grew to be ‘bored with the law’ and became absorbed with books, libraries and information, he is probably principally remembered in connection with the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC).

AS A RESULT of present economic problems in Britain and attendant cuts in spending, there is a need to achieve maximum cost‐effectiveness in all sectors of public spending including libraries. This article examines a simple method by which economies could be made in buying multiple copies of books. It is assumed that unless librarians have freedom to buy a single copy of any book they choose, they will not achieve the breadth and depth required of first‐class libraries, be they in the public sector or in academic institutions. Perhaps second copies need cause little concern, but a pilot survey of a polytechnic library revealed cases where as many as four, six or even eight copies of the same edition had been bought on one occasion before the effectiveness of a lesser purchase could have been evaluated.

I am casting myself into the role of the professional practitioner of the black arts of information handling. Naturally I have heard of the Data Protection Act, and I have even read some of the papers on the subject. I run a reasonably successful information service, with a home‐made integrated system based on dBase II. This runs on a micro which also has a modem for online searches, and which in addition is used for word processing.

The wide availability of relatively cheap computing power has led many librarians and information officers to expect that the procurement of a microcomputer and database software will answer all of their needs for information management and retrieval. They then anticipate that this equipment will also serve all of the administrative needs of the information unit. This simplistic view is seen to ignore many of the hard realities of automation, and neglects the vital need for systems analysis and design. The author examines the ways in which microcomputers are currently used in libraries, and suggests some practical considerations for those about to embark on automation projects.

Many clients who seek the assistance of consultants in the field of library and information resources (LIR) begin with the assumption that automation is the desired end of the project, and do not look deeply enough at the operation of the unit in question. Often automation is not the answer, but is being used to conceal organisational defects, or a lack of strategic planning of LIR objectives. This paper will guide the reader towards the effective use of consultancy by outlining the steps which should be taken prior to employing a consultant, and the facts and figures which the client will require in the initial briefing.

Last Christmas my daughter received a book as a present. There is nothing apparently noteworthy about that, but this book is different. She is the heroine of this story; the other characters bear the names of her friends; and the action all takes place in our home and neighbourhood. All that we, the parents, had to do, was to supply the publishers with the appropriate pieces of information, and a word processor looked after the rest.

Information units have tended historically to operate as groups independent from their user populations. New technologies have generally been adopted within this operating pattern in order to carry out certain specific tasks. There has been little planned interaction between recording, storage, retrieval and dissemination functions. The electronic technologies, in terms of the potential which they offer for capturing and re‐using information; and their pervasive introduction within organisations, offer the chance to re‐evaluate information services and the products which they generate. The nature of information management is described, and a broad plan for carrying out an information audit is provided.

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) use for recreational purposes appears to have increased among young people in several countries, including Denmark, Australia, The Netherlands and the UK. This increase has prompted concern among health authorities and politicians. The purpose of this paper is to map out findings in the available literature about N₂O use among young people to better understand current trends and contextualize the public concerns and the new policy responses to it.

The authors draw here on a range of sources, including research literature, reports and policy documents in English and Danish. Given the broad aim, the authors used a scoping study approach (Arksey and O’Malley, 2005).

The authors found literature on prevalence of use, health effects and policy regulations. The literature suggests that health harms associated with N₂O use are generally associated with intensive and long-term use, and death is more likely where the means of administration entails a risk of suffocation. Overall, however, the analysis shows that substantial gaps exist in the available literature. The authors lack detailed knowledge on several issues, including comparable prevalence data of N₂O use; the extent to which N₂O is used with other drugs; how one can distinguish between harmful and non-harmful use in terms of both quantity inhaled and mode of administration; and on intended and unintended consequences of policy responses to this use.

The current increase and trend in inhaling N₂O for intoxication among young people is under researched. This general review maps out what kind of knowledge would be valuable to have for prevention, harm reduction and policy interventions.

Library and Information Science Abstracts have successfully completed a pilot project, with SilverPlatter Information Limited, that has resulted in a one‐year file of Lisa for 1984 being recorded onto CD‐ROM (Compact Disk — Read Only Memory). Plans are now well under way for providing the complete Lisa database on CD‐ROM commercially by mid‐1986.

BRS/SEARCH is a popular text retrieval package often used in combination with other software such as library housekeeping and imaging systems. The author has had experience of using BRS/ SEARCH in a UNIX environment. The database and record structures, record storage and retrieval and input and output facilities of the system are described.