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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the human rights issues pertinent to adolescents of diverse sexual orientation and gender identities and the health consequences resulting for the transgression of these rights. In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution endorsing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet, 73 member states criminalize the activities of these individuals. The other member states do not impose legal penalties on these activities, yet sexual and gender minority youth within these states continue to experience acts of physical and psychological aggression.

A commissioned position paper grounded in a convenient scholarly literature review on this topic.

Human rights transgressions by states or individuals lead to minority stress affecting the mental health and physical health of these youth.

The author makes a number of recommendations to address some of the impact resulting from the transgression of human rights in the world.

A survey is presented of the use of unobtrusive testing techniques to measure reference enquiry answering performance, emphasising research carried out in Britain. British studies reveal similar performance figures to those obtained by American studies; the average succes rate here also being only about 55 per cent. Possible developments in the use of the techniques to aid user service research and management are suggested, and the limitations of unobtrusive testing methods are considered. The improvement of enquiry answering performance would seem to lie in better training of library staff in communication skills.

VINE is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up‐to‐date news of work being done in the automation of library housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. It is edited and substantially written by the Information Officer for Library Automation based in Southampton University Library and supported by a grant from the British Library Research and Development Dept. Copyright for VINE articles rests with the British Library Board, but opinions expressed in VINE do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the British Library. The subscription for 1982 for VINE is £20 for UK subscribers and £23 for overseas subscribers — the subscription year runs from January to December. The 1983 subscription will be £22 for UK and £25 for overseas — VINE is available in either paper copy or microfiche and all back issues are available on microfiche.

During the mid 1990s, it was predicted that the library as physical place was doomed. A dualism emerged – the virtual library vs library as place – and it was assumed that the virtual library would prove to be the most popular. In 1995, the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, produced four scenarios presenting alternative library futures in the twenty‐first century, specifically the year 2010. Only one of these scenarios predicted a reinterpretation and corresponding revitalisation of “library as place”. The author initiated and led this process in 1995 and revisited these scenarios in 2010 with a view to comparing current practices in library design with the attributes described in this lone scenario; the aim of this paper is to focus on this scenario.

Library leaders in Australia, many of whom participated in the 1995 scenario development process, are interviewed, along with a number of architects specialising in contemporary library design. This qualitative process is complemented by an international literature search. Three library sectors are surveyed – collecting institutions, academic and public libraries.

Fifteen years on the dualism between virtual and physical is less stark; a convergence has occurred that would have been unthinkable then. A hybrid has emerged with digital and place‐based notions of a library holding equal currency. Interviewees confirm that “library as place” has never been so popular. This trend is international and emerges from the inter‐weaving of the digital, social and aesthetic that has generated new loci for solitary and collective learning and interaction.

The paper asks questions about what has happened to unsettle predictions conceived in the mid 1990s; what is happening now in terms of new modes of learning and knowledge exchange; and what kind of library spaces and uses can be expected in the future.

IN AMERICA the book world is bemoaning the fact that us internal postal rates were hiked up yet again in July for the special ‘library rate’ and the ‘fourth‐class book rate’—the former to 10 cents for a 2‐lb package, and the latter to 28 cents for the same. They might be interested to know that the cost of sending a 2‐lb parcel of books by post internally in the UK is now the equivalent of $1.00.

Dun and Bradstreet, the business information company, have developed a computerised databank called Market Facts File, which provides up to 20 different facts on more than 200,000 enterprises in 183 different types of business, as well as information on businesses in major markets throughout the world.

One of the most serious problems facing the country today is maintaining dietary standards, especially in the vulnerable groups, in the face of rising food prices. If it were food prices alone, household budgetry could cope, but much as rising food prices take from the housewife's purse, rates, fuel, travel and the like seem to take more; for food, it is normally pence, but for the others, it is pounds! The Price Commission is often accused of being a watch‐dog which barks but rarely if ever bites and when it attempts to do this, like as not, Union power prevents any help to the housewife. There would be far less grumbling and complaining by consumers if they could see value for their money; they only see themselves constantly overcharged and, in fact, cheated all along the line. In past issues, BFJ has commented on the price vagaries in the greengrocery trade, especially the prices of fresh fruit and vegetables. Living in a part of the country given over to fruit farming and field vegetable crops, it is impossible to remain unaware of what goes on in this sector of the food trade. Unprecedented prosperity among the growers; and where fruit‐farming is combined with field crops, potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower and leafy brassicas, many of the more simple growers find the sums involved frightening. The wholesalers and middle‐men are something of unknown entities, but the prices in the shops are there for all to see. The findings of an investigation by the Commission into the trade, the profit margins between wholesale prices and greengrocers' selling prices, published in February last, were therefore not altogether surprising. The survey into prices and profits covered five basic vegetables and was ordered by the present Prices Secretary the previous November. Prices for September to November were monitored for the vegetables—cabbages, brussels sprouts, cauliflowers, carrots, turnips and swedes, the last priced together. Potatoes were already being monitored.