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Official waiting times rarely take account of the wait for investigations needed prior to determining what treatment to offer. A postal survey was carried out of hospitals in the northwest of England, to gauge waiting times for commonly requested investigations. Waiting times were shortest when there was a high suspicion of underlying malignancy, with 92 per cent under four weeks. When malignancy was thought unlikely, the wait for investigations was much longer, with some departments quoting waits of over eight months. It is concluded that the wait for investigations is often considerable and should be included in official waiting times.

Organizations are facing stiff competition in the ever‐changing global market‐place and are sure to face increasing battles in the future. To position themselves for success in the coming decade, many organizations are making the transition to an empowered workforce. In an empowering environment, those closest to the job are given the responsibility to make decisions regarding their own work, and many times, their own customers. Implementing self‐directed teams is a step towards achieving an empowered culture. Details the five necessary steps for successful team implementation including: the six‐step process for designing teams, adopting team selection systems, addressing new training needs, initiating leadership transitions and changing roles, and rewarding team rather than individual performance.

SCHEMES FOR the national library services of developing countries make the British library world seem positively victorian by comparison. Two factors, however, are likely to be agents of change in the next few years. At the apex of the pyramid, the proposals for the British Library will rationalise the British Museum, the National Central Library, the National Lending Library for Science and Technology and the British National Bibliography complex. At more local levels, the re‐organisation of local government in England will ensure more effective provision of public library services under unitary control.

The quality of printing produced by computers is often of a poor standard. Most people can tell at a glance which parts of their bills, or bank statements, are printed by a computer — the parts that are awkward to read and of poor quality. In general, computer printed documents are inferior to typed documents. This may not matter too much for bills, but the current explosion in office word‐processing computers means a corresponding explosion in the number and variety of badly printed documents being produced.

Despite the noticeable consequences of disruptive financial innovations, access to finance remains a major factor inhibiting the sustainable-growth potentials of young micro-entrepreneurs in informal settings. This study examines the determinants of financing options among micro-entrepreneurs in informal settings. Specifically, the study seeks to establish whether credit history, income, asset, gender, awareness and network capability have effects on formal and informal financing options among micro-entrepreneurs in informal settings.

This article uses the survey research design and administers a structured questionnaire among 300 purposively selected micro-entrepreneurs within the University of Lagos, Nigeria. Only 291 completed questionnaires are retrieved. This article also uses the multiple regression analysis to estimate the empirical model and test the research hypotheses respectively.

This article establishes that: (1) credit history and assets-based financing are significant determinants of formal financing options among young micro-entrepreneurs in informal settings, (2) gender and network capability are significant determinants of informal financing options among young micro-entrepreneurs in informal settings and (3) awareness is significant of both formal and informal financing options among young micro-entrepreneurs in informal settings.

This article examines the determinants of financing option among young micro-entrepreneurs in informal settings. Specifically, the study seeks to establish whether credit history income asset gender awareness and network capability have effects on formal and informal financing options among micro-entrepreneurs in informal settings.

THE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION'S worsening financial position is a matter of general concern, and any constructive suggestions will no doubt be helpful to the Honorary Treasurer and others who plan our finances. The present Library Association structure is workable in practice, but it is becoming increasingly expensive to maintain, and a little thought begins to show the possibilities of economy, without any loss of effectiveness. The most important associated factor at the present time is the possibility of drastic local government reorganisation in 1974, only one year after the earliest date when Library Association subscriptions can be increased. The effect of this reorganisation, as at present proposed, on Library Association structure, needs to be borne in mind.

Building dynamic capabilities that are differentiated from those of the emerging competitors is the major challenge for growing firms. Becoming a great company is a function of management’s ability to integrate entrepreneurship at strategic and operational levels within the organization. Corporate entrepreneurship represents a framework for the facilitation of ongoing change and innovation in established organizations. It provides a blueprint for coping effectively with the new competitive realities that companies encounter in the global marketplace. This paper examines the latest research concerning the triggering of corporate entrepreneurship and the critical link of middle managers to the implementation of the process.

The costs of physical distribution, like the costs of production or marketing, consist of a number of elements whose prices are frequently determined independently and without apparent reference to each other. In the same way that production costs can be controlled by varying the inputs of capital, raw materials and labour according to their current cost relationships; or the efficiency of a marketing programme maximised through judicious adjustment of the marketing mix, so can the costs of physical distribution be minimised by scientific warehouse location, inventory control, transport mix analysis, containerisation and route planning. Widespread application of operational research techniques, industrial engineering and marketing research mean that the spectacular savings available in the past in marketing and production have been achieved.

IT HAS BEEN SAID that one of the marks of greatness in a writer is that his characters cease to be ‘people in a book’, becoming instead the intimate friends of the reader. By that test alone John Buchan, the centenary of whose birth we remembered on August 26, was certainly a great craftsman, for the characters of his novels have been for many years now my familiar and well‐loved friends.