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This paper describes the work carried out so far at the University of Bath and the Polytechnic of North London as part of the DISISS (Design of Information Systems in the Social Sciences) Project, towards producing a machine‐readable data base of social science serial titles‐CLOSSS (Check List of Social Science Serials). The file consists to date of 5500 titles. The data base is to be used for studies of the size, growth, and composition of the serial literature of the social sciences. Data collection and file creation procedures are described and suggestions put forward for possible future use of the file in the DISISS Project and elsewhere.

A summary of the report of the Unesco meeting of experts on the problems and strategies of incorporating the social sciences into the world science information system (UNISIST) is given, followed by discussion of the implications for social scientists, as users of information services, of some of the proposals put forward at that meeting. In particular, the problems involved in standardizing terminology for thesauri and other bibliographical facilities, and the advantages which are likely to be derived from common standards of data collection are discussed.

Cluster analysis was used on three files of citations from social science journals to other journals. The files were a pilot study, a file of criminology data and a very large file covering all social sciences. The criminology data was divided into sections drawn from 1950, 1960, and 1970 sources. The large file was in two sections, one drawn from a ranked list of source journals and the other from a list of journals selected at random. The study looked at the effect of several cluster methods and various ways of normalizing the data to find out which observed effects are true properties of the data. The results indicated that clusters of social science journals generated using citations have a non‐hierarchical structure. The criminology samples from 1960 and 1970 showed little change over ten years in the main clusters, but the two sections of the large file gave results which, although similar in general shape, differed substantially in their details. The overall conclusion is that cluster analysis is an unsuitable approach to the design of secondary services in the social sciences, though it may have some value in automatic retrieval systems. Two problems are the vast amounts of data needed and the difficulty of presenting results comprehensibly, particularly with overlapping clusters.

Most citation analyses are based on references taken from two or three source journals. There are good theoretical reasons for believing that these may not be representative of all references. In the social science citation analyses carried out as part of the DISISS programme, references were collected from 140 journals, including forty‐seven drawn at random from a comprehensive list, and also from 148 monographs. Analyses of references drawn from high ranking and randomly selected journals showed differences in date distribution, forms of material cited and rank order of journals cited. Analyses of references drawn from journals and monographs showed differences, some of them large, in date distributions, forms of material cited, subject self‐citation and citations beyond the social sciences, and countries of publication cited. These differences may be peculiar to the social sciences, but any citation analyses that are based on only a limited number and type of sources without specific justification must be regarded with suspicion.

Climate change poses diverse, often fundamental, challenges to livelihoods of island peoples. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that these challenges must be better understood before effective and sustainable adaptation is possible.

Understanding past livelihood impacts from climate change can help design and operationalize future interventions. In addition, globalization has had uneven effects on island countries/jurisdictions, producing situations especially in archipelagoes where there are significant differences between core and peripheral communities. This approach overcomes the problems that have characterized many recent interventions for climate-change adaptation in island contexts which have resulted in uneven and at best only marginal livelihood improvements in preparedness for future climate change.

Island contexts have a range of unique vulnerability and resilience characteristics that help explain recent and proposed responses to climate change. These include the sensitivity of coastal fringes to climate-environmental changes: and in island societies, the comparatively high degrees of social coherence, closeness to nature and spirituality that are uncommon in western contexts.

Enhanced understanding of island environmental and social contexts, as well as insights from past climate impacts and peripherality, all contribute to more effective and sustainable future interventions for adaptation.

The need for more effective and sustainable adaptation in island contexts is becoming ever more exigent as the pace of twenty-first-century climate change increases.

A distinction must be drawn between a dismissal on the one hand, and on the other a repudiation of a contract of employment as a result of a breach of a fundamental term of that contract. When such a repudiation has been accepted by the innocent party then a termination of employment takes place. Such termination does not constitute dismissal (see London v. James Laidlaw & Sons Ltd (1974) IRLR 136 and Gannon v. J. C. Firth (1976) IRLR 415 EAT).

European Union (EU) indicators on poverty and social exclusion employ only two child breakdowns: the proportion of children living in households with incomes below 60% of the national median using the modified OECD equivalence scale and the proportion of children living in workless households. The UK also uses these indicators in the Opportunities for All series. This article first develops a new indicator of child poverty based on income, subjective and deprivation indicators which may be more reliable than income alone. It then explores the extent to which income poverty and worklessness represent international variation in child well‐being using an index that we have developed. The conclusions are that: (1) relative income poverty and worklessness are poor indicators of child well‐being, especially for some of the new EU countries; (2) deprivation has a stronger association with overall well‐being than relative income poverty or worklessness; (3) there are a number of other single indicators of child well‐being that could be used as proxies for overall child well‐being; and (4) The EU (and the UK) could easily develop its own index of child well‐being.

THE twenty‐eighth annual meeting of the Library Association was held for the second time at Cambridge, from August 21st to 25th, 1905, and proved to be well above the average for the variety and interest of its proceedings. No better or more appropriate meeting‐place could well be conceived than this venerable old University town, with its countless literary and historical memories and lovely college buildings, set in a maze of gardens and lawns. The local authorities did everything to make the meeting a success, and an attendance of over 200 members proved that the place was well chosen. A peculiar fitness attached to the selection of the meeting‐place this year, as it coincided with the Jubilee of the Cambridge Free Public Library and also that of Mr. John Pink, the librarian, who has long been a much‐respected and esteemed member of the Association. His courtesy and kindness to everyone at the twenty‐eighth meeting of the L.A., and in particular the trouble he expended, and the fatherly interest he bestowed on the younger members of the profession, will not soon be forgotten by those who profited by his attentions.