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All seventeen had graciously agreed to my proposal to gather for a small conference to seek consensus. A generous grant from the Pierian Press Foundation would cover all of our expenses for a long weekend at a resort hotel; the only condition of the grant was that we offer our results to Reference Services Review for first publication. Over the past five years each of the seventeen had in turn accepted my challenge to answer the following question:

More than five years have passed since A Nation at Risk was published in 1983 by then‐Secretary of Education Terrance Bell's National Commission on Excellence in Education. Those years have seen the publication of an enormous body of both primary material, composed of research reports, essays, and federal and state reform proposals and reports; and secondary material, composed of summaries and reviews of the original reform reports and reports about effective programs that are based on reform recommendations. This annotated bibliography seeks to identify, briefly describe, and organize in a useful manner those publications dealing with K‐12 education reform and improvement. The overall purposes of this article are to bring organization to that list, and also to trace relationships and influences from the federal initiatives to the states and professional associations, and from there to the school districts and individual schools.

A workstation‐based system for materials planning is intended to complement a host‐based materials‐planning system, thereby leading to a multi‐level system that combines fully detailed planning procedures with “aggregate” decision support capabilities. Planning objects as well as planning procedures are formulated within the relational database frame‐work. By that means, at execution time the database management system guarantees processing efficiency as well as consistency control. After a short characterisation of the state‐of‐the‐art of database utilisation in conventional materials planning, a set of requirements which have to be met by the proposed approach is formulated. Based on this, the suitability of the relational database model as a framework for multi‐stage materials planning is discussed. In particular, the integration of abstraction hierarchies is emphasised and hierarchical planning procedures adopted from artificial intelligence are integrated into the concept. Some examples adopted from a prototype show that, at least for simple planning problems, it is possible to achieve end‐user support at any level of detail when using a relational database system for materials planning.

“WE come now to another aspect of the question, and it must be admitted that the resource and ingenuity of the opposition have left nothing unnoticed. This is the common and constantly repeated assertion that novels are so cheap that every working man in the country can buy all he needs for less than the annual library rate. This statement was first made some years ago when publishers commenced to issue cheap reprints of non‐copyright novels at 1s. and 6d. each. Previous to this the halfpenny evening paper had been relied upon as affording sufficient literary entertainment for the working man, but when it was found to work out at 13s. per annum, as against a library rate of 1od. or 1s. 4d., the cheap newspaper argument was dropped like a hot cinder. We doubt if the cheap paper‐covered novel is any better. Suppose a workman pays £20 per annum for his house, and is rated at £16, he will pay 1s. 4d. as library rate, or not much more than 1¼d. per month for an unlimited choice of books, newspapers and magazines. But suppose he has to depend on cheap literature. The lowest price at which he can purchase a complete novel of high quality by any author of repute is 3d., but more likely 4½d. or 6d. However, we will take 3d. as an average rate, and assume that our man has leisure to read one book every fortnight. Well, at the end of one year he will have paid 6s. 6d. for a small library by a restricted number of authors, and it will cost him an additional 4s. or 5s. if he contemplates binding his tattered array of books for future preservation. Besides this, he will be practically shut off from all the current literature on topics of the day, as his 3d. a fortnight will hardly enable him to get copyright books by the best living authors. With a Public Library at his command he can get all these, and still afford to buy an occasional poet or essayist, or novel, or technical book, well bound and printed on good paper, such as his friend who would protect him against an iniquitous library rate would not blush to see on his own shelves. It seems hard that the working men of the country should be condemned to the mental entertainment afforded by an accumulation of pamphlets. Literature clothed in such a dress as gaudy paper covers is not very inspiring or elevating, and even the most contented mind would revolt against the possession of mere reading matter in its cheapest and least durable form. The amount of variety and interest existing among cheap reprints of novels is not enough, even if the form of such books were better. It is well known to readers of wide scope that something more than mere pastime can be had out of novels. Take, for example, the splendid array of historical novels which have been written during the present century. No one can read a few of these books without consciously or unconsciously acquiring historical and political knowledge of much value. The amount of pains taken by the authors in the preparation of historical novels is enormous, and their researches extend not only to the political movements of the period, but to the geography, social state, costume, language and contemporary biography of the time. Thus it is utterly impossible for even a careless reader to escape noticing facts when presented in an environment which fixes them in the memory. For example, the average school history gives a digest of the Peninsular War, but in such brief and matter of fact terms as to scarcely leave any impression. On the other hand, certain novels by Lever and Grant, slipshod and inaccurate as they may be in many respects, give the dates and sequence of events and battles in the Peninsula in such a picturesque and detailed manner, that a better general idea is given of the history of the period than could possibly be acquired without hard study of a heavy work like Napier's History. It is hardly necessary to do more than name Scott, James, Cooper, Kingsley, Hugo, Lytton, Dumas, Ainsworth, Reade, G. Eliot, Short‐house, Blackmore, Doyle, Crockett and Weyman in support of this claim. Again, no stranger can gain an inkling of the many‐sided characteristics of the Scot, without reading the works of Scott, Ferrier, Galt, Moir, Macdonald, Black, Oliphant, Stevenson, Barrie, Crockett, Annie Swan and Ian Maclaren. And how many works by these authors can be had for 3d. each? The only way in which a stay‐at‐home Briton can hope to acquire a knowledge of the people and scenery of India is by reading the works of Kipling, Mrs. Steel, Cunningham, Meadows Taylor, and others. Probably a more vivid and memory‐haunting picture of Indian life and Indian scenery can be obtained by reading these authors than by reading laboriously through Hunter's huge gazetteer. In short, novels are to the teaching of general knowledge what illustrations are to books, or diagrams to engineers, they show things as they are and give information about all things which are beyond the reach of ordinary experience or means. It is just the same with juvenile literature, which is usually classed with fiction, and gives to that much‐maligned class a very large percentage of its turnover. The adventure stories of Ballantyne, Fenn, Mayne Reid, Henty, Kingston, Verne and others of the same class are positive mines of topographical and scientific information. Such works represent more than paste and scissors industry in connection with gazetteers, books of travel and historical works; they represent actual observation on the part of the authors. A better idea of Northern Canada can be derived from some of Ballantyne's works than from formal topographical works; while the same may be said of Mexico and South America as portrayed by Captain Mayne Reid, and the West Indies by Michael Scott. The volume of Personal Reminiscences written by R. M. Ballantyne before he died will give some idea of the labour spent in the preparation of books for the young. The life of the navy at various periods can only be learned from the books of Smollett, Marryat and James Hannay, as that of the modern army is only to be got in the works of Lever, Grant, Kipling, Jephson, “John Strange Winter” and Robert Blatchford.

The purpose of this paper is to explore project types (PTs) of business process management (BPM). PTs are a key concept to describe development situations in situational method engineering (SME). SME acts on the assumption that generic methods need to be adapted to the specifics of the development situation in which they are to be applied.

The paper draws on results from an empirical analysis directed at the identification of design factors of and realization approaches to BPM. It extends an earlier study through the inclusion of new data points that allow for the derivation and characterization of PTs. To this end, multivariate data analysis techniques such as regression analysis, factor analysis, and cluster analysis are applied. Albeit inherently behavioral, the research described in the paper constitutes an important foundation for subsequent design research (DR) activities, in particular for the engineering of situational methods.

The analysis suggests that there are three major and two minor PTs that characterize development situations of BPM. The common ground of the three major PTs is that they are characterized by a common target state, in this paper denoted as individualist realization approach to BPM. When compared to other realization approaches, this approach is characterized by high maturity and high customization requirements for process management.

The gain in insight into the PTs of BPM is particularly useful for the engineering of situational methods aimed at the implementation and advancement of process‐oriented management within real‐world organizations. However, there are some research limitations/implications for further research: the empirical results are derived from a relatively small data set. The PTs identified in the present contribution therefore need further validation. In order to complete the proposed scenario structure for BPM, a taxonomy of complementary context types needs to be identified, too.

Many methods to support BPM or particular aspects thereof have been proposed and discussed. A major shortcoming of most of these methods is that they claim to be of universal validity. SME acts on the idea that there is no “one‐size‐fits‐all” method. Instead, generic methods need to be adapted to the specifics of the development situation in which they are to be applied. The proposed PTs represent a starting point to enable the engineering of situation methods for BPM.

The research results of this paper are useful for the construction of methods in the field of BPM which can be adapted to specific development situations.

Independent contractor broker dealers have been described as “one of the regulatory black holes.” This article seeks to identify common problems and issues relating to the supervision of independent contractor registered representatives that warrant further scrutiny under Section 15 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) and National Association of Securities Dealers (“NASD”) Conduct Rule 3010.

WE seem to be immediately facing a drive for much more technical education and for many more technical colleges and schools to produce it. In the condition of the world today this is an inevitable, an indispensable, process. The reasons are loudly proclaimed and patent to every librarian, and the library must come strongly, as it always has, into the picture but perhaps now more universally and with greater intensity. Dr. Chandler, who is proceeding at a rare pace to specialize his departments, has created a new local council to unify the information work that has already been done at Liverpool. Every technical book costing over five shillings is bought, and the usual collections of periodicals and other material of technical and industrial interest are being increased and a bulletin of additions is being issued soon after the end of each month. The Technical library is one that combines lending and reference activities, telephone and postal services; in fact all the orthodox activities that have been standard in the larger towns since Glasgow began them in 1916, and possibly new and extended ones. The William Brown Library which was destroyed in Air Raids is being reconstructed and the enlarged Technical Library will be developed in it. This is one city only; every large city reports some increase in the services rendered, for example the Telex service is now available at Manchester. It is essential that public libraries everywhere realize the part they may play; if they do not, the suggestion made recently that the lending of technical books should become an activity of the Technical Colleges may become a reality.

DURING the latter part of 1980 I read a number of articles dealing with the subject of obituaries. The first, in time and in professional interest, was by Edward Dudley in the Library Association record — which he edited for nine years. It is good to see that he now has time to take a critical look at some sections of that journal, starting (LAR September 1980 p423) with the obituaries.

Is the U.S. property & casualty (P&C) insurance industry overcapitalized? Many practitioners and industry observers claim that the industry is awash in capital, and that this excess capital has driven prices to historical lows. Others claim that the industry is undercapitalized relative to a large but plausible natural disaster, such as a large Tokyo earthquake, or a Category 5 hurricane through Miami — a “super catastrophe” in industry jargon.

The purpose of this paper is to deliver an insight into the interaction effects of process‐oriented management and business intelligence (BI).

The paper takes up publications from the fields of BI and business process management and analyzes the state‐of‐the‐art of process‐centric business intelligence (PCBI). To highlight the potentials and limitations of the concept, two exemplary use cases are presented and discussed in depth. Furthermore, a vision for the technical implementation is sketched.

PCBI is found to play an important role in an organization's strive for competitiveness. The concept's potential benefits are significant. However, the overall levels of adoption and maturity of the concept within real‐world organizations appear to be rather low at the moment.

The paper discusses solely two exemplary use cases – the most that could be done within the scope of a journal publication. Therefore, the explanatory power and the representativeness of the results need to be scrutinized in detail.

The paper highlights the practical significance of PCBI. It therefore represents a useful source of information for both practitioners and academics who are interested in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization's information supply in support of its processes.

The paper motivates, describes, and analyzes the concept of PCBI. Furthermore, it provides examples of the concept's adoption and benefits from a practitioner's point of view.