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The advent of the computer has forced many decisions on the industrial librarian. With all those around him using computers should he too jump on the bandwagon or should he stay with his traditional systems for catalogues, loans and recalls, information retrieval, selective dissemination of information, and so forth? All too often, librarians tend to be of one school or another; they will either computerize anything they can lay their hands on or they will steadfastly refuse to have anything to do with the computer. Decisions are based on impressions and prejudices rather than on any more rational basis.

This paper describes the results of an extensive search into two factors which effect, to a high degree, the efficiency of on‐line information retrieval. These two factors are firstly the manner by which keywords are chosen as a means of retrieval by the reviewers of the reference work and secondly the degree with which papers with comparable contents are accorded similar keywords. The influence of these two factors on the practical results of on‐line retrieval is shown by the example of two extensive searches: these searches were done manually as well as on‐line. From these two methods it is then possible to compare what is retrieved by the computer and what is in reality available.

BY the time these words appear the majority of those who attend Library Association Conferences will have made tentative arrangements for their visit to Margate in June. Already, we understand, adhesions are coming in as many in number as for any September conference, and, if this is so, the fact will reassure those who have doubts of the wisdom of the change from September to June. We give on other pages some outline of the programme and in Letters on Our Affairs are presented with a Study of the subjects of the papers. Here we can concentrate upon one or two important points.

This chapter brings the ancient dichotomy between vita activa and vita contemplativa – a traditional separation between lay life and religious life – to the realm of different states of mind that form the experience of self in contemporary times. Instead of seeing the above dichotomy necessarily within the secular-religious spectrum, I explore it as two pulls within self and, in particular, within a teacher's life. One pull concerns the gravity of day-to-day that William James described as a habitual, half-awake state, very much shaped by external conditions, such as schooling systems in contemporary times. In this half-awake state, self experiences a lack of agency, and is defined by external expectations and standards. The other pull is the elevation toward what Viktor Frankl called meaning and Paul Tillich viewed as ultimate concerns. This pull need not necessarily be conceptualized as religious. It can be secular and/or grounded in agnosticism and merely reflect a sincere wish to lead an agentic, authentic, and meaningful life. This pull can appear in the most prosaic situations within a teacher's life, calling her/him to resist the gravity of half-asleep functioning and survival. Self is, essentially, a site of struggle and reconciliation between these two pulls, experienced as fluctuating states of the embodied mind. This chapter comprises mostly of an existential-phenomenological description of “what it is like to be a self” in the world, exemplified in the case of being a teacher in contemporary times. After describing the two pulls, I will make some suggestions as to the need for teacher education that explicitly caters to the contemplative self through contemplative practices.

MIDSUMMER sees the general settling down of thoughtful librarians to a contemplation of their Winter programmes. This seems a cruel suggestion since (if we are fortunate) the skies are still blue above us, the trees green, and—well, holidays are just ahead. One duty, however, belongs to midsummer and that is the annual election of the Library Association Council. There is growing evidence that in this matter we are no longer prepared to leave our representation in the most important council that exists for us to chance. By the time these words appear the question, so far as 1928 is concerned, will have been settled. We hope a well‐balanced Council will be the result, and that, after an interval of several years, Ireland will be represented.

ONE or two questions raised by the writer of “Letters on our Affairs” this month are of some urgency. The first, the physical condition of books, is one that is long over‐due for full discussion with a view to complete revision of our method. The increased book fund of post‐war years, and the unexpected success of the twopenny library, have brought us to the point when we should concentrate upon beautiful and clean editions of good books, and encourage the public to use them. “Euripides” is quite right in his contention that there is too much dependence upon the outcasts of the circulating library for replenishing the stocks of public lending libraries. We say this gravely and advisedly. Many librarians depend almost entirely upon the off‐scourings of commercial libraries for their fiction. The result, of course, is contempt of that stock from all readers who are not without knowledge of books. It is the business of the public library now to scrap all books that are stained, unpleasant to the sight, in bad print, and otherwise unattractive. Of old, it was necessary for us to work hard, and by careful conservation of sometimes quite dirty books, in order to get enough books to serve our readers. To‐day this is no longer the case, except in quite backward areas. The average well‐supported public library—and there are many now in that category—should aim at a reduction of stock to proportions which are really useful, which are good and which are ultimately attractive if not beautiful. The time has arrived when a dirty book, or a poorly printed book, or a book which has no artistic appeal, should be regarded as a reproach to the library preserving it.

FIRST THINGS FIRST AUTUMN may be a time for a new review of our work which is additional to our supreme task of providing and exploiting books. There is no single thing that we have done for the past fifty years that may not be made the better for examination, so long as that examination is cautious. Our publicity for example; is it direct, dignified, appealing; or, is it flabby, sometimes actually silly and sometimes a vain competing with that of great stores or newspapers with their relatively enormous resources? If the truth is accepted that the best expenditure we can make is on books and that the light that radiates from our shelves is from them we shall do well. Open shelves, well‐filled with modern editions of the new and old, are our best exhibition and the only permanently valuable one; our best publicity agents are our satisfied readers. The public will always pass on to others news of things it has proved to be good. If we came without previous knowledge to examine library literature today we might easily infer that books are now a negligible part of the thought of librarians. So much indeed that even librarians themselves have been heard to plead for some knowledge of the greater books of the world amongst themselves. Other writers in these pages and writers elsewhere have done this occasionally. The explanation lies in the fact that the “frills” we add to the real fabric of libraries are just attracting additions made to draw further attention to the existing excellent book‐services we now give. It is probable that the concern for information services, gramophone records and so many other now familiar extras is shown most by librarians whose bookstock is already excellent and is being kept so. Such an explanation we should like to believe.

Considerable research has been conducted into the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace, although most of this research has been undertaken in the United States, particularly since the 1970's (Mackinnon, 1979; Rowe, 1981; Collins and Blodgeth, 1981). In 1974, for example, a group of women, almost equally black and white and with economic backgrounds ranging from very affluent to poor, discovered a common thread in their employment careers, which Farley (1980, p.1) summed up, saying:

The need for an integrated enterprise‐wide approach to management information pronounced data warehousing (DW) the “hot topic” of the early‐to‐mid‐1990s. However, it became unfashionable in the late 1990s, with the widespread implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. With ERP managers were led to believe that they would derive informational as well as operational benefits from the introduction of integrated enterprise‐wide systems. However, the recent re‐emergence of DW, to address the limitations and unrealised benefits of ERP systems, provides a new, more complex integration challenge. The main objective of this paper is to present the concept of organisational prerequisites for enterprise‐wide integration projects as a means to help managers preparing for and managing their ERP/DW projects.

This paper draws on existing literature on ERP and DW implementations. It puts forward a model to be further tested and validated by ERP researchers.

The proposed model has the potential to solve the problems experienced in ERP implementations and, more generally, in projects leading to large‐scale enterprise integration.

Existing ERP research indicates that the intelligence phase of most ERP projects is ignored both in practice and in research. This paper lays the foundation for a framework that addresses this problem.