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I that phenomenon so familiar to students of eighteenth‐century literature, the ‘circulating library’, has endured much comment, a little of it accurate, some of it ambiguous, a great deal of it uninformed. The chief obstacle to a proper appreciation of its influence is the absence of a proper definition of it; that given in the Oxford English Dictionary speaks the truth indeed, but not the whole truth, for within the category are to be included at least two major species which differ in toto. The first, the object of Sheridan's familiar but shallow witticism, will not be dealt with here in any detail: it was not unlike the modern ‘twopenny’ library, being a commercial venture dependent on individual management and catering for the immediate wants of a public largely uncritical and in search of passing entertainment. It is rather with the second type, the ‘proprietary’ library, that this paper is concerned, for although its aims, status, and administration were totally different from those of its humbler if more popular contemporary, this type was, and still is, designated ‘circulating’, if the Leeds Library be taken to represent it, as it assuredly does in every way. The relevant nomenclature for eighteenth‐century libraries is, in fact, not a little bewildering to the uninitiated: the Leeds Library has been known as ‘circulating’, ‘subscription’, and even ‘public’, while the Birmingham Library indenture of 1799 expressly names ‘the Public Library’; but the Cambridge University library, for example, was also known as ‘public’, like many other essentially ‘private’ collections, such as those parochial libraries which restricted the use of their treasures to the faithful and gave the parson the key. The distinction insisted on above will be found roughly to correspond with that made by the older local historians, who generally deign to notice, however meagrely, the local ‘proprietary’ institution, but do not, as a rule, condescend to mention the mere commercial venture, a distinction made so pointed in a judgement of exquisite gentility by the excellent Mr. Horsfield of Lewes, to be quoted hereafter, that it is worthy to become classic. Most of them are mentioned by S. Lewis in his great Topographical dictionary, and they are generally styled ‘subscription’ libraries.

The war in Iraq, the threat of terrorism and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic have made international business activities increasingly difficult and risky. The worldwide economic downturn and slow growth in domestic markets are forcing companies to depend more than ever on overseas trade. SARS emerged in China in November 2002 and has spread to 26 countries. The SARS epidemic has caused the most severe economic crisis in Southeast Asia since the wave of bank failures and currency devaluations that swept the region five years ago. The SARS epidemic has prompted health officials to implement travel advisories and restrictions, in order to defer nonessential travel to regions of Asia with large numbers of SARS cases. They are enforcing quarantine and isolation measures in major cities to try and limit the spread of SARS. The President of the United States has signed an executive order adding SARS to the list of communicable diseases that can be quarantined. A major disruption in China could paralyze just‐in‐time supply chains and cause an economic crisis for retailers and other businesses worldwide. The SARS epidemic has caused many economists to drastically reduce their economic‐growth forecasts for Asia. New infectious diseases, such as SARS, can emerge and easily travel around the globe, infecting less‐resilient hosts and mutating because of the influence of viruses and bacteria in their new environment. Health officials are even more concerned about the pandemic disaster that hasn’t happened, but may still. However, the SARS epidemic has created positive economic benefits for some companies.

To provide a list of non‐fictional books, as published, for the use of Librarians and Book‐buyers generally, arranged so as to serve as a continuous catalogue of new books ; an aid to exact classification and annotation ; and a select list of new books proposed to be purchased. Novels, school books, ordinary reprints and strictly official publications will not be included in the meantime.

Cambridge, Harvard, Oxford: the names of these universities instantly conjure up images of the highest attainments of higher education. Of course, great universities also operate great university presses. So any reference book with the name of Oxford, Cambridge, or Harvard in the title possesses immediate credibility and saleability. But it was not always so. Prior to the latter half of the nineteenth century the Oxford and the Cambridge University Presses were known to the public primarily as publishers of the Bible. Oxford broke into reference publishing, and along with it widespread public recognition, by means of its famous dictionaries, of which the pinnacle was the massive Oxford English Dictionary. The Cambridge University Press [hereafter referred to as CUP] took a different approach to publishing scholarly reference works by producing authoritative and encyclopedic histories. According to S.C. Roberts, a long‐time secretary to the Syndics of the CUP, “apart from the Bible, the first book that made the Press well known to the general public was the Cambridge Modern History.”

In New Zealand, as in many other developed countries around the world, news is made not just by those many organizations with superb performance records, but also by the few whose achievements fall far short of donor expectations and public perceptions. One of the core competencies of NPOs should be the ability to build strong donor relationships (Lewis, 1998), to create a sustainable income model which allows the organization to focus on their operational efforts. Funding uncertainties affect the ability to operate, to motivate and to plan for the future. Research (Mueller et al., 2004) was undertaken to determine how the relationship between NPOs and donors can be improved. This work focused on the identification of areas where NPOs need support to improve their governance and management functions. Both donors and NPOs were investigated, and the results were used to speculate in which areas external support would be most helpful and where donor/NPO perceptions differ. NPOs and donors indicated that they are aware that NPOs require both governance and managerial support. Both the NPOs and the donors indicated that an objective evaluation system would be valuable to them as evidence of credibility. Such a system would also help to guide the internal assessment process. These findings led to the development of the Looking Glass Evaluation Tool (LGET) which measures an organization along the following dimensions: effective management, strategic planning, advocacy, legal framework, governance and fundraising. The dimensions were derived partly from the work of Lester Salamon from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York. The LGET questions an organization about its levels of understanding, planning and implementation of governance and managerial functions and provides a snapshot of the organization’s structural effectiveness. The tool does not test the outcomes of the organization’s work; but speculates that an organization with poor internal structure will be less likely to perform sustainably, especially in the area of creating strong donor relationships. The tool is completed through a guided self‐assessment process, which is then reviewed with the organization to assure a clear understanding of the review objectives. From this snapshot of performance in a wide range of areas, organizations can focus resources on specific parts of their work for improvement. The LGET has been trialled in its prototype form in a number of NPOs in New Zealand, including a Maori charitable trust and has been favorably received.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the stages involved in developing an audit to determine the best wildlife and conservation organization to volunteer with.

The paper outlines details of the analysis and assessment of 53 organizations based on nine core criteria. The framework developed for this purpose also provides a tool that could be used to assess other organizations.

Publication of the Wildlife and Conservation Volunteering Guide has given volunteers a resource that enables them to make informed decisions about which organization to volunteer with and to enable the featured organizations to reflect on their own relative attractiveness to volunteers.

The viewpoint highlights several unintended consequences of an audit and demonstrates that published audit criteria prompt organizations to instigate changes.

Discusses the foundation of Leeds Library in 1768 (which was a time of expansion in the wider world) and its founders. Describes the subsequent history and growth of the library, and of its librarians. Briefly indicates the present healthy state of the library which it attributes to the position of the library in the centre of Leeds and the will of the proprietors for it to survive.