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IT is a very encouraging sign to those interested in the welfare of children that so much attention is being bestowed upon them by library authorities. On every side activity is apparent: most new buildings have a room set aside for the exclusive use of juveniles, and many old buildings are being adapted and special provision made for the young. In these circumstances a brief summary of practical requirements may not come amiss.

MRS. — receives neither honourable nor other mention in annual reports, yet she cannot be unknown to every librarian. The assistant at the issue desk could probably give a very interesting account of her habits and instincts, of which he must perforce make a daily study. In a temple of literature issuing 100,000 volumes annually there will probably be twenty of her class, and each morning ten at least of “the old familiar faces” may be seen, apparently worshipping mystic, symbolic figures for awhile, and then offering and receiving gifts from the messenger of their goddess. From remarks passed by these devotees, we gather that they worship not Truth, but Fiction. Their saints are Miss Braddon, Mrs. Wood, Marie Corelli, and others. Many of their saints' good works are “not in,” “read long ago,” &c. Mrs. —'s reading may produce no apparent effect upon herself, but it has such an influence upon the tabulated results of Public Library work that it is worth while giving the matter some attention. It is most unfortunate that those judging the influence of a Public Library upon a community should rely solely upon the statistics usually given in annual reports. Pro and con may take the same statistics, and by most flawless logic each will prove the arguments of the other to be absurd, and in many cases it is done quite conscientiously; the conclusion arrived at quite depending upon the point of view. In this library issuing 100,000 volumes a year the percentage of fiction is, let us say, 60. Mrs. — comes at least every other day for a novel, and, as we may safely multiply Mrs. — by 20, we find she borrows 3,000 novels a year, or 3 per cent. Then, again, we never consider the many novels taken away and brought back next day because they were “not nice.” If there are 20 daily, we would now gladden the heart of the librarian by showing the percentage of fiction borrowed from his library to be 51, instead of 60. Should the issue in the class containing magazines and reviews be counted with fiction or not, certainly a large assortment of attractive magazines falsifies the record if not placed amongst fiction. Think of a classification which places in the same column—as is very frequent—the Strand Magazine and Mathew Arnold's “Essays”! Juvenile literature is surely fiction, and yet many reports totally ignore this fact, although it often amounts to 25 per cent. of the issues. For example, I find in the thirtieth Annual Report of the Borough of Tynemouth that the issue of fiction is 53 per cent. of a total issue of 85,625; but, if we take into account the 16,121 juvenile literature and 15,531 magazines and reviews, we will find the percentage of Fiction to have jumped up to 90 !

Change at Amber Chemical Co. N. H. WIGAN has resigned from the board of the Amber Chemical Co. Ltd. and J. FIRMINGER is now technical manager.

The design, construction and protection of storage tanks is not one of the most complex problems which the chemical engineer has to tackle but it is well worth detailed consideration, particularly in view of the economies and efficiencies which can be obtained. Various materials are used for the construction of such tanks, particularly stainless steel, high‐grade aluminium, wood or, in the case of exceptionally large tanks, concrete. The majority of such vessels are, however, made of mild steel or cast iron, particularly the former, and it has become almost standard practice to line them with rubber or ebonite, materials which give protection in respect of a wide range of corrosive chemicals.

Leadership education is a prominent component of youth programming. In their efforts to promote leadership development, most youth programs promote character development and teach interpersonal skills but fall short in teaching leadership because they fail to encourage the use of authority. In this paper, we present the stories of five late adolescent exemplars as a case study of youth leadership emergence through volunteerism. These youth demonstrated leadership by transitioning from participating in community service activities to becoming organizers of their own beneficent efforts. Through a qualitative analysis of interviews with these adolescent leaders, we present themes that were important to their emergence as leaders. We then discuss how these findings should be used to inform youth development programs that are designed to encourage youth leadership through volunteerism.

An exploratory, qualitative multiple case study approach was used to investigate perceptions of leadership through the voice of young (ages 18-24) citizens of St. Lucia, West Indies.Specifically, investigators were interested in better understanding the young peoples’ leadership beliefs, experiences, and people of influence. Participants perceived leadership to be about helping other people, communication, teamwork, and morality.The most valuable leader development experiences were experiences that the young people perceived were connected to leadership.Participants viewed familiar adults, rather than famous foreigners or youth peers asthemostimportantpeopletoaidinyouthleaderdevelopment.

After a year's joint experimental research by the Pressed Steel Co. Ltd. and I.C.I. Ltd. (Paints Division), details have now been released regarding a new technique developed by these two companies for the automatic application of paint. This is the Electrocoat process, in which the metal to be coated is electrically charged as one of the electrodes in a tank containing water‐borne paint. It is said to possess advantages over conventional methods of paint application to complex shapes such as car bodies, domestic appliances, etc., and to give improved corrosion resistance. It provides the basis of an overall simplification in total painting processes.

Person‐centred planning is central to Valuing People. This has resulted in lots of planning activity, but implementing plans in services is deeply challenging. Developing person‐centred teams is a key to implementing plans. This article presents a model for developing person‐centred teams based on research. Examples of how teams worked to implement plans are shown to illustrate this process and clarify why it requires a change in thinking as well as a change in practice.

C.S.F.R.O. Annual Conference. R. SALTER BACHE, president of the Coil Spring Federation Research Organisation, recently announced at the Federation's annual conference at Hythe that new laboratories for the C.S.F.R.O. at Sheffield, which were ready in July, will be among the most comprehensive of their kind in the world. He said that they will enable research to be carried out on springs made from the finest wires to bars of up to 2 in. diam. In addition to work on springs and torsion bars, research will be possible on materials in wire and strip form. Metallurgical research will also be undertaken on a very wide range of ferrous and non‐ferrous alloys.