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Plato's cave, as described in The Republic, is considered as a source of inspiration for a mathematical presentation of the process of perception and decision. The epistemological operator allows for a description of some aspects of a system's epistemological subjectivity. The involvement of inverse transfers of the system's structures is discussed. Consideration of the epistemo‐praxiological cave and the physicist's cave gives further interpretations to Plato's allegory.

A federal district court injunction in Illinois will reverberate beyond the Land of Lincoln by reaffiriming policy and law for local phone competition in the USA. Chief District Judge Charles P. Kocoras reminded legislators, regulators and telecommunications executives that state regulators are to employ federal telecommunications law and policy, specifically total element long run incremental pricing (TELRIC) for unbundled network elements (UNE‐s), to administer markets for local telephone services. The genius of the decision resides in its fidelity to sedulous implementation of telecommunications statute and precedents, and by so doing, in sustaining public policy that enhances consumer welfare, stimulates investment and spurs innovation.

THERE are no motions of ultimate importance to be submitted to the Library Association Annual General Meeting this year. That which, if passed, is to provide that the President shall be installed in office at the opening of the Annual Conference in itself is merely a domestic or internal Association matter. As we have argued in THE LIBRARY WORLD such an arrangement would give a more dramatic and dignified opening to the President's year; he would be installed by the outgoing President in the presence of the largest assembly that the members can make in body; indeed on the only occasion in a normal year in which he sees and is seen by a full meeting; instead as now rising to take charge of us and to make his most important address as unobtrusively as an ordinary member at a time when his term is almost over. It is a better entry for him and for us, as a spectacle and demonstration, than a small January induction on a cold and usually wet evening at Chaucer House attended at best by not more than a hundred members.

THERE is no argument more futile in the field of librarianship than that of whether it is preferable that librarians should be bookmen or administrators. Nonetheless, the President thought fit to make it one of the main points of his address to the Conference, painting in words two pictures—one of the “business executive” type librarian with his clear desk, telephone and secretary, and the other of a “scholar” type surrounded by books and dust, oblivious to the outside world. If it were possible to define the terms “bookman” and “administrator” in relation to library work there might be some point in a discussion on the subject. What is meant when a librarian is called a bookman? Is a bookman someone who comes to work like everyone else, but once arrived sits in an office and spends the rest of the day reading? If this is what a bookman does, does he read old books or new books? If old books, does he read them literally or bibliographically? Does he read purposefully in order to create some new work of his own, or without purpose? The question is an endless one, but then no librarian could possibly spend the whole of his working life so engaged.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

Mant aeons away, O Best Beloved, there was a large, dank, dim cave inhabited by a tribe of large, fierce, hairy Guardians. They wore dark robes that did not show the dirt; they never bathed, they never shaved. They were too busy guarding their sacred Treasures from the periodic raids of the Bandar‐Log—strange chattering simian creatures who dwelt in the shattered red brick Georgian ruins of something they called ‘durms’. From time to time one of these little anthropoids would steal past the Guardians into the back of the Cave and try to make away with one of the Treasures clutched in a prehensile paw. Needless to say, they were severely beaten as a lesson to their fellows. The best time for raiding was during the fifteen‐minute intervals, at ten in the morning and three in the afternoon, when the Guardians would sit down, grasp a mug of hot water and stare at the wall. The ritual was thought to have a religious significance—only the name survives, ‘kafe‐brick’.

The latest information from the magazine chemist is extremely valuable. He has dealt with milk‐adulteration and how it is done. His advice, if followed, might, however, speedily bring the manipulating dealer before a magistrate, since the learned writer's recipe is to take a milk having a specific gravity of 1030, and skim it until the gravity is raised to 1036; then add 20 per cent. of water, so that the gravity may be reduced to 1030, and the thing is done. The advice to serve as “fresh from the cow,” preferably in a well‐battered milk‐measure, might perhaps have been added to this analytical gem.

This paper examines the phenomenon of market consolidation and integration, where competitors in localized, isolated markets are forced to compete with numerous new rivals in a unified market. In contemporary business experience, this deluge of new competitors and new competitive forms is the consequence of forces which have served to integrate formerly isolated national competitive arenas into a unified, interdependent whole, known as a globalized or regionalized market (Johnson, 1991). This evolution of global and regional markets is strategically significant to the extent that past market consolidations have typically resulted in devastating economic battles and competitive shakeouts. It is thus important to analyze the effects of national policy issues such as international trade agreements from the perspective of global or regional market consolidation.