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Dynamic and effective reference librarians are the single most important factor in ensuring quality reference services in any library. The best reference librarians are intelligent and curious, have good social interaction skills, are knowledgeable about both reference practices and resources, possess relevant subject expertise, and are highly motivated to provide excellent reference services.

Research at universities is becoming increasingly specialized and, at the same time, more interdisciplinary. In response to this paradox, academic libraries have tended to specialize along discipline lines by creating divisional libraries. The divisions typically offer reference and other library services to a focused clientele. This specialization leads to isolation and lack of communication among library departments, including separate, subject‐specific reference units. It also limits the versatility of staff. Staff exchange has been used in academic libraries to address some of these problems. It entails the utilization of a library's employees from one department performing tasks in another department.

The competence of academic librarians promises to be a foremost issue for academic librarianship in the twenty‐first century. New subject specialties, unprecedented information technologies, and increasingly interdisciplinary university curricula and research mean ever‐faster outdating of the library science degree. Currently, within ten to 12 years of receiving their diplomas, academic librarians are estimated to be half as competent to meet professional demands as they were at graduation. Continuing education is, therefore, ever more vital in maintaining a staff of library professionals who are capable of providing continually relevant service to library users.

Many academic libraries have staffing arrangements where library employees work in more than one library branch or unit. These can be dual assignments or less formal agreements in which employees spend several hours per week away from their home departments. Zimmerman Library reference department, the social sciences, humanities, and education reference unit of the University of New Mexico (UNM) General Library (an ARL library serving over 25,000 students), uses “volunteer” staff from other library departments to help provide reference services as part of a library‐wide cross training program. According to library policy, “Cross training is an arrangement whereby a library employee from one department spends time training and working in another department. Cross training is that time an employee spends in another department or unit of the library learning to perform a task or a group of tasks and includes the time spent performing those tasks after training.” This article discusses a staff‐initiated and committee‐coordinated in‐service training program designed for these reference desk workers. This method is innovative, as library training, as evidenced by the literature, is typically viewed as the responsibility of the supervisor or manager. This training approach may serve as a model for other academic library reference departments requiring in‐house training for similar needs.

EVERYONE interested in the British library movement will learn with sorrow and regret that one of its greatest friends and strongest champions has passed away, in the person of Thomas Greenwood, the kind‐hearted and generous advocate of libraries, who won the respect and regard of every English libiarian. From one of his own periodicals the following particulars are abstracted:—

Sustainable development calls for concerted efforts towards building an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future for people and planet. The approach that considers sustainable development as the fight against poverty, through the promotion of a sustainable and equitable economy, as the attempt to reduce polluting emissions to promote environmental protection and as the satisfaction of social goals to increase the well-being of populations is adopted. Sustainability development is therefore a complex and subjective concept, considering the three dimensions that define the phenomenon: economic, environmental and social.

The authors have chosen subjective variables, which provide information on the perception of the ‘sustainable development’ in the European countries. Data come from the database of ‘Eurofound’, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. The authors applied a formative measurement model, according to which indicators are considered as the cause of the phenomenon analysed, unlike with the reflective model. To conduct the quantitative analysis, the authors have adopted a non-compensatory approach: Mazziotta and Pareto index which summarising a set of individual indicators that are assumed to be not fully substitutable. The authors place at the centre of the analysis, variables deriving from the perceptive state of the different European populations, offering new hints to measure sustainable development on the basis of subjective assumptions.

Cites an example of eyewitness testimony which led to a wrongful conviction. Asks how accurate is such testimony? Considers the optimum environment for witnesses to remember events, the effect to witness of the use of disguises and weapons by suspects and the accuracy of memory over time. Discusses line‐ups and photo arrays, the race of the individuals involved and the ability to perform in court. Concludes that eyewitness must be subject to close scrutiny and not automatically accepted as truthful or accurate.

Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.

Reference librarians in today's academic libraries are typically confronted with a growing array of simultaneous demands. Strained financial resources, staffing shortages, the challenge of adding new services, the explosion of information, and the electronic revolution have complicated (and sometimes compromised) the delivery of quality services. In response to many universities' growing commitment to offer nontraditional degree programs, reference staff are also assuming more responsibility for night and weekend instruction.

The war cut off students in England from foreign countries at the same time as it awakened an increased interest in their affairs, and, compelling the inquirer to fall back on English or American resources in his studies, brought a realization of the deficiencies of our libraries. With the gradual re‐establishment of relations, it is worth assessing the situation revealed by the years of isolation, if only because this necessary task does not seem to be anybody's responsibility.