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Following earlier claims that quantum‐inspired evolutionary algorithm (QIEA) may offer advantages in high‐dimensional environments, the purpose of this paper is to test a real‐valued QIEA on a series of benchmark functions of varying dimensionality in order to examine its scalability within both static and dynamic environments.

This paper compares the performance of both the QIEA and the canonical genetic algorithm (GA) on a series of test benchmark functions.

The results show that the QIEA obtains highly competitive results when benchmarked against the GA within static environments, while substantially outperforming both binary and real‐valued representation of the GA in terms of running time. Within dynamic environments, the QIEA outperforms GA in terms of stability and run time.

This paper suggests that QIEA has utility for real‐world high‐dimensional problems, particularly within dynamic environments, such as that found in real‐time financial trading.

It is now forty years since there appeared H. R. Plomer's first volume Dictionary of the booksellers and printers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667. This has been followed by additional Bibliographical Society publications covering similarly the years up to 1775. From the short sketches given in this series, indicating changes of imprint and type of work undertaken, scholars working with English books issued before the closing years of the eighteenth century have had great assistance in dating the undated and in determining the colour and calibre of any work before it is consulted.

Information and special library work is at present a profession that is in the process of formation and struggling for recognition, and entry into it is entirely uncontrolled. People with the most varied backgrounds and levels of education find themselves made responsible for setting up or running library and information services, without any previous knowledge of the work. Often they are in remote places and without any contact with more experienced colleagues who could give them advice, and their only means of getting the knowledge necessary for the efficient carrying out of their duties is from reading. But, owing to the unsettled state of the profession, the literature is voluminous and scattered, and much of it is of a low standard, or occupied with pure theorizing or polemics. Moreover, the literature that the novice is most likely to see, namely the articles on documentation which are occasionally printed in technical journals, is not always the most helpful for a person who has no background of experience against which he can evaluate it. In these circumstances the new entrant needs a guide to the literature if he is not to be discouraged or adopt practices and systems which are not really suitable to his circumstances. It is to meet this need that this annual review of the literature, now in its sixth year, has been written. It attempts to select those books and papers which are most likely to be of direct help in running a small information department or library, eschewing all pure theorizing and polemics, and only including literature on large libraries where it is felt that it contains ideas capable of application in smaller organizations. To these are added a selection of the most important works of reference, including some that the information officer may wish to know about and consult in other libraries, even though his own library does not possess them. The list is not restricted to work published in 1957, but is intended to be representative of items received in British libraries during the period under review. Owing to restrictions in space, the selection has to be rigorous, and is inevitably, to a certain extent, a personal one. No two people would probably agree on all the omissions, but it is hoped that all the items included will be of positive value to the type of reader for whom the review is intended.

THE Conference of the Library Association may be described as one without a press. The greatest dailies had the barest references to it, a fact which is surprising and lends us matter for reflection. If an admittedly national service, almost universal in application, can be completely ignored in its annual gatherings, what is to be thought? Is it that libraries are now so normal a part of the social landscape that they may be taken for granted? Are they so insignificant that they do not merit notice? Alternatively, were our proceedings too dull for the dramatic necessities of the reporter? Or, finally, was it because the general publicity of the L.A. is not aggressive, is indeed inert? These questions every librarian and library authority may ask and have a right to the answer.

Casey Hardison was arrested in spring 2004 for the production of psychedelictype drugs ie. LSD, 2C‐B and DMT. In the three years since, not one person from ‘authority’ had bothered to ask him what motivated him to synthesise psychedelic drugs. It was as if the a priori assumption that ‘all illegal drugs are bad’ had provided the answer. Hence, the Judge asserted that Hardison did it for ‘that basest of human emotion, greed’ as though the psychospiritual benefits of an alchemical path dedicated to expanding consciousness and personal transformation, through insights integrated into action, upon which he had expounded at great lengths during trial, were some elaborate ‘portmanteau defence’, just some ruse to get him out of the dock. It was not, it was a committed stand for ‘cognitive liberty’ and for a world full of people who understand the fine line between alone and all one.