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Ensuring that a child has a good start in life requires a partnership that extends beyond that of the parents and that precedes a child's conception. Sharing this vision among agencies that have contact with marginalised young people led to the use of an infant simulator to attract ‘at risk’ young people into a program that helps ensure that the choice to conceive is not only informed but also has the potential to promote mental health. Participants demonstrated that they increased their knowledge of the health and other implications of having a baby and some took active measures to improve their health.

Although public health practitioners have made some contribution to the prevention of mental illness, this has not been a result of deliberate intent. Considering the extent of the problem, the response to mental illness as a public health issue has been grossly inadequate. An exploration of the historical reasons and an analysis of public health's reluctance to include mental health as part of its responsibility may assist in the premarital counselling required to broker what could be a mutually beneficial marriage with mental health. The prospective fruits of this union are explored, with recommendations for future action.

It is one thing to discuss the clauses of a prospective Bill; but to get that Bill through Parliament is a vastly different affair. It was at the Buxton L. A. Conference, in 1896, that the matter was considered, and now, after four years' working and waiting, we have advanced just so far as to have got through the House of Lords “a Bill intituled an Act to amend the Acts relating to Public Libraries, Museums, and Gymnasiums, and to regulate the liability of managers of Libraries to proceedings for libel.” At the present moment this Bill is awaiting an opportunity of coming before the Commons. With this position it must be perfectly familiar, for it was only on account of Lord Avebury's despair at finding no opening for it in the House of Commons that the Association induced Lord Windsor to pilot it through the House of Lords. If the present Parliament lives long enough there is just a chance of the measure being entered upon the statute book; but, with forecasts of an early dissolution confronting us, and with Mr. Balfour's recent announcement of the Government appropriation of private members’ days this session, the prospect is not particularly encouraging. If these slender hopes are not realised, the Bill will be none the forwarder for passing the Upper House; whilst, if it should be so fortunate as to pass the Commons without further amendment, it would at once pass into law. Lord Balcarres has been good enough to take charge of the Bill in the House of Commons, and as it is well “backed,” and has been pruned down by the Standing Committee, and has really nothing of a contentious nature in its provisions, we may reasonably hope that if it once gets a start in the House it will reach a successful finish.

The third paper in the manoeuvre warfare series, describes a prescriptive approach for the organization's operationalisation of its strategic intent. It discusses the practical planning stages adapted from the military appreciation process. Termed the mission analysis process (MAP) this framework guides planners through the initial mission analysis, the development of a course of action (CoA), followed by a landscape analysis, execution, review, reorientation, and further action if deemed necessary. This paper argues from a military paradigm using both military and business as examples. This paper emphasises the need for porous, flexible and rapid planning processes, devolved decision‐making, and high levels of organizational capability, initiative, trust, and employee competence. Argues that the MAP framework facilitates organizational learning, a heightened sense of organizational participation and commitment, as well as improving business development between management levels and across the organization.

EVERY librarian in his inmost heart dislikes newspapers. He regards them as bad literature; attractors of undesirable readers; a drain upon the limited resources of the library; and a target against which the detractors of public libraries are constantly battering. From the standpoint of the librarian, newspapers are the most expensive and least productive articles stocked by a library, and their lavish provision is, perhaps, the most costly method of purchasing waste‐paper ever devised. Pressure of circumstances and local conditions combine, however, to muzzle the average librarian, and the consequence is that a perfectly honest and outspoken discussion of the newspaper question is very rarely seen. In these circumstances, an attempt to marshal the arguments for and against the newspaper, together with some account of a successful practical experiment at limitation, may prove interesting to readers of this magazine.

The management of children′s literature is a search for value and suitability. Effective policies in library and educational work are based firmly on knowledge of materials, and on the bibliographical and critical frame within which the materials appear and might best be selected. Boundaries, like those between quality and popular books, and between children′s and adult materials, present important challenges for selection, and implicit in this process are professional acumen and judgement. Yet also there are attitudes and systems of values, which can powerfully influence selection on grounds of morality and good taste. To guard against undue subjectivity, the knowledge frame should acknowledge the relevance of social and experiential context for all reading materials, how readers think as well as how they read, and what explicit and implicit agendas the authors have. The good professional takes all these factors on board.

DECEMBER sees the close of the presidency of Lionel R. McColvin. Few men in the record of the Library Association have more deserved the eminence the office affords and the feeling is aroused that it is all too brief a tenure. None has used twelve months to more useful purpose. He presided over the Annual Conference with dignity and conducted the unfortunate Annual Business Meeting with a fairness that was scrupulous. He has given several public addresses, a notable one being that at the Manchester Public Library Centenary which may be read in The Manchester Review (Autumn, 1952); has served on at least one Government committee, has opened libraries, unveiled the L.C.C. tablet to William Ewart; has found time to address various branch and divisional meetings of librarians, to serve on the N.C.L. Executive Committee, to sign the Fellowship certificates of successful candidates and, of course, has presided over every meeting of the L.A. Council and, we understand, with such success that complete harmony ruled in that very miscellaneous body. He passes on his office with honour and with our gratitude.

WE end the library year in an atmosphere of anticipation. There are signs, not of the ending of the infernal conflict that engages the best of our lives, but of movement which brings the happy event into the range of probable things. Most men and women feel that in the past year a great deliverance has been wrought. Librarians Still labour under the greatest difficulties they have ever known, fewer books, reduced Staffs, crowded working days, but they have endured the worst it seems, and although there may yet be heavy air onslaught, and the great sacrifices that a second front must bring, there is the feeling that we are not as far from the day as we were twelve months ago. That is a happy reflection with which to look to Christmastide.