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This study aims to explore a self-managed action learning (SMAL) initiative undertaken by social work assessors in England, which led to insights into the practice of SMAL.

The paper draws upon the experience of the authors in relation to an actual SMAL intervention in a social care context in England.

The paper suggests that, in contrast to extant literature, it is not the absence of an “expert” facilitator, which has proved to be most challenging but rather dealing with the practicalities of managing inter-organisational sets online. Specific individual and inter-organisational learning came about as a result of the SMAL initiative, including the implementation of inter-organisational networking to support isolated assessors.

The ideas and perspectives discussed in this paper will be explored through further empirical research.

The paper illustrates how SMAL can be implemented and suggests how it can facilitate organisational and individual learning.

The paper discusses an initiative with the aim of better supporting assessors of newly qualified social workers; a task of enormous importance to the future of social work practice in England.

The paper contributes to a limited literature on the practice of SMAL. The uniqueness comes from both the multi-organisational aspect of the programme, that it is self-managed and delivered virtually.

Although spreadsheets are now widely used in libraries, there is little evidence that their application to practical problems of library stock management has been recognised. This paper describes a project undertaken at Aston University Library and Information Services to use the spreadsheet package Excel to assist in planning the respacing of the periodical stock. After briefly outlining the background to the project, the paper describes in detail the construction of the spreadsheet and its implementation. Use of the Excel model demonstrated how the capacity of spreadsheets to perform complex calculations can be successfully applied to practical library problems.

Organisational convergence, and convergence of the technologies which underlie information delivery and management, place new demands upon librarians to extend their skills and knowledge. Significant opportunities exist for staff who are able to combine their professional task skills with good process skills. Convergence poses difficulties for managers of converged services in ensuring that all groups of library staff have the same opportunities to develop hybrid skills; and in finding training products suitable for staff working in a converged environment. It is anticipated that experience of working in converged services will enhance the career prospects of staff at all levels.

The purpose of this paper is to enquire into the role and skills of the action learning facilitator in the context of service improvement work in the UK's National Health Service (NHS). An earlier companion paper examined the concept of service improvement and the possible contribution of action learning as a means of bringing about both personal and organisational development.

The paper takes the form of a case study. The research reports on the facilitation of action learning sets which formed part of a leadership development programme in the NHS. Data were collected via telephone interviews, focus groups, action learning sets and a World Café event.

The action learning facilitator's role is encircled by questions of method, approaches, skills and competencies, and crucially by complex contextual factors. Three role models are offered for the action learning facilitator – i.e. initiator, coach, and leader – and the paper concludes that any person fulfilling this role should develop the habits of reflection, critique and learning as part of developing their practice. Supervision and developmental support are also useful for people who are always asking themselves – “Am I doing it right?”

This case study on which these findings are based was developed at a time of great turmoil in the NHS. The dramatic specifics of the case serve to illustrate the critical variability and uniqueness of context. However, we believe that this does not greatly affect the efficacy of general conclusions drawn about action learning facilitation.

The practice of action learning is developing rapidly in many different organisational and community settings, and there is a growing demand for its skilful facilitation.

Currently there is little literature on what constitutes appropriate development for action learning facilitators. The paper gives some clear choices and guidelines for the development of this role.

The purpose of this paper is to examine questions concerning service improvement and the possible contribution of action learning as a means of bringing about both personal and organisational development. A second companion paper deals with the facilitation issues in this context (submitted to Leadership in Health Services, December 2007).

This research reports on the experiences of participants on a leadership development programme, who were seeking to effect service improvements in their professional domains. Data were collected via telephone interviews, focus groups, action learning sets and a world cafe event.

The paper concludes that the definition of “service improvement” is multiple and problematic. It concludes that action learning and service improvement can be natural partners but only if the action learning design is crafted to the specifics of the context.

This case study was developed at a time of great turmoil in the NHS. The findings may be taken as indicative and instructive rather than reproducible.

NHS service improvements are failing to keep pace with targets due to an over‐reliance on centrally initiated programmes and a deficit in local efforts. NHS and other managers will find this paper useful to help them bring about service improvements at local level.

As far as the authors know there are no other published accounts of service improvement initiatives developed via action learning.

Describes the development of performance indicators in the bibliographic records section since 1988. The timeliness of the section’s output was perceived to be more relevant from the user’s point of view than the number of books catalogued, so two key indicators were monitored: the length of time which books spend on the cataloguing shelves and the size of the backlog. The statistics in graphical form to assist planning the section’s work. Time analysis was introduced more recently, both to provide a more meaningful context for the performance indicators and also to put a cost on the section’s activities in the light of current trends towards greater financial accountability and the development of service‐level agreements. Discusses some problems inherent in the use of performance indicators and suggests greater integration between sections.

Increasingly, librarians are being offered the same information from a range of different sources and through a variety of different delivery channels. Many Journal titles, for example, are now available as print subscriptions, on CD‐ROM, via online hosts and from on demand document delivery services. As part of the UK Electronic Libraries programme, the authors have developed a simple decision support tool which allows a Library Manager to compare the total cost of acquiring a given item of information from each of a number of different sources. The costing approach employed was developed by the Task Force on MA/HEM — Methodology for Access/Holdings Economic Modelling — and the system was implemented using Microsoft Excel.

Discusses the papers presented at the Fifth World Conference on Continuing Professional Development for the Library and Information Professions organised by the Round Table on Continuing Professional Development of IFLA held August 2002. They included theoretical discussions, research reports, descriptions of best practice, case studies, project evaluations and state‐of‐the‐art reviews presented by library and information professionals.