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The article discusses the use of microcomputers for the automation of the two remaining major library functions: circulation control and serials control. Both are concerned with controlling the movement of stock and both require software which can perform several different types of operation including the creation of printed outputs and financial control. Circulation control is about the issuing, returning and reserving of stock, and the pursuit of overdue items. It is also an especially rich source of management information. Serials control is primarily concerned with the registration of individual issues as they arrive and the claiming of missing ones. Subsidiary functions are ordering, binding control, circulation to readers, searching and financial management.

This issue of VINE is an annotated cumulative index to all the major articles which have appeared in VINEs 1–22. Additional copies are available free of charge from the VINE Office. The index will be updated from time to time.

VINE is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up‐to‐date news of work being done in the automation of library housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. It is edited and substantially written by the Information Officer for Library Automation based in Southampton University Library and supported by a grant from the British Library Research and Development Department. Copyright for VINE articles rests with the British Library Board, but opinions expressed in VINE do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the British Library. The subscription for 1981 for VINE is £20 for UK subscribers and £23 for overseas subscribers — subscription year runs from January to December.

VINE is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up‐to‐date news of work being done in the automation of library housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. It is edited and substantially written by the Information Officer for Library Automation based in Southampton University Library and supported by a grant from the British Library Research and Development Department. Copyright for VINE articles rests with the British Library Board, but opinions expressed in VINE do not necessarily reflect the news and policies of the British Library. The subscription for VINE in 1981 will be £20 for UK subscribers and £23 for overseas subscribers — the subscription year runs from January to December and VINE is available in either paper or microfiche format.

Real‐time, or on‐line computer control of circulation records, is being studied at The Queen's University of Belfast. This paper describes in simple terms the real‐time method of operating a computer and suggests a library model based on this. Two experimental real‐time computer library situa‐tions are described: at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, M. M. Kessler is operating an indexing system which is capable of possible expansion to library catalogue size, while at the IBM Los Gatos Library an experimental ordering and cataloguing system is operating. Plans for the circulation control experiments at Queen's University, Belfast, are presented and discussed. They provide for interrogation of the loan file to provide information about any book on loan, and for automatic recall and reserve routines. The experiments will also include cost analyses.

VINE is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up to date news of work being done in the automation of library housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. It is edited and substantially written by The Information Officer for Library Automation based in Southampton University Library and supported by a grant From the British Library Research and Development Department. Copyright for VINE articles rests with the British Library Board, but opinions expressed in VINE do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the British Library. The subscription for 1983 for VINE is £22 for UK subscribers and £25 for overseas subscribers. The first copy will be charged at normal rate, but all others will be supplied for only £12 per year UK and £14 per year overseas. VINE is available in either paper copy or microfiche and all back issues are available on microfiche.

VINE is a Very Informal Newsletter produced three times a year by the Information Officer for Library Automation and financed by the British Library Research & Development Department. It is issued free of charge on request to interested librarians, systems staff and library college lecturers. VINE'S objective is to provice an up‐to‐date picture of work being done in U.K. library automation which has not been reported elsewhere.

THE successful development of the gas turbine powerplant made available large quantities of compressed air to the aircraft designer, who realised that the aerodynamics of the aircraft could be significantly modified by its use. This is currently used in naval aircraft where blown flaps have reduced the take‐off and landing speeds. Experimental aircraft have flown with higher lift coefficients on the wings than has been realised using blown flaps. One such aircraft is the B.A.C.‐Hunting 126 jet flap aircraft which uses an internal form of the jet flap. An alternative form of the jet flap has been suggested in America in which the efflux from jet engines mounted in pods below the wing is deflected on to the lower surface of conventional trailing edge flaps which deflect the gas flow and so form an external jet flap.

First of all, I must apologise for the interval between this VINE and the last. Unfortunately VINE's production cycle is growing longer as automated library systems become more complex, and consequently more time‐consuming to write up. Moreover, in this issue I have attempted in certain articles, for instance those on COM bureaux and the Telepen, to adopt a thematic approach to the subject, rather than reporting on individual projects. The process of cross‐checking the details of such articles with all the organisations concerned has been partly responsible for the delay in publishing VINE 17. Nevertheless in the long terms I still hope to increase the frequency with which VINE is published, thereby increasing its currency and decreasing the size of each individual issue.

A survey was carried out to determine the ways in which trade journal editors are able to answer the various types of enquiry which they receive, and to discover how far they are willing to do so. Editors of thirty‐five paid‐circulation and five controlled‐circulation journals were interviewed by means of the informal guided (focused) technique, the majority on a personal‐interview basis. The results from the paid‐circulation journals indicated that most of the enquiries received are telephoned, and require trade information. These can be answered most easily by the editors. Technical enquiries can be dealt with successfully by about half of the editors interviewed. Out of the enquiries relating to journal‐published material, those referring to editorial articles are usually handled by the editors concerned, whereas those referring to contributed articles tend to be referred to the contributing authors. Enquiries for marketing information can again be answered by about half of the editors interviewed, usually those whose journals aim to cover the marketing aspects of their fields. Peripheral enquiries tend to be referred to other trade journals. Most of the editors are prepared to spend between fifteen minutes and one hour on an enquiry, if necessary. About half of them are prepared to do research to find out answers to enquiries, and will give detailed answers when they are required. Just under half of the editors interviewed considered that readers' enquiries are very important, and nine of the sample journals provide some type of specialized enquiry service to deal with them. Since editors are up to date and well informed in their fields, they can usually put the enquirer in touch with people who can help. The degree to which an editor will help an enquirer depends largely on his personal attitude (whether he enjoys answering enquiries, for example), and also on the time he has available and whether he thinks the enquirer is ‘genuine’. The results of the interviews with controlled‐circulation journal editors were very similar to those of paid‐circulation journal editors.