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Warns that in TQM, there is a danger of losing sight of the original motives that prompted the endeavour in the first place. The TQM initiative can become the end, rather than the means to the end, and the participants’ lives made miserable. Explores some human aspects behind TQM failures. Aims at two categories, the person who is about to start a TQM initiative and the one who has witnessed a failed initiative. Questions the motives for starting a TQM programme.

Written from a customer point of view and using the example of a large DIY chain store, describes how a culture change made a significant narrowing of the gap between desired and perceived customer service. Uses a model described by Parasuraman et al.

Presents some basic systems theory using an amusing scenario. Centres on the Deming imperative that an appreciation for a system is an integral part of a system of profound knowledge. Clarifies the meaning of “appreciation” and “for” in context. Concludes with observations gleaned from the scenario and a challenge to readers.

When constructing a management system it is possible for the practitioner to lose the overall objective of the system in the wordy and detailed pursuit of conformance to norms. Every picture tells a story. Suggests a simple way of visualizing the interactions and interdependence of individual components of a system. Describes how the system may be cognitive and useful for quality improvement – hence “appreciative”. Particular reference is made to a sales and marketing system, but the lesson may be applied to systems of other specialities by creating models of the desired interactions as part of the specification process.

THE Reference Department of Paisley Central Library today occupies the room which was the original Public Library built in 1870 and opened to the public in April 1871. Since that date two extensions to the building have taken place. The first, in 1882, provided a separate room for both Reference and Lending libraries; the second, opened in 1938, provided a new Children's Department. Together with the original cost of the building, these extensions were entirely financed by Sir Peter Coats, James Coats of Auchendrane and Daniel Coats respectively. The people of Paisley indeed owe much to this one family, whose generosity was great. They not only provided the capital required but continued to donate many useful and often extremely valuable works of reference over the many years that followed. In 1975 Paisley Library was incorporated in the new Renfrew District library service.

The aim of this randomised intervention study was to test the use of two counselling styles in reducing alcohol consumption in offenders who were hazardous drinkers and who had been charged with alcohol‐related offences. An additional aim was to evaluate the research process itself before embarking on a larger trial. Participants were recruited from a police custody suite in the south east of England and randomised to receive either a motivational interviewing brief intervention (MIBI) or a standard brief intervention (BI). The Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) was used to screen offenders for hazardous drinking. Participants were asked to complete a second AUDIT 12 weeks later. Two hundred offenders with alcohol‐related offences were screened over a 10‐month period. Of these, 182 were alcohol dependent and were therefore excluded from the study. Of the 18 who were eligible to enter the study, six refused to participate. Five were randomised to the MIBI group and seven into the BI group (BI). The mean age of the MIBI group was 25 (SD±3.86) years and the mean age of the BI group was 32.4 (SD±7.9). Audit scores were significantly lower at time 2 compared to time 1 for both intervention groups (t(11) = 17.60; p < 0.05). There was no significant difference between the different intervention groups.

An imperative of any quality system is the need for training and development of the people who operate the system. Offers a model of how training and development may be integrated into the system and aligned with the business aim of the company and the personal development of the individual.

THERE has recently sprung up a great interest in antiques, probably due to Arthur Negus and his TV and broadcast programmes, and perhaps it is this which has made county librarians also, think about their past and their beginnings. Gloucestershire was the first to become aware of the fact that its library was fifty years old, and that a genuine antique, in the shape of its first librarian, still existed and could be questioned about the early days. So in December, 1967, the Gloucestershire Library Committee staged a most successful 50th birthday party, and invited me to cut the birthday cake, on which were 50 candles! And a very great occasion it was.

The analyses of trends in prosecutions under the Food and Drugs Act, 1955 and the various regulations, which we have prepared every two years or so, covering a three‐month period, have been so much appreciated by readers, both in the administration and the industry itself, that we have prepared a more extended survey, covering the whole of 1966. The survey, as before, takes the form of a month‐by‐month analysis of reports of legal proceedings received by us from all parts of the country, and as formerly records the prosecutions under similar groupings; cases under Section 2, subdivided into those relating to compositional offences, the presence of foreign bodies and those relating to mouldy food: false description cases under Section 6 of the Merchandise Marks Acts; Section 8, the unfit food provision, also subdivided with special categories for foreign bodies and mouldy food; Section 32, milk cases; cases under the Food Hygiene Regulations, 1960, with smoking offences separated; the Milk and Dairies Regulations, consisting almost entirely of prosecutions under Reg. 27, Meat Regulations, Preservative Regulations, Colouring Matter in Food Regulations, etc.

THE appointment of a Vice‐Chancellor for the University of Warwick was announced towards the end of 1962. The Registrar was next appointed and then the librarian, who arrived on the scene in July 1963. The building which is described in this article was envisaged in a programme handed to the architects, Messrs. Yorke, Rosenberg and Mardall, early in December 1963.