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Modern semiconductor physics has developed from the quantum mechanical work on energy band theory of charge carriers in semiconductors associated with the name of A. H. Wilson and his classic papers on the subject, and also with the name of Schottky who pioneered the atomistic approach to disorder phenomena in solids. This work dates from about 1930 and theoretical developments up to the beginning of the War were relatively slow. Semiconductor technology in the same period was represented by a few devices only. These included the copper oxide and selenium rectifiers which were in use in certain equipment and in the process of further development. The silicon whisker detector was being used for the detection and measurement of microwave power. It will be recalled that silicon carbide and galena had been used as detectors of radio waves before the common usage of the thermionic valve. The development of radar during the War, which required semiconductor devices for detecting and mixing microwaves meant that considerable work was carried out on silicon, and parallel work on germanium meant that by the end of the War high‐back voltage rectifiers, using germanium, were available in developmental quantities. Problems of thermal detection meant that photo‐conductive and photo‐voltaic cells were developed for this purpose based on the materials thallium sulphide and lead sulphide. Attention was also focussed on electronic processes in ionic crystals in terms of improving display screens for cathode ray and similar tubes.

ANYBODY whoses daily work involves the planning and spending of money must at all times be concerned by efforts to ensure that value is being obtained for the money spent. Those of us who, as librarians, are spending the money of fellow tax‐payers, are naturally doubly concerned about this problem. In addition, the very phrase “value for money” to a Yorkshireman is a continual challenge, and a point on which he instinctively feels, rightly or wrongly, that he has some secret inborn knowledge.

WE are as yet without the means of verifying the forecast in our last issue that there would be a cutting of library estimates this year. There has been some; one library authority known to us having ordered a five per cent. cut. The fact still is that such retrenchments can only be made at the expense of a very few items of our estimates, and of these the book fund is the severest sufferer. This is a fact that cannot always be brought home to finance committees who only think as a rule in gross figures, and do not know that the library estimate consists mainly of fixed charges. The librarian who forms an estimate in anticipation of cuts does not aft quite honestly, but in the way of the world at present he may, like the Unjust Steward, be acting wisely. But it is pitiful to think that this should even be a matter for discussion.

THE news that our royal President has been promoted to the command of a frigate sugges an increase rather than a relieving of naval duties. Our pleasure in the announcement is qualified by the fear that the further demands may make his presence with the Library Association in September even more difficult than it seemed to be a month ago. This is pure speculation on our part, but we are aware of the eagerness with which librarians look forward to the central event of the Centenary Year. We are assured that the matter is in good hands and at the right levels.

THERE ARE WOMEN engineers in every facet of that ubiquitous motley of professions that claim (sometimes with but little justification) to that title. There are, too, women politicians, women surgeons and physicians, women accountants, architects and one was recently appointed as Editor of a national newspaper.

We have pleasure in acknowledging the courtesy of the Public Health Authorities of the State of Queensland, Australia, for sending us this record. Want of space compels briefness, but we hope that the few points to which we have drawn notice may prove of interest to readers. We are concerned with the work of the Government Chemical Laboratory and local authorities so far as that relates to the purity, storage, and handling of the food supply. Action is taken under the Food and Drug sections of the Health Acts, and Regulations connected therewith. The difficulties naturally arising in the administration of a vast and sparsely populated tropical territory have been increased, there as here, by shortage of labour and materials of all kinds. So that schemes devised by local authorities in the interests of public health have in many instances been seriously delayed. The Chief of the Government Chemical Laboratory remarks that the Department has worked under incessant pressure for many years. “ The well informed, versatile and competent practitioners ” demanded by the service are not at present available outside the Government service, and “ unless they are forthcoming from time to time to rejuvenate the staff the laboratory may be reduced to a laboratory of professional labourers.”

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

A few years ago, in an effort to promote co‐operation between the two professional associations of librarians in Ireland, a Liaison Committee, consisting of members nominated by the Council of the Library Association of Ireland and members nominated by the Committee of the Northern Ireland Branch of the Library Association was formed. The first fruit of its endeavours was found in the establishment of an Annual Joint‐Conference of the two bodies, the first one being held at Portrush, in Northern Ireland in 1963.

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.

WE all scan the advertisements for librarians in The Times Literary Supplement and other journals every week, and we might be forgiven for inferring from them that there is a dearth of those who, by a curious inversion, are asked for as “A.L.A's or F.L.A's.” In contradiction, it would appear that about 1,500 youngsters are trying to enter the profession by way of the Entrance Examination every year. Youngsters beginning life, especially girls, do usually prefer or are constrained by their parents, the cost of living, and the scarcity of lodgings, to start in their home towns and still to live at home.. Higher in the scale the whole position is tangled in various ways. Many of the entrants fall by the way; commercial pay exceeds municipal and other library pay; more find the work uncongenial, as library work certainly is except to those who are book‐lovers, have a strong social sense, and, in the best cases, a flair for publicity and business administration. Others marry and leave, although some stay on with the ring on the third finger of their left hand. Thus, when maturity is reached, only a relatively few, even amongst the mature, have become chartered librarians and, fewer still, Fellows—as is natural seeing that the fellowship is a much more severe test nowadays and only much love and industry can achieve it. This position is even worse in some other branches of the municipal service; our salaries do not draw the best of the young folk permanently and many a Treasurer's office, to take one branch only, is complaining of want of good recruits. Those of our good ones who do remain do so because of the work and not the pay. Authority has always known this, from the day when Gladstone opined that working in the British Museum was so delightful that it was incredible that the workers wanted any pay at all. Chief librarians today have been most unfairly neglected by the salary negotiating bodies who have dealt generously with several other kinds of chief officers in the local services.