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The Workshop, promoted by the Aslib Computer Applications Group and held within the overall framework of SCOLCAP (Scottish Libraries Cooperative Automation Project), gave invited Scottish librarians an opportunity to discuss the exploitation of computer‐based cataloguing services. Descriptions of the services available from the British Library, Birmingham Libraries Cooperative Mechanisation Project, Oriel Computer Services, Blackwell Bibliographical Services, ICL DILS, and Telecomputing's TeleMARC, were followed by general open discussion and then the discussion of specific topics (input techniques; output techniques; integrated systems; problems of local classification schemes when using MARC records; pre‐publication cataloguing). The report concludes that automation is accepted as beneficial; collaboration can help to cut costs; automation provides an opportunity to define requirements afresh, but new systems should be as flexible as possible.

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 ctdirary Automation bused 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‐Boards 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 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 Tony McSean, 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 to VINE is £10 per year and the subscription period runs from January to December.

PUBLICATION late in September of a House of Commons Expenditure Committee report on the Charity Commissioners and on charities generally seems unlikely to arouse forebodings at the Library Association, which enjoys such special status.

J D HENDRY, Renfrew's Chief Librarian, writes:

Safety precautions in the use of raw materials, in manufacturing and processing, marketing and enforcement of food and drug law on purity and quality may appear nowadays to be largely a matter of routine, with manufacturers as much involved and interested in maintaining a more or less settled equilibrium as the enforcement agencies. Occasionally the peace is shattered, eg, a search and recovery operation of canned goods of doubtful bacterial purity or containing excess metal contamination, seen very much as an isolated incident; or the recent very large enforcement enterprise in the marketing of horseflesh (and other substitutions) for beef. The nationwide sale and distribution of meat on such a vast scale, only possible by reason of marketing methods — frozen blocks of boneless meat, which even after thawing out is not easily distinguishable from the genuine even in the eye of the expert; this is in effect only a fraud always around in the long ago years built up into a massive illicit trade.

Based on data gathered from libraries visited, factors influencing the selection of computer facilities are explored. Comparison is made between costs associated with in‐house mainframes and minis. Selection policy in academic, public and special libraries is examined. Other factors considered include staffing, software, hardware selection. Advantages and disadvantage between mainframes and minis are summarised in the conclusion.

The UK Z39.50 Pre‐lmplementors Group was set up at the beginning of 1992, with the aim of encouraging UK involvement in the development of search and retrieve standards and contributing to international technical discussions and ballots. Participants come from a variety of backgrounds, including suppliers, libraries, UKOLN, the British Library and LASER. The main part of the article comprises of recent status reports from the main UK players.

Many files, including the subject catalogues of most British libraries, are arranged in order of class‐numbers or notations. These notations represent subjects and show the relations between them, and are used so that there is a useful sequence of records (e.g. entries for books) in the file (e.g. the library catalogue). To use such files it is however necessary to have an alphabetical subject index.

The British Architectural Library at the Royal Institute of British Architects has been awarded a grant of £3,500 from the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust, to help in the preservation of the Library's manuscripts and archives collection. The grant will be used to treat important 18th and 19th century papers, including the correspondence of eminent architects. The first item to receive treatment will be the fragile “Goodchild Album”, a valuable record of the work of the Cockerell practice compiled by his assistant, John Eastly Goodchild. The album was purchased by the British Architectural Library at a Christie's sale in 1983 with the aid of a grant from the National Art Collections Fund.