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HIS holidays over, before the individual and strenuous winter work of his library begins, the wise librarian concentrates for a few weeks on the Annual Meeting of the Library Association. This year the event is of unusual character and of great interest. Fifty years of public service on the part of devoted workers are to be commemorated, and there could be no more fitting place for the commemoration than Edinburgh. It is a special meeting, too, in that for the first time for many years the Library Association gathering will take a really international complexion. If some too exacting critics are forward to say that we have invited a very large number of foreign guests to come to hear themselves talk, we may reply that we want to hear them. There is a higher significance in the occasion than may appear on the surface—for an effort is to be made in the direction of international co‐operation. In spite of the excellent work of the various international schools, we are still insular. Now that the seas are open and a trip to America costs little more than one to (say) Italy, we hope that the way grows clearer to an almost universal co‐working amongst libraries. It is overdue. May our overseas guests find a real atmosphere of welcome, hospitality and friendship amongst us this memorable September!

FROM TIME TO TIME librarians in public lending libraries hear their borrowers lamenting that they wish they could find books on the shelves like those written in the ‘Good Old Days’. By this it may be assumed that they are looking for a good story with no violence, no drugs, and no unsavoury bedroom scenes. One author who would have been able to help them in their search was Annie S. Swan. In fact today a Border bookseller has a collection of her books which he lends out to meet the huge demand. Requests come in from Woman's Guilds asking him to talk to them about her life and work.

The review of food consumption elsewhere in this issue shows the broad pattern of food supplies in this country; what and how much we eat. Dietary habits are different to what they were before the last War, but there have been few real changes since the end of that War. Because of supplies and prices, shifts within commodity groups have occurred, e.g. carcase meat, bread, milk, but overall, the range of foods commonly eaten has remained stable. The rise of “convenience foods” in the twenty‐five year since the War is seen as a change in household needs and the increasing employment of women in industry and commerce, rather than a change in foods eaten or in consumer preference. Supplies available for consumption have remained fairly steady throughout the period, but if the main food sources, energy and nutrient content of the diet have not changed, changes in detail have begun to appear and the broad pattern of food is not quite so markedly stable as of yore.

Explores the development of hybrid fibre coax technology and the potential for HFC technology, in providing customers, over the next decade, with almost unlimited service options. Uses Figures to aid in explanation and concludes that the hybrid fibre coax network offers an excellent high‐speed data network solution and combines that with a high degree of scalability.