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Document delivery is a rapidly growing area of interest, yet public policy issues have not been clearly defined and discussed. For that reason, it is essential to begin by defining what we mean by ‘public’ and ‘private’ sector and by the term ‘document delivery’. Public policy issues can then be identified in four areas: (1) marketplace competition, (2) intellectual property, (3) fair use of public resources, and (4) public good. Because past perception of the issues has been vague, the volume of activity and the economic stakes relatively low, it is still possible for public/private sector roles to be defined in a non‐combative atmosphere, to mutually‐beneficial ends.

Reference librarians in various library settings are often assigned responsibilities for training students, support staff, or other new professionals, a task for which they rarely have sufficient professional education. This bibliography recommends readings on topics that will assist reference librarians in understanding the philosophy of staff development. The readings listed here cover subjects such as: establishing an atmosphere that facilitates learning, assessing training needs, describing competent performance, writing clear and specific objectives, selecting appropriate training methods, maintaining skills and providing feedback, and evaluating the effectiveness of a training program.

Several ideas exist about social justice and how inequalities can be tackled to help families and children in poverty. The Coalition government released the UK’s first Child Poverty Strategy in 2011. Pervaded by neoliberal ideology, the strategy mentions “empowering” pre-school services and practitioners within the childcare market “to do more for the most disadvantaged” (Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Department for Education (DfE) 2011, p. 35). The purpose of this paper is to bring to light how Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) practitioners across England have engaged with policy discussions and adopted expectations concerning their place in addressing child poverty.

Using a phenomenological qualitative research design the paper draws upon 30 interviews with pre-school practitioners in three geographic areas of England. All interviewees worked with families and children in poverty and were senior ECEC practitioners within their pre-school settings.

Many interviewees shared the Coalition’s construction of child poverty as a problem of “troubled” parenting. These views pervaded their interaction with parents and intersected with the regulatory influence of “policy technologies” to influence their practice within a context of austerity cuts. This limited practitioners’ poverty sensitivity and their promotion of social justice. Therefore this paper concludes by critiquing the contribution which ECEC practitioners can make to addressing child poverty.

The findings suggest there may be a need for poverty proofing toolkits in the pre-school sector.

This paper provides a rare insight into how pre-school practitioners have engaged with, adopted and adapted assumptions about their role within policy discussion over child poverty and the promotion of social justice.

Examines the history of branded characters in children’s marketing; these go back to the Michelin Man in 1898, and include the Robinson Golly and the Jolly Green Giant. Shows how reliance on these characters diminished with television advertising, which allowed animated stories to carry the brand, rather than mere static poster and press characters; some of the characters have now been pensioned off. Outlines three stages of child development related to brand characters, followed by the different form of commercial character usage: licensed product (the character is the brand), brand spokespeople like Tony the Tiger, characters associated with the brand over time (like the Dulux dog), borrowed equity using entertainment characters, and pack design with character visuals. Warns that increased sophistication of children with respect to brands and advertising means that character brands can alienate older children if they are perceived as too childlike.

The AAU/ARL (Association of American Universities/Association of Research Libraries) Japan Journal Access Project seeks to expand access to research materials published in Japan, and to coordinate collection development activities of Japanese‐language material held by North American research libraries. Established in 1994, the focus of the Japan Project has evolved from providing access to scientific and technical serials published in Japan to providing access to Japanese language materials held by Japanese and North American libraries. The Union List of Japanese Serials and Newspapers and the Association of National University Libraries (ANUL) and Waseda document‐delivery projects have emerged as key activities. Collaborative collection development remains an important, but unrealized, goal. Suggestions for future developments are made.

This review is based for the most part on conference proceedings. It begins with a look at recent developments in interlending in Australasia, with a comparison of interlending statistics, and papers from a resource‐sharing conference in New Zealand reporting Australian and New Zealand interlending practice. Unresolved attempts to define an interlending plan for Australia are discussed together with the present situation. Two delegates' papers at a conference in Western Australia report contrasting developments there. Turning to the UK, four papers from an interlending conference consider the current UK situation, financial aspects, the end user's view and future development of interlending. Finally, a world‐wide collection of ‘proceedings’ is reviewed, dealing with different interlending systems in the UK, FRG, GDR, USA, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, China and the European Communities' DOCDEL project, with particular reference to Patent information in Germany and the TRANSDOC project in France.

Uses historical data to examine emergent trends in media aimed at children; the intention is to detail the globalised “Bedroom Culture” phenomenon which has been identified in the UK and USA as signifying a move from outdoors to indoors and from active to passive pursuits. Shows how the growth of the Internet and mobile phone has not led to a reduction in television viewing, but instead to fragmentation and diversification of the children’s media market, aided by the dramatic explosion in satellite and cable TV; children interact with the different media forms in very different ways, each of them contributing to their entertainment requirements, and they can now communicate outside their traditional peer networks. Concludes that new communication channels are merely a way to reach consumers more efficiently; websites and mobile phones require high investment to induce children to use them, and must avoid appearing to be intrusive.