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In times past, the public library has aptly been called “the university of the people,” an educational institution dedicated to furthering the democratic way of life. An educational institution is charged with the tasks of transmitting societal values and acquiring knowledge necessary for daily living. Certainly, the public library affirms that all people of the United States have a right to the pursuit of knowledge along with or as part of the pursuit of happiness. Whether or not the library also has some responsibility in assisting patrons in the clarification of societal values and in assisting patrons with life enrichment is not as clear from a historical perspective. That libraries can and should bring literature and books together in reader's discussion groups for enrichment and clarification is the subject of this paper.

Child abuse is no longer something we must talk about in cautious tones. The creation of the National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse and the launching of a national awareness campaign in 1984 has resulted in a welcome but typical media blitz which has raised our consciousness but given little in the way of a solution. Parents are turning to the library for materials to help them introduce the hereto‐fore unspeakable of child abuse to their children.

Where do you find the books?“ is the question I am most frequently asked about the developmental task (or lifetask) approach to reading guidance. It is a good question, and not easy to answer, because most traditional library tools are not organized by life themes. Sometimes a life crisis is also a catalog subject heading, such as “divorce” or “death,” but “living on a reduced income,” or “loss of status” are not commonly used terms in cataloging or indexing.

THIS number will appear at the beginning of the Leeds Conference. Although there is no evidence that the attendance will surpass the record attendance registered at the Birmingham Conference, there is every reason to believe that the attendance at Leeds will be very large. The year is one of importance in the history of the city, for it has marked the 300th anniversary of its charter. We hope that some of the festival spirit will survive into the week of the Conference. As a contributor has suggested on another page, we hope that all librarians who attend will do so with the determination to make the Conference one of the friendliest possible character. It has occasionally been pointed out that as the Association grows older it is liable to become more stilted and formal; that institutions and people become standardized and less dynamic. This, if it were true, would be a great pity.

The purpose of this paper is to present a four component model of ethical behavior (PRIMES) that integrates literature in moral psychology, computing ethics, and virtue ethics as informed by research on moral exemplars in computing. This is part 1 of a two‐part contribution.

This psychologically based and philosophically informed model argues that moral action is: grounded in relatively stable PeRsonality characteristics (PR); guided by integration of morality into the self‐system; shaped by the context of the surrounding moral ecology; and facilitated by morally relevant skills and knowledge (S).

The model seeks to explain the daily successful (and unsuccessful) performance of moral action by computing professionals and to provide groundwork for a pedagogy that emphasizes ethically effective performance.

The model has significant implications for how ethical action might be taught to computer professionals and other design professionals. It also makes recommendations about what is needed to measure to construct a complete picture of sustained ethical action in a profession.

Most accepted models of ethical behavior are unidimensional, emphasizing either principled reasoning or a simplistic model of integrity/character. This model brings together a variety of disparate literatures in the light of its emphasis on sustained moral action in the profession. It thereby provides researchers and educators with a picture of what is needed to construct a complete understanding of moral action in the profession.

The paper aims to raise awareness in the industry of design automation tools, especially in early design phases, by demonstrating along a case study the seamless integration of a prototypically implemented optimization, supporting design space exploration in the early design phase and an in operational use product configurator, supporting the drafting and detailing of the solution predominantly in the later design phase.

Based on the comparison of modeled as-is and to-be processes of ascent assembly designs with and without design automation tools, an automation roadmap is developed. Using qualitative and quantitative assessments, the potentials and benefits, as well as acceptance and usage aspects, are evaluated.

Engineers tend to consider design automation for routine tasks. Yet, prototypical implementations support the communication and identification of the potential for the early stages of the design process to explore solution spaces. In this context, choosing from and interactively working with automatically generated alternative solutions emerged as a particular focus. Translators, enabling automatic downstream propagation of changes and thus ensuring consistency as to change management were also evaluated to be of major value.

A systematic validation of design automation in design practice is presented. For generalization, more case studies are needed. Further, the derivation of appropriate metrics needs to be investigated to normalize validation of design automation in future research.

Integration of design automation in early design phases has great potential for reducing costs in the market launch. Prototypical implementations are an important ingredient for potential evaluation of actual usage and acceptance before implementing a live system.

There is a lack of systematic validation of design automation tools supporting early design phases. In this context, this work contributes a systematically validated industrial case study. Early design-phases-support technology transfer is important because of high leverage potential.

We issue a double Souvenir number of The Library World in connection with the Library Association Conference at Birmingham, in which we have pleasure in including a special article, “Libraries in Birmingham,” by Mr. Walter Powell, Chief Librarian of Birmingham Public Libraries. He has endeavoured to combine in it the subject of Special Library collections, and libraries other than the Municipal Libraries in the City. Another article entitled “Some Memories of Birmingham” is by Mr. Richard W. Mould, Chief Librarian and Curator of Southwark Public Libraries and Cuming Museum. We understand that a very full programme has been arranged for the Conference, and we have already published such details as are now available in our July number.

To advance the learning of professional practices in teacher education and medical education, this conceptual paper aims to introduce the idea of representational scaffolding for digital simulations in higher education.

This study outlines the ideas of core practices in two important fields of higher education, namely, teacher and medical education. To facilitate future professionals’ learning of relevant practices, using digital simulations for the approximation of practice offers multiple options for selecting and adjusting representations of practice situations. Adjusting the demands of the learning task in simulations by selecting and modifying representations of practice to match relevant learner characteristics can be characterized as representational scaffolding. Building on research on problem-solving and scientific reasoning, this article identifies leverage points for employing representational scaffolding.

The four suggested sets of representational scaffolds that target relevant features of practice situations in simulations are: informational complexity, typicality, required agency and situation dynamics. Representational scaffolds might be implemented in a strategy for approximating practice that involves the media design, sequencing and adaptation of representational scaffolding.

The outlined conceptualization of representational scaffolding can systematize the design and adaptation of digital simulations in higher education and might contribute to the advancement of future professionals’ learning to further engage in professional practices. This conceptual paper offers a necessary foundation and terminology for approaching related future research.

Focussing on the relationship between personality traits and small and medium enterprise (SME) performance in Tanzania’s furniture sector, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of cognitive characteristics as a mediating variable.

A total of 300 SMEs in furniture sectors from four different regions in Tanzania were involved in this study. Structural equation modelling approach was used to test simultaneously the direct and the indirect effects of the characteristics of the entrepreneurs on the SMEs performance.

The findings show that personality traits have a significant influence on SMEs performance through cognitive characteristics.

The study’s data were collected from businesses in only one industry (furniture) in Tanzania. Future research may extend the approach to other business sectors.

Since entrepreneurial characteristics are considered an important driver of a country’s economic development and performance, it is hoped that governments and sector associations implement suitable policies and incentives to develop an entrepreneurial culture among citizens.

Current knowledge about entrepreneurial characteristics and their relationship with SME performance in developing countries, especially Tanzania, is very limited. The present study suggests that cognitive characteristics are necessary mediators of the link between personality traits and SME performance.