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Edith Margaret Robertson Ditmas — ‘E.D.’ to her staff and many colleagues, ‘Edith’ to her family and friends — was appointed General Secretary of Aslib in May 1933 in succession to Mr S. S. Bullock, and was redesignated Director in 1946. She retired from that post on 28 February 1950, being succeeded by Leslie Wilson. In June 1947 she took over the editorship of the Journal of Documentation with effect from the beginning of volume three, following the appointment of the founder editor, Theodore Besterman, as Counsellor, Bibliographical and Library Centre, Unesco. She continued this work until 1962. A note by Geoffrey Woledge in the June 1962 issue of the Journal informed readers that Miss Ditmas was being succeeded as Managing Editor by Miss Barbara Kyle ‘who has contributed to the Journal in the past and is now taking up a full‐time post on the Aslib staff’. It reminded readers that Aslib's establishment of the Editorial Board in 1947 had only been intended as a temporary measure (its membership in 1947 comprised F. C. Francis, D.J. Urquhart and G. Woledge) and with reference to Miss Ditmas continued:

AT the very outset of this paper it is necessary to make clear that it is not an attempt to compile an exhaustive bibliography of literature relating to special librarianship. Neither space nor time permit this. In fact, the references given can only claim to be a sample of the wealth of material on the subject and this paper is submitted in the hope that it will stimulate others to more scholarly efforts. Reference numbers throughout this paper refer to items in the ‘Select list of references to the literature of special librarianship’, section 2 onwards.

We report with regret the resignation of Miss E. M. R. Ditmas from the editorship of both Aslib Proceedings and the Journal of Documentation. This is the last issue of Aslib Proceedings that will appear under Miss Ditmas's editorship and she will no longer be Managing Editor of the Journal of Documentation after publication of the June 1962 issue. Miss Ditmas, who was Director of Aslib until 1950, is resigning in order to be able to devote more time to her own research work and writing. Aslib would like to record its deep appreciation of the excellent work which Miss Ditmas has done to establish and uphold the standard of both these periodicals since their first appearance.

The formation, in May, 1949, of the new Aslib, incorporating the Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux and the British Society for International Bibliography, led to a change in the dating of Aslib's financial year, which will now run from January to December instead of from July to June. This report, therefore, extends over eighteen months and links the activities of the old organization with those of its successor.

FROM 5th to 8th October, 1951, Aslib was fortunate in holding its Annual Conference again at Ashorne Hill, near Leamington Spa, and our thanks are due for the third time to Colonel and Mrs. J. H. Alexander and their staff for the excellence of the catering and domestic arrangements. The weather also co‐operated and sunshine displayed all the autumn beauties of the garden and countryside.

Thisissue of Aslib Proceedings is mainly devoted to papers presented at the 24th Annual Conference, held at Ashorne Hill, near Learnington Spa, Warwickshire, from 9 to 11 September, 1949. In addition, we have pleasure in printing the annual report and accounts of the British Union Catalogue of Periodicals.

It is with great regret that we announce the retirement of Miss E. M. R. Ditmas from the Managing Editorship of the Journal of Documentation.

The Newcastle upon Tyne conference on 7th December, 1948, was held under the auspices of the Northern Branch of Aslib, but was organized largely by a local committee under the chairmanship of Mr. E. Austin Hinton, City Librarian, Newcastle upon Tyne, and with the help of Mr. M. G. Cahill‐Byrne, of Messrs. Vickers‐Armstrongs, Ltd., who acted as Hon. Secretary. Chairman of the conference was Mr. R. Trevor Jenkins, Technical Manager of Messrs. Vickers‐Armstrongs, Ltd., and the opening ceremony was performed by the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of Newcastle upon Tyne, Alderman T. McCutcheon, who subsequently entertained many of the delegates to luncheon at the Mansion House. Meetings were held in the lecture hall of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, and the Institute kindly provided tea in their library. Space was also given for a small exhibition of Aslib publications and of other reference literature likely to be of assistance to librarians in industrial concerns. The conference was on the general theme of the value of an organized information service to industry and was designed to interest non‐members of Aslib, the last three forming a Symposium on Information Service. The five papers presented at the conference are printed on pp. 51–80. At the close of the meeting Mr. R. Brightman, Chairman of the Northern Branch, spoke of its work, and Miss E. M. R. Ditmas, Director of Aslib, described the ways in which it could serve the industrial librarian.

The Syllabus of the Examinations of the Library Association is being modified to suit the needs of librarians employed in various kinds of libraries. In the nature of things no syllabus can be regarded as satisfactory for all types of library. We talk easily of libraries under three categories, public, university and special, but within each there is a wide diversity and the business of the syllabus must, therefore, be to provide a working foundation on which these varied interests may rightly develop. There is nothing exceptional in this. All training must begin by having regard to general principles, leaving the application of these principles to the judgment of the individual who applies them. Hence, what follows is based on the assumption that librarians in whatever library they are employed will be people who are capable of making a reasonable judgment on principles to suit their particular cases.

The meeting took the form of an interview in which Professor Hutton answered questions put to him by a panel consisting of Miss M. Gosset, M.B.E., B.Sc., A.R.C.S., formerly Librarian, AERE, Harwell; Mr B.Fullman, M.B.E., B.Sc., F.R.I.C., F.I.M., formerly Information Officer, BNFMRA; and Mr Leslie Wilson, M.A., Director of Aslib.