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A YEAR AGO, in his introductory column, Robert Shallow put forward a reasonable and occasionally persuasive defence of anonymity in a professional journal, with the key point that there are from time to time things which need to be said, and the saying of which may benefit the profession, while bouncing back upon the head, if identified, of him who says them.

ENVY, GREED and a desire for possession are not particularly attractive qualities to display in print but if they are recognised and acknowledged in what follows, then at least my argument may not suffer unduly.

WHAT is this thing called… accountability?

HOW WORTHWHILE is research in librarianship in the uk at present? Is it making a contribution to the solution of our current problems? If it is making a contribution, is this contribution sufficiently significant in relation to the amount of effort and money expended?

DURING THE twelve days of Christmas, between the King's speech and Twelfth Night, after the chocolate smoking set had been consumed, though not in flames and smoke, and before the Christmas decorations had sagged to waist level, I used to read my annuals.

CALL IT what you will, serendipity, accident, fortuitous chance, but add it to coincidence and together they will take some beating. This was brought home to me recently when browsing through fifty year old files of The Nation and The Athenaeum. In a vague search for something entirely different my eye was attracted by the heading, ‘The woman librarian’, a somewhat inelegant title to a longish letter to the editor sent by Dr Ernest A Baker on the occasion of a discussion at University College London conducted by Miss Marian Frost. Librarian at Worthing, who was at that time one of the sixteen women chief librarians in the country. And then, the very next day, there appeared in the November issue of NLW a note about the potential qualities of women librarians first published in 1889.

MY RECENT articles on ‘Our professional frustrations’ (NLW, January) and ‘Opportunities for librarians in public relations’ (NLW, March), were intended to show that mid‐senior librarians, and particularly the ‘old ALAS’, do not have to remain in jobs where prospects and satisfaction have declined, due partly to local government reorganisation drastically reducing promotional opportunities. Two reactions immediately following publication of the March article: one from a senior librarian, very comfortably placed financially, who described my views as ‘a policy of despair’; the other from a younger librarian closer to the type for whom the article was written, who was clearly interested in my views. As they say, it all depends …

Having retired from civil service, Dr Line like Sir Robert Armstrong, can look forward to fruitful years as chairman of the board with some newly privatised monopoly utility, an Official Secret watchdog, or perhaps as a trusty in some noble Heritage institution. While tenure prevails he might even be good for another University librarianship.

This column headed ‘off the cuff’ is an occasional feature for the NLW editorial board from time to time to air its own views on matters deserving comment but not warranting a full‐length editorial article. This, therefore, is where you will read our opinions. It is worth adding that we on the editorial board are not responsible for the opinions expressed in the ‘illuminations’ column written by JUPITER. His or her identity and sources of information are unknown to any of us.

The LA Council Meeting of November 17 began with discussion of a paper presented by the Honorary Treasurer, Peter Labdon, on the future financing policy of the association. It was primarily concerned with membership and emphasised that the most important issue facing the association now is how to attract and keep in membership sufficient of the shrinking number of those educated and/or working in the field of information to ensure the future of the Association. It was a frank examination of the subscription profile, methods of collection of subscriptions, the costs of registration, and, above all, the benefits of membership as perceived by the members themselves.