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A few years ago, in an effort to promote co‐operation between the two professional associations of librarians in Ireland, a Liaison Committee, consisting of members nominated by the Council of the Library Association of Ireland and members nominated by the Committee of the Northern Ireland Branch of the Library Association was formed. The first fruit of its endeavours was found in the establishment of an Annual Joint‐Conference of the two bodies, the first one being held at Portrush, in Northern Ireland in 1963.

A FEW years ago, in an effort to promote co‐operation between the two professional associations of librarians in Ireland, a Liaison Committee, consisting of members nominated by the Council of the Library Association of Ireland and members nominated by the Committee of the Northern Ireland Branch of the Library Association was formed. The first fruit of its endeavours was found in the establishment of an Annual Joint‐Conference of the two bodies, the first one being held at Portrush, in Northern Ireland in 1963.

We understand that at the Annual Meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute it was decided to expel all the alien‐enemy members of that body. In commenting upon this action The Engineer observes that it is some time since the name of the German Emperor was removed from the list of honorary members of the Institution of Civil Engineers, but that up to the present time ordinary alien‐enemy members of this Institution have not been expelled. The same observation applies to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the value and learning potential of work‐based projects to both worker‐researchers and their organisations.

Within the School of Health, Community and Education Studies at Northumbria University, work‐based learning (WBL) programmes are becoming increasingly important as a vehicle to enable individuals to gain academic credit and qualifications through developing their personal and professional repertoire of skills and knowledge, and also as a mechanism to improve organisational practice/change. To this end the School has used work‐based projects (WBPs) to work innovatively in partnership with employers. Three short case studies are used to explore how WBPs have been used effectively to meet the particular needs of both the workplace and the learner and to discuss the challenges that these initiatives pose in higher education (HE).

The paper finds that a number of identified issues currently challenging the authors' approaches to WBL have a wider resonance across the WBL community: issues concerning individuals undertaking work‐based‐learning who are unfamiliar with academic learning and how they can be supported to use the skills of enquiry as a tool to implement change in practice; the complexities of using WBL approaches within multi‐ professional groups at differing stages in the continuum from novice to expert and who present individual diverse entry behaviour and learning needs; and the challenges facing the WBL academic working, to recognise and assess the diverse learning acquired throughout the WBL journey so that it can be formally recognised within an HE setting.

The interrelation between action learning, action research and WBPs is introduced and discussed and the impact of the WBL process on the learner, the HE academic and the organisation scrutinised.

Despite the preservation of “One Country, Two Systems” for 50 years under the Sino-British Joint Declaration and Basic Law, changes are palpable due to the emergence of a real contest between liberal and pro-China actors in the legal profession and the legal environment in Hong Kong. After celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Hong Kong’s sovereignty transfer from Britain to China, it is valuable to study how the sovereign power influence the rule of law in its semiautonomous city by non-legal measures. This paper aims to offer a preliminary research on China’s political economic strategy, which is regarded as the “China factor”, in the legal system of Hong Kong, and its political, economic and legal-cultural impacts on the rule of law.

This paper argues that China exerts its influence over the legal system of Hong Kong in four domains, including ideology, political elections, legal organization and cross-border political economy. Based on media research and content analysis over published materials of various legal associations and institutions, it is found that China attempts to consolidate its control in Hong Kong by producing alternative legal ideology and discourse of the rule of law and by co-opting the legal profession under China’s united front strategy.

While there are liberal lawyers and legal scholars vocally engaging in defense of human rights and the rule of law in Hong Kong, a network of legal profession promoting socialist and authoritarian legal values has become prominent. Hong Kong’s legal culture will continue to be shaped in accordance with authoritarian characteristics and will adversely affect developing the rule of law in this international city.

This paper contributes to the study of China’s influence over the legal profession of Hong Kong and in general Hong Kong’s jurisdiction by offering an example to the international community that contributes towards understanding how China adopts different strategies to expand political significance beyond its border.

The annexation of business promotion methods by candidates has revolutionised political advocacy in America, with electronic technology making the traditions of democratic campaigning anachronistic. The consequence of political marketing is a re‐defined democracy in which politicians are more symbolic but less powerful than heretofore, and the principal catalyst of change is television advertising.

Although professionals and the professions are vital players in all economic and business areas, there is a chronic shortage of research on professionals and their organizations in emerging markets. The purpose of this paper is to explain many fascinating and vital opportunities for research in these areas.

As a framework the author uses the five categories of professional organization research developed by Brock et al. (2014); and as such discusses: organizational models and structures, micro-organizational issues, diversity, new professions, and societal issues. For each category the author begins with a recent news item concerning emerging market professionals, outlines underlying scholarly issues, and presents some examples of significant indicative research. Finally, the importance and opportunities for research in emerging economies is presented along with some examples and directions for future work.

This short essay has endeavoured to show the importance of research in professionals and professional organization, to explain its relevance to contemporary society in general, and to present a concomitant research agenda.

First, it is crucial to understand that professional work is vital to the development of all developing markets. Further, research into professional work and organizations in emerging markets is severely lacking. Finally, this essay explains five areas with special research potential, each with examples from the emerging market context, and presents directions for future work.

THE winter months ahead promise to be as active in libraries as those of any recent winter. For students this and next month see the L.A. examinations and, as we write, more schools, whole‐time and part‐time, are engaged as seldom before. There are more meetings, too, and we have been encouraged by the effort in London to provide the fullest possible information of their times and places. Public librarians know that quite noticeable progress is being made with new library buildings, even if, as yet, few on a major scale have been sanctioned ; and there have been signs that non‐public libraries are developing. Those who believe in librarianship will have noticed that a Government Library advertising for a F.L.A. or an A.L.A., includes this, “Candidates must have had considerable experience (preferably technical) of library work.” Some may have glowed to discover that two thousand of us— “professionals and specialists”—have been thought to be worthy of a place in the new Who's who in librarianship. One more point, the new and pleasant library at Chaucer House will be open to us. There can be few more pleasant plans for a Studious off‐day than to spend it in this, with an interval lunch in the Members' Room where we are bound to meet other librarians. Why not try it?

THE topics of the Library Association Conference and the election of the Council of the Association naturally absorb a great deal of attention this month. To deal with the second first: there were few novelties in the nominations, and most of the suggested new Councillors are good people; so that a fairly good Council should result. The unique thing, as we imagine, about the Library Association is the number of vice‐presidents, all of whom have Council privileges. These are not elected by the members but by the Council, and by the retiring Council; they occupy a position analagous to aldermen in town councils, and are not amenable to the choice or desires of the members at large. There are enough of them, too, if they care to be active, to dominate the Council. Fortunately, good men are usually elected, but recently there has been a tendency to elect comparatively young men to what are virtually perpetual seats on the Council, simply, if one may judge from the names, because these men occupy certain library positions. It, therefore; is all the more necessary that the electors see that men who really represent the profession get the seats that remain.

THE Conference has come and gone, leaving pleasant memories behind it of what we believe has been a useful meeting. On other pages our contributors have expressed various views, and with these, in the main, we are in agreement. The Conference was too full, but that was anticipated by all who had glanced at the programme when it was issued. Perhaps, now that criticism has become very articulate on this subject, the future organizers of annual meetings will endeavour to limit the subjects for discussion to a number that can be digested conveniently.