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The changing objectives and priorities of the University of Derby Electronic Library (UDEL) are briefly described, from its origins as an electronic reserve project, through its role in delivering online support for distributed learning, to its potential as a core component of a more broadly based electronic library service. Although current costs suggest that it is not scalable into a comprehensive University‐wide service, it is a successful and popular format with a reading list‐based front end. Closer integration with other online resources is important to encourage students to expand their horizons beyond prescribed sources, and offers a possible development route encompassing all of the above functions. This is discussed in terms of both financial and academic implications, and in the context of the increasing availability and importance of access to online resources for both campus‐based and distance learning students. A particular emphasis in future strategy is the need to ensure an appropriate interface between electronic library services and the virtual learning environment being developed within the University.

Provides a brief review of the organisational change process literature and its applicability to the hotel industry. It also uses an international hotel as a case study to introduce the organisational change process. The method of change is significant because it builds on an in‐house educational programme that was first piloted in the company’s Australian property. This in‐house programme has now been taken as a model to be utilised in other company properties.

The colleges and institutes of higher education (CIHE) constitute the least well‐known, the least well‐resourced, and the most varied and complex sector of higher education provision in the United Kingdom. Indeed, the variety and complexity of the institutions involved, both in their present character and in their origins and traditions, are such that it is tempting to view their existence as a “sector” as nothing more than an historical accident. Certainly the manner of the emergence of the colleges from the reorganisation of higher education (and teacher training in particular) during the 1970s contrasts strongly with the purposeful creation of the polytechnics in the years following the publication of A plan for polytechnics and other colleges in 1966. Although the creation of what has become in effect a third higher education sector was in one sense a consequence of the James Report, which proposed diversification in the colleges of education into non teacher training courses, James did not foresee the widespread closures and mergers which were to come. Coming in 1972 after a period of very rapid growth in teacher training, James envisaged the colleges continuing to develop as a separate group, and largely ignored the consequences of demographic change. The birthrate, however, was falling from 1964 onwards, and the implications for the colleges whose main commitment was to the training of teachers were enormous. In the end, it was this decline in the demand for teachers as much as the policy recommendations of the James Report which led to the establishment of the CIHE.

LAST WEEK I gave myself a nasty shock. I had been spending an afternoon in another town doing some research in the central reference library there. I went on till past seven in the evening, rushing at the end to get through all I wanted, then dashing to catch my train home. On the train I opened my briefcase; to discover that I'd come away with an envelope of unissued and strictly ‘confined’ material from the library's local collection.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

In July, 1989, permission was given by the Department of Education and Science (DES) for the merger on 1 April, 1990, of Harrow College of Higher Education (HCHE) with the Polytechnic of Central London (PCL).

To some who cast their bread upon the waters, it comes back as buttered toast! Thus might be described an enjoyable day for my wife and myself in March as guests in Wiltshire of Director of Library & Museum Services, Frederick Hallworth.

MALTBY, ARTHUR. U.K. catalogue use survey. London: Library Association, 1973. 35 p. Library Association research publication, no. 12. £1.25 (£1 to members). This report on the use and non‐use of the catalogue by readers describes the findings of a project carried out largely by the various schools of librarianship in April/May 1971. Two previous pilot studies had been carried out to refine the questionnaire to make it applicable throughout the United Kingdom. Special libraries were reluctantly excluded, but all other types of library were included. The method chosen was that of briefed interviewers and a structured interview, largely because it seemed desirable to catch not only those who use the catalogue, but also those who do not. Of the total of 3,252 interviewed, 1914 (59 per cent) actually used the catalogue; of the 41 per cent who never used the catalogue, the vast majority stated that they could manage without it, while 281 preferred to ask the staff. Probably most of this group went straight to the shelves. From the break‐down by type of library, it would seem that municipal and county libraries hardly need a catalogue at all. There is also the point that if more people had been shown how to use the catalogue, more would use it.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.