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I AM INDEBTED to Verbatim: the language quarterly, February 1977 issue, for the information that the measuring unit of female beauty is something called the milli‐helen, which is defined as the amount of beauty required to launch one ship.

THE EDITORIAL in New society for June 23 last was headed ‘The attack on libraries’—and a robust piece of pleading it was, as well as heartening support for a public library system under pressure.

THE 51ST annual conference of Aslib was held this year from September 20th to 23rd at the University of Lancaster. The modern campus, in its attractive setting some two miles outside Lancaster, made an excellent venue, with its compact facilities and good catering, an important contributory factor to any successful conference. It proved to be easily accessible to a number of interesting places for the visits which were arranged one afternoon as part of the conference: a railway museum, paper mills, bird reserve, Cartmel Priory, UKAEA laboratories, the University itself, and the local brewery, which in the event disappointed its visitors by not providing a drop of liquid,refreshment. For those with independent transport, nearby Morecambe proved a popular destination.

TRY THIS ONE, if you are not susceptible to apoplectic fits!

YOU WILL HAVE seen, no doubt, recent announcements that my wife and I have sold our book‐publishing business of Clive Bingley Ltd to the Munich‐based firm of international reference publishers, Verlag Dokumentation.

AFTER MORE THAN 3 years of deliberations, the Committee to consider the Law on Copyright and Designs has reported to the government, and the report (Cmnd 6732) is published by HMSO at £4.10.

WAS IT ONLY the pure in heart (such as myself) who found the Great Christmas Holiday Shutdown the biggest bore of the year? Four days of actual Christmas lay‐off had me pining to be back at the office on the Wednesday morning, although most of Britain, including a number of academic libraries, reckoned it wasn't worth switching on the heating for only three days before the New Year holiday, and stayed in bed or sprawled in front of the telly for a grand total of 11 days.

DIFFICULT to judge whether obstinacy, optimism or mere force of habit was the prime motivation for the reintroduction in Parliament in late January of another PLR Bill— effected by prominent campaigner Lord (Ted) Willis.

BOOKS and resources are the staple of learning, whether in the general form of an aspect of a subject discipline—the textbook or its non‐book resource equivalent—or in the more specialised form of the learning resource ‘ … designed … with the learning needs of particular students on particular courses’. But the very development of specific learning resources, together with the development of new technologies in the more conventional areas of library work, has brought about the need for a close association between librarians and educational technologists.

WADING THROUGH this month's pile of press‐releases, and finding it, yet again, ‘dry’ as far as Library Association news is concerned—when did I last see one from them?—I reflect moodily on the great PR fiasco of last year. I think I shall deliver a little homily on the subject.