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The computer book ordering system now in operation in Kent County Library is described and its development traced. It is based on the use of Standard Book Numbers accessing a main file of authors, titles, and prices to produce the orders to booksellers. All accounting and checking procedures are fully automated and reminders are sent automatically. Some staff savings have been realised, many routines abolished, and a much greater financial control achieved.

Since January 1971, the British National Bibliography has been producing MARC tapes as a by‐product of the process of computer type‐setting the printed BNB Weekly List. (In this paper, the tapes are referred to as ‘BNB MARC’.) Experimental tapes have been available since 1968. In July and August 1971, Aslib Research and Development Department carried out a survey of BNB MARC users, limited to those libraries in the British Isles using the tapes for a regular service or experimenting with them as a part of the original MARC network (listed in Appendix II). The report is limited to the use in mid‐1971 of MARC tapes provided by BNB, but Appendix III includes brief notes on some work begun after August 1971. No system is described in depth; those interested in greater detail are referred to the selected references at the end. Most of the systems, especially operational ones, are reported there, making description here unnecessary.

The following are the Definitions and Standards for Jams, Jellies, and the like, as laid down by the United States Department of Agriculture, that is to say the Federal Department, and in force at the present time in matters relating to inter‐state commerce. The Definitions and Standards have been closely followed by the various States in Union:—

It is commonly recognized that the setting of health priorities requires value judgements and that these judgements are social. Justifying social value judgements is an important element in any public justification of how priorities are set. The purpose of this paper is to review a number of social values relating both to the process and content of priority‐setting decisions.

A set of key process and content values basic to health priority setting is outlined, and normative analysis applied to those values to identify their key features, possible interpretations in different cultural and institutional contexts, and interactions with other values.

Process values are found to be closely linked, such that success in increasing, for example, transparency may depend on increasing participation or accountability, and “content” values are found often to be hidden in technical criteria. There is a complex interplay between value and technical components of priority setting, and between process and content values. Levels of economic development, culture and need will all play a part in determining how different systems balance the values in their decisions.

Technical analyses of health priority setting are commonplace, but approaching the issues from the perspective of social values is a more recent approach and one which this paper seeks to refine and develop.