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In a small business individual development of its leading entrepreneur is closely tied to the development of the organisation. Key features in management development of entrepreneurs and staff include recognising gaps in managerial skills and consciously doing something about these; the need to look for complementary skills to form a team; the virtue of positive assessment, carried out continuously and openly; and the recognition that small business is built through building the people within it.

Many small companies fail because the entrepreneur does not recognise his own strengths and weaknesses, and the need to build a complementary team.

There is mounting evidence that the age at which children are using and becoming exposed to illegal drugs is declining and that such use and exposure is becoming an increasing problem within pre‐teenage populations. This suggests that there is an important role for drug education in primary schools in encouraging and helping young children to avoid the use of these substances. However, very little is known about what pre‐teenage children think about the education they receive on the subject of illegal drugs and how well they think it addresses their needs. This paper reports on what a sample of 216, 10‐12‐year‐old schoolchildren had to say about the education they had received on illegal drugs. While their views were broadly positive, they expressed a desire for additional information in relation to the nature of these drugs and how to avoid them. They also had clear preferences as far as the delivery of this education was concerned. The paper concludes by suggesting that pre‐teenage children may require more education on the nature of illegal drugs and how to avoid them than they currently receive. Approaches to drug education which involve interactive methods, visual resources and the use of outside contributors with specialist or personal knowledge of drugs are recommended.

VINE is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up‐to‐date news of work being done in the automation of library housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. It is edited and substantially written by Tony McSean, Information Officer for Library Automation based in Southampton University Library and supported by a grant from the British Library Research and Development Department. Copyright for VINE articles rests with the British Library Board, but opinions expressed in VINE do not necessarily relect the views and policies of the British Library. The subscription to VINE is £10 per year and the subscription period runs from January to December.

A pæan of joy and triumph which speaks for itself, and which is a very true indication of how the question of poisonous adulteration is viewed by certain sections of “the trade,” and by certain of the smaller and irresponsible trade organs, has appeared in print. It would seem that the thanks of “the trade” are due to the defendants in the case heard at the Liverpool Police Court for having obtained an official acknowledgment that the use of salicylic acid and of other preservatives, even in large amounts, in wines and suchlike articles, is not only allowable, but is really necessary for the proper keeping of the product. It must have been a charming change in the general proceedings at the Liverpool Court to listen to a “preservatives” case conducted before a magistrate who evidently realises that manufacturers, in these days, in order to make a “decent” profit, have to use the cheapest materials they can buy, and cannot afford to pick and choose; and that they have therefore “been compelled” to put preservatives into their articles so as to prevent their going bad. He was evidently not to be misled by the usual statement that such substances should not be used because they are injurious to health— as though that could be thought to have anything to do with the much more important fact that the public “really want” to have an article supplied to them which is cheap, and yet keeps well. Besides, many doctors and professors were brought forward to prove that they had never known a case of fatal poisoning due to the use of salicylic acid as a preservative. Unfortunately, it is only the big firms that can manage to bring forward such admirable and learned witnesses, and the smaller firms have to suffer persecution by faddists and others who attempt to obtain the public notice by pretending to be solicitous about the public health. Altogether the prosecution did not have a pleasant time, for the magistrate showed his appreciation of the evidence of one of the witnesses by humorously rallying him about his experiments with kittens, as though any‐one could presume to judge from experiments on brute beasts what would be the effect on human beings—the “lords of creation.” Everyone reading the evidence will be struck by the fact that the defendant stated that he had once tried to brew without preservatives, but with the only result that the entire lot “went bad.” All manufacturers of his own type will sympathise with him, since, of course, there is no practicable way of getting over this trouble except by the use of preservatives; although the above‐mentioned faddists are so unkind as to state that if everything is clean the article will keep. But this must surely be sheer theory, for it cannot be supposed that there can be any manufacturer of this class of article who would be foolish enough to think he could run his business at a profit, and yet go to all the expense of having the returned empties washed out before refilling, and of paying the heavy price asked for the best crude materials, when he has to compete with rival firms, who can use practically anything, and yet turn out an article equal in every way from a selling point of view, and one that will keep sufficiently, by the simple (and cheap) expedient of throwing theory on one side, and by pinning their faith to a preservative which has now received the approval of a magistrate. Manufacturers who use preservatives, whether they are makers of wines or are dairymen, and all similar tradesmen, should join together to protect their interests, for, as they must all admit, “the welfare of the trade” is the chief thing they have to consider, and any other interest must come second, if it is to come in at all. Now is the time for action, for the Commission appointed to inquire into the use of preservatives in foods has not yet given its decision, and there is still time for a properly‐conducted campaign, backed up by those “influential members of the trade” of whom we hear so much, and aided by such far‐reaching and brilliant magisterial decisions, to force these opinions prominently forward, in spite of the prejudice of the public; and to insure to the trades interested the unfettered use of preservatives,—which save “the trade” hundreds of thousands of pounds every year, by enabling the manufacturers to dispense with heavily‐priced apparatus, with extra workmen and with the use of expensive materials,—and which are urgently asked for by the public,—since we all prefer to have our foods drugged than to have them pure.

Life‐cycle analysis (LCA) provides a general framework for assessing and summarizing all of the information important to a decision. LCA has been used to analyze the desirability of replacing lead (Pb) with a composite of tungsten (W) and tin (Sn) in projectile slugs used in small arms ammunition at US Department of Energy (DOE) training facilities for security personnel. The analysis includes consideration of costs, performance, environmental and human health impacts, availability of raw materials, and stakeholder acceptance. Projectiles developed by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) using a composite of tungsten and tin are shown to perform as well as, or better than, those fabricated using lead. A cost analysis shows that tungsten‐tin is less costly to use than lead, since, for the current number of rounds used annually, the higher tungsten‐tin purchase price is small compared with higher maintenance costs associated with lead. The tungsten‐tin composite presents a much smaller potential for adverse human health and environmental impacts than lead. Only a small fraction of the world’s tungsten production occurs in the USA, however, and market‐economy countries account for only around 15 per cent of world tungsten production. Concludes that stakeholders would prefer tungsten‐tin on the basis of total cost, performance, reduced environmental impact and lower human toxicity. However, lead is preferable on the basis of material availability. Life cycle analysis clearly shows that advantages outweigh disadvantages in replacing lead with tungsten‐tin in small‐caliber projectiles at DOE training facilities. Concerns about the availability of raw tungsten are mitigated by the ease of converting back to lead (if necessary) and the recyclability of tungsten‐tin rounds.

In the continuation of the work previously described, experiments were conducted, according to the general plan already described, to determine the effects of benzoic acid and benzoates upon health and digestion. This investigation is of special importance because of the opinion held by many manufacturers, food officials, and consumers that benzoic acid and benzoates are probably the least harmful of the preservative substances employed. It is believed that for this reason there has been a very large increase in the use of these preservatives in the United States in the last few years, with a corresponding decrease in the amount of other preservative substances employed. It has also been claimed that there can be no reasonable objection to the use of benzoic acid by reason of its natural occurrence in many food products, either in traces or in considerable quantities. Among the products cited the cranberry occupies the most prominent position because of the notable amount of benzoic acid it contains. These considerations, however, had no determining influence on the choice of this substance for the experimental work, inasmuch as it was included in the original scheme which was prepared before the experimental work on preservatives previously reported was begun.

A point repeatedly brought forward for the defence, or at all events for the purpose of mitigating the fine, in adulteration cases, is the statement that defendant's goods have been analysed on former occasions and have been found genuine. As illustrating the slight value of analyses of previous samples may be taken the average laudatory analyses on patent or proprietary foods, drinks, or medicine. The manufacturer calculates—and calculates rightly—that the general public will believe that the published analysis of a particular specimen which had been submitted to the analytical expert by the manufacturer himself, guarantees all the samples on the market to be equally pure. History has repeatedly proved that in 99 cases out of 100 the goods found on the market fall below the quality indicated by the published analyses. Not long ago a case bearing on this matter was tried in court, where samples of cocoa supplied by the wholesale firm were distributed; but, when the retailer tried to sell the bulk of the consignment, he had repeated complaints from his customers that the samples were a very much better article than what he was then supplying. He summoned the wholesale dealer and won his case. But what guarantee have the general public of the quality of any manufacturer's goods—unless the Control System as instituted in Great Britain is accepted and applied ? Inasmuch as any manufacturer who joins the firms under the British Analytical Control thereby undertakes to keep all his samples up to the requisite standard; as his goods thenceforth bear the Control stamp; and as any purchaser can at any time submit a sample bought on the open market to the analytical experts of the British Analytical Control, free of any charge, to ascertain if the sample is up to the published and requisite standard, it is plain that a condition of things is created which not only protects the public from being cheated, but also acts most beneficially for these firms which are not afraid to supply a genuine article. The public are much more willing to buy an absolutely guaranteed article, of which each sample must be kept up to the previous high quality, rather than one which was good while it was being introduced, but as soon as it became well known fell off in quality and continued to live on its reputation alone.

To question the models of childhood implied within contemporary UK debate about advertising to children. The paper identifies a role for qualitative market research in establishing a more fully‐articulated account of childhood, with implications for both policy makers and marketers.

A brief literature review of contemporary sociological perspectives on childhood informs an account of controversy in the UK about the legitimacy of advertising to children. Adult versions of childhood from this debate are contrasted with children's own accounts of their experience of advertising, drawing on a pilot study using informal qualitative methods.

Illuminates the assumptions about childhood which divide industry advocates from their critics, and suggests that qualitative understanding of children's experience of advertising should have a greater role in complementing the predominantly positivist research on which the debate draws.

Limited to recent UK discourse on children and advertising (which may restrict its extendability to non‐European cultures), and draws on a very small pilot study. This does, however, point the way to future research using informal methods.

Intended to enrich understanding of debate and policy on advertising and children, and to encourage the informed use of qualitative research in this area.

This paper fills a gap in the predominantly empirical or polemical literature in this area by setting competing arguments in an ontological framework.