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The frustrations of attempting to deliver as wide access as possible to CD‐ROMs, for users of different platforms, led David Price to consider SilverPlatter's Electronic Reference Library. In this article he outlines some of the important features, describes its implementation at Oxford, including testing of a Web gateway, and looks forward to future developments.

The packet switched network JANET (Joint Academic Network) which links the academic community of universities, polytechnics, government funded research establishments and the British Library has great potential for library use. JUGL (JANET User Group for Libraries) has been established as a special interest user group to encourage libraries to make the most of these opportunities. Its terms of reference include the provision of teaching and training, and to this end the JUGL Committee decided to organise a training workshop in September 1987.

We have found that it is relatively unusual to use a Decmate II in the library and so the following notes may be of interest to those considering word processing/communications equipment.

Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine is a major science and engineering college with approximately 7,320 students and 1,915 academic and research staff which is part of the University of London. It has a very dispersed computing environment which parallels its general organisation in which departments enjoy a great deal of independence and autonomy, both financial and otherwise.

The aftermath of the electronics revolution and the probable continuation of a ‘tight’ financial climate; in particular the effects on libraries dealing with biological information and material. Important trends in biological research and their repercussions on library/information services are discussed. The increasingly interdisciplinary nature of many biological topics, e.g. language, the brain, acid rain, and the different clientele this brings to the biology library staff.

JANET links its users to the facilities of over 250 institutions in the UK, and far more worldwide. All universities and many other higher education establishments are connected, as are many organisations associated with academic work and research.

As CD‐ROM becomes more and more a standard reference and technical support tool in all types of libraries, the annual review of this technology published in Computers in Libraries magazine increases in size and scope. This year, author Susan L. Adkins has prepared this exceptionally useful bibliography which she has cross‐referenced with a subject index.

This exhibition was held at Novotel, London from 22–24 May 1990 and presented a good cross‐section of recent developments as well as now‐standard products. The newer developments were in those systems which use the digital content of a CD‐ROM disk to combine text with audio and visual presentations. The backbone of the show, however, demonstrated the greatly increased and increasing range of databanks and reference material being published in this format. The expansion of the range is reflected in a decision by Microinfo to produce its CD‐ROM catalogue in glossy form and to issue it free on a two‐month schedule. Currently it lists 150 titles from 40 CD‐ROM publishers. Contact Roy Selwyn at Microinfo Ltd, PO Box 3, Omega Park, Alton, Hampshire, GU34 2PG (0420 86848). The same supplier gave advance information about a World Research Database disk, due late 1990, which will contain fully‐searchable versions of Longman's database of world class Research Centres combined with their International Who's Who of leading scientists and technologists.