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Case (A) describes the situation at the Northlands Ledger, a newspaper on its way out of business due in large part to its publisher and editor's focus on what they do and want to keep doing rather than on what their customers (readers and advertisers) want. The value proposition to the reader is that “we deliver the paper reliably and give you the latest national and international news.” The value proposition to the advertisers is that “we print your ads accurately and runs them on time.” Both value propositions are outdated, and, even if they were what the customers wanted—which they are not—neither is executed well. The paper's key performance indicators—circulation, classified ads, and commercial advertising—are all in decline, despite the fact that the community it serves is growing. The senior management of the Paulus chain that owns this paper has forced the publisher, Allison, to retire and brought another publisher, Potter, in from one of its other papers, The Sun Belt City Star, where Potter was highly successful. However, he cannot simply transfer his success formula from the Star to the Ledger. Case (B) details his efforts and may be used as a classic example of good change management and leadership practices. Potter established a clear cut set of objectives, formulated a new strategy of responsiveness to readers and advertisers more in line with finding out why they hired the paper in the first place. To implement his new strategy he terminated senior managers and others who he did not feel could contribute to the new paper, and made significant changes in key dimensions of implementation: culture, structure, information and decision support systems, incentives and human resources. Throughout he used a mix of both authoritative and participative change management—a mix that may provoke an interesting class discussion.

Provide a realistic example of leading and managing change with successful transformation of a previously failing company while simultaneously illustrating key dimensions of implementation of strategy.

Aims to explains the mismatches between political discourse and military momentum in the US handling of the Cuban missile crisis by using the model of the potential autopoiesis of subsystems. Under wartime conditions, the codes of political and military communications can increasingly be differentiated.

The model of a further differentiation between political and military power is developed on the basis of a detailed description of the Cuban missile crisis. The concept of a “semi‐dormant autopoiesis” is introduced for the difference in the dynamics between peacetime and wartime conditions.

Several dangerous incidents during the crisis can be explained by a sociocybernetic model focusing on communication and control, but not by using an organization‐theoretical approach. The further differentiation of the military as a subsystem became possible in the course of the twentieth century because of ongoing learning processes about previous wars.

Politicians should not underestimate autonomous military processes or the significance of standing orders. In order to continually produce communications within the military, communication partners are needed that stand outside the hierarchy, and this role can be fulfilled by an enemy. A reflexively imagined enemy can reinforce the autopoiesis of the military subsystem.

The paper shows that civilian control over military affairs has become structurally problematic and offers a sociocybernetic explanation of the missile crisis. The potential alternation in the dynamics under peacetime and wartime conditions brings historical specificity back on the agenda of social systems theory.

A brief examination of the internal reasons for setting up publishers' bibliographic databases, followed by a fuller examination of the external reasons including: —Making information available to the trade generally. —Whitaker, Bowker & Book Data. —Electronic data exchange. —Towards the next generation of systems. —The importance of the publisher in record supply. The paper then describes several systems including MDMS (Pergamon), VISTA (Macmillan) and Star (OUP); their relationship to other systems in house; some of the problems encountered; and some notable achievements.’ Finally, the speaker discusses the next generation system; The effect on record supply; The customer's needs; The composite catalogue online; A model for information supply; Initiatives for progress; Concerned bodies; and asks is another industry umbrella/organisation required?

Case (A) describes the situation at the Northlands Ledger, a newspaper on its way out of business due in large part to its publisher and editor's focus on what they do and want to keep doing rather than on what their customers (readers and advertisers) want. The value proposition to the reader is that “we deliver the paper reliably and give you the latest national and international news.” The value proposition to the advertisers is that “we print your ads accurately and runs them on time.” Both value propositions are outdated, and, even if they were what the customers wanted—which they are not—neither is executed well. The paper's key performance indicators—circulation, classified ads, and commercial advertising—are all in decline, despite the fact that the community it serves is growing. The senior management of the Paulus chain that owns this paper has forced the publisher, Allison, to retire and brought another publisher, Potter, in from one of its other papers, The Sun Belt City Star, where Potter was highly successful. However, he cannot simply transfer his success formula from the Star to the Ledger. Case (B) details his efforts and may be used as a classic example of good change management and leadership practices. Potter established a clear cut set of objectives, formulated a new strategy of responsiveness to readers and advertisers more in line with finding out why they hired the paper in the first place. To implement his new strategy he terminated senior managers and others who he did not feel could contribute to the new paper, and made significant changes in key dimensions of implementation: culture, structure, information and decision support systems, incentives and human resources. Throughout he used a mix of both authoritative and participative change management—a mix that may provoke an interesting class discussion.

Provide a realistic example of leading and managing change with successful transformation of a previously failing company while simultaneously illustrating key dimensions of implementation of strategy.

On its stated terms as “a descriptive conspectus” of the 550 titles registered in British Library publications 1988, together with the many newsletters and priced and unpriced ephemeral literature emanating from its multifarious services and agencies, this careful compilation will no doubt fulfil a need for students and teachers of librarianship and information science here and abroad. There is a select bibliography of two pages and a 28‐page index. Proof reading is excellent, just a few slips, e.g. the Dainton Committee was set up in 1967 not 1957, IOLR had c.400,00 books ands serials, not 4 million.

Under this heading are published regularly abstracts of all Reports and Memoranda of the Aeronautical Research Committee, Reports and Technical Notes of the U.S. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and publications of other similar research bodies as issued

From time to time the BNB Research Fund arranges seminars to consider topics of significance to all sides of the book world. Attendance is carefully orchestrated to ensure that a wide range of opinion is represented and ample opportunity is provided for discussion. The topic of this seminar — the bibliographic record — is clearly important to everyone in the book world and with the increasing use and public availability of machine‐readable records was a most timely chance to review problems and practices.

Diploma Mills are not new. Certainly they have been around for 150 years. The earliest recorded operation known to the writer was Richmond College, a US‐based outfit established in 1835.

The exchange of bibliographic records throughout the whole of the book world has raised new questions for the booktrade and librarians alike. This brief paper examines some of the features of concern to the three sectors, and the interaction between them. It falls into three parts: • Some aspects of the current situation as regards automation and the generation of bibliographic data are examined. • The uses of bibliographic data across the book world, and the different emphasis in the commercial and library communities are sketched. • The content of records is looked at. A trend is noted towards the provision of records which include more content and subject‐descriptive data elements.

Under this heading are published regularly abstracts of all Reports and Memoranda of the Aeronautical Research Committee, Reports and Technical Notes of the U.S. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and publications of other similar research bodies as issued