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“It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it – that’s what gets results”: words from a 1980s pop song that also happen to be sound business advice. After all, merely having a good strategy does not guarantee success. It must also be properly implemented. And with one study showing that only 30 percent of strategies are successfully implemented, there is obviously room for much improvement.

The term “medical” will be interpreted broadly to include both basic and clinical sciences, related health fields, and some “medical” elements of biology and chemistry. A reference book is here defined as any book that is likely to be consulted for factual information more frequently than it will be picked up and read through in sequential order. Medical reference books have a place in public, school, college, and other non‐medical libraries as well as in the wide variety of medical libraries. All of these libraries will be considered in this column. A basic starting collection of medical material for a public library is outlined and described in an article by William and Virginia Beatty that appeared in the May, 1974, issue of American Libraries.

Considers the ongoing success of Chicago theatre TimeLine, outlining its two‐pronged business strategy

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments.

There are many people in the arts world who would tell you that the sector currently is having a tough time. Fewer people patronize the arts, they might say. Donations have dropped. People are apathetic. Seats are empty. But then there is Timeline, a Chicago‐based theatre company, with a very different story.

Provides inspiration for anyone in arts management, or in start up businesses more widely.

Outlines a successful start‐up strategy from the theatre world.

WHEN librarians meet and talk “shop,” it isn't usually long before someone is trying to argue about the provision of lighter material— the ephemeral novels, travel, and biography, the stocking of which none of us is prepared to justify on their merits, but for which there is steady, and heavy, public demand. It is, perhaps, a pity that “shop” is much less often concerned with the old than the new. The omission may be due to the fact that many librarians have become unduly obsessed with new books. We are told that a public library is judged by its service of new books. It might be better, I think, to judge it by its service of books.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

An open and democratic society depends on the quality of its newspapers. Whether your local newspaper is a big‐city title like the New York Times or just a little down‐home local like the Anytown Gazette, newspapers function almost as a public service. They report local events, interpret what is happening in the nation or the world and provide a voice for their readers in the “letters” column.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

THE fact that the forthcoming conference of the Library Association is to be held at Eastbourne this year should provide it with an additional official interest, as it is here that the Association Hon. Solicitor and Legal Adviser holds the important office of Town Clerk. Mr. Fovargue is the authority on Library Law in all its aspects, and is the author of several books on this important subject. We are particularly happy in being able to print an article from his pen in our special Conference number. The programme of the proceedings is by now, no doubt, in the hands of our readers, and will be found to be less crowded, but no less useful for that, than in previous years. Apart from the usual business programme, which should prove full of interest, the social side has been fully catered for and delightfully arranged. Several interesting motor trips are to take place, and delegates will be afforded an opportunity of enjoying the charms of the beautiful county of Sussex as well as those of one of our most favoured of seaside resorts.

THOMAS Carlyle's personal crusade for the opening of a lending library in London and his enlisting for the support of that cause influential and wealthy patrons such as Lord Clarendon, Bulwer‐Lytton, Lord Lyttelton, Dean Milman, Lord Houghton, W. E. Gladstone, Sir G. Cornewall Lewis, Henry Hallam—amongst a host of other now forgotten early Victorian luminaries—is well documented. According to Robert Harrison's Preface to the 1888 fifth edition of the Catalogue of the London Library, it opened on 3 May 1841 “with a collection of about 3,000 volumes, which, by the following March, when the first Catalogue was published, had increased to 13,000” (p.viii). The Library was declared formally open on 24 May 1841 using a hired hall in Pall Mall. There were 500 members. In April 1845 the Library moved to its present location in St. James's Square.