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Even though many libraries now have sales counters where postcards (usually reproductions of old views) and some local histories (usually published by the library itself — like Northamptonshire Libraries' new, profusely illustrated and documented Waterways of Northamptonshire) are on sale, few if any have proper shops dispensing a full range of printed material on local topics (do send details if they exist).

PLR now has a long history. If our ‘Prologue’ were to recall A P Herbert, John Brophy and the Scandinavian pioneers, then in ‘Act 1’ PLR became a policy with all party support. Through the 1970s PLR was repeatedly on the parliamentary agenda: lobbying was persistent—and the interests of writers, publishers, librarians and literature were frequently in discord. Finally, PLR became a legal right of intellectual property; most inportantly—to the man in the street the idea of PLR came to seem fair and natural.

The frequency‐of‐circulation distributions from each of the sixteen libraries participating in the initial period of operation of the Public Lending Right are discussed. Differences between the libraries are highlighted and for each the adequacy of various refinements of the simplest model are considered.

Says that, in recent years, public libraries have undergone budget cuts which have affected the services they provide. Shows these cuts have caused the public library service to be thrown into a financial crisis. Contributing to this crisis are local government restructuring with no additional money allocated for the transitionary period and also public libraries ineligibility to compete for national lottery funding. Discusses the standards a public library should have as well as government legislation affecting libraries, especially with regard to lack of funding. Includes two case studies of public libraries in different areas to show the differences in how different types of authority are affected.

Does your library suffer from staff burn‐out? If so, there is help at hand in the form of a recent booklet from the National Youth Bureau. It's called Value judgements: evaluating community based agencies by Warren Feek and Douglas I Smith and has been written to help any organisation avoid a variety of illnesses from the aforementioned staff burn‐out to failed funding applications (Chief Librarians please note!). The booklet shows how you can assess whether your agency is achieving its purpose and whether you have used the right resources in the right way. It's aimed particularly at those working with people in voluntary and statutory youth and community work organisations but it may well be useful to librarians wanting to assess their services, as well as to their clients. The booklet is well illustrated with cartoons and sells at £1.20 inc. p & p from Sales Department, National Youth Bureau, 17–23 Albion Street, Leicester LE1 6GD.

Discusses papers presented at the IFLA′s 1994 Conference which dealt with new library technologies and library co‐operation, and the university libraries′ subsection which was found to be relevant to the Caribbean. Internationally, universities face common problems. The most pressing are the direct results of spiralling costs combined with an increasing volume of information and the growing needs and expectations of users. Presents recommendations made at the Conference relating to a review of university policies, the management of intellectual property, electronic access to information, library twinning and personnel exchange programmes, and considers these recommendations in the light of recent developments at The University of the West Indies libraries and the wider Caribbean in general.

Reports on a further study using unobtrusive testing of public library reference services in Scotland by undergraduates at Robert Gordon University. For this survey, a specific item of business information on a well‐known Scottish company was requested at various public libraries. Discusses the results of the survey under the headings of: physical location and setting of the issue desk; staff attitude; response to the enquiry; reference interview; search strategy and execution; advice/ information offered; and assessment of the quality of information provided.