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MUCH has already been said and written upon the subject of the indicator: but in view of the general trend of advanced Public Library administration a little space may with advantage be devoted again to the consideration of its value as a modern library appliance. Passing over (a) the decision of that curiously constituted committee formed in 1879 to consider and report on indicators, and (b) the support which it received in 1880 from the Library Association, it may be said that for the next fourteen or fifteen years the indicator system was the popular, almost the universal, system in vogue throughout the country. Of late years professional opinion as to its value has undergone a remarkable change. The reaction which has set in was brought about chiefly by the introduction of Open Access in 1894, with the many reforms that accompanied it, though much, doubtless, was due to the prevalence of a more exact and systematic knowledge of librarianship, and to the natural evolution of ideas. It is not, however, intended in this paper to compare the indicator with the open access system, but with others suitable to the requirements of a closed library.

The aim of the Game On project is to adapt and create highly engaging and motivating serious games to teach employment skills to prisoners, ex‐offenders and those at risk of offending (termed offenders). The target audience first trialled existing serious games with work‐based educational content to identify their limitations and to highlight gaps in provision. From this, a development plan evolved for the adaptation of these materials and the creation of new materials using 3D games mods' to teach induction information to prisoners in an accessible format. Games features include an ability to personalise educational content, locale detection for use in a variety of countries, accessibility features including signing tracks and closed captions and accompanying activities for a blended learning approach. Retrial of these serious games and games mods' with trainers and offenders found that they provided positive measures of engagement and effectiveness.

The U.S. Congress has been struggling to create a comprehensive energy program. A key component of the present attempt, recommended by President Carter, is a synthetic fuel program. In July of 1979, the President asked for an $88 billion “crash program” to encourage development of synthetic fuels. To date, a three month struggle to reach a consensus between House and Senate conferees has brought only limited results. Compromise is emerging in the form of a proposal for a “synthetic fuels corporation.” The body would have the authority to disperse $20 billion in the form of federal loan guarantees and purchase agreements with more money to become available later.

Insomnia is highly prevalent and has severe negative consequences, yet help‐seeking remains low. Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT‐I) is an evidence‐based treatment, which targets factors that perpetuate insomnia over time. Using a format developed by Brown and colleagues (1999) of offering self‐referral psycho‐educational workshops for the community, one‐day CBT‐I workshops were run on a routine basis, throughout 2007, for the general public. These intensive workshop days were led by two clinical/counselling psychologists, and attracted a large number of self‐referrals. Participants completed a battery of measures at the introductory and follow up phases of the workshop programme including measures of insomnia, anxiety and depression. Of the 60 people who self‐referred, the large majority were women, 58% had clinical insomnia as indicated by the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and 75% had clinical levels of depression as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; scores over 10). At the follow‐up stage, there were significant improvements on all measures, and there was a high degree of participant satisfaction with the workshops. Such large‐scale interventions offer an important, potentially cost‐effective means of disseminating evidence‐based psychological interventions to large numbers of people.

Promoting mental health and meeting the needs of the large numbers of the general public with problems of anxiety and depression is a big challenge. Particular difficulties are the low capacity of the therapy services and the reluctance of the general public to seek help. The aim of this study was to compare the attendance, effectiveness and characteristics of participants self‐referring to six different psycho‐educational workshops, each using non‐diagnostic titles: self‐confidence; stress; sleep; relationships; happiness; and anger. The series of day‐long workshops ran for one year and were offered to members of the general public in south east London. Over a quarter had not previously sought help from their GP. The take‐up rates for the self‐confidence, sleep and anger workshops were highest and one month after attending these workshops, participants reported significantly lower depression and distress. It was concluded that a self‐referral route to some day‐long workshops can attract quite large numbers of the general public and provide access to effective psychological treatment. These workshops can be used as an effective way of promoting mental health and improving the provision of evidence‐based mental health treatment in the community, possibly within the Improving Access to Psychological Treatments (IAPT) programme in the UK.

The Daily Telegraph has recently published several articles and a considerable amount of correspondence relating to malt whisky and the tricks of the whisky trade. As is usually the case when a daily newspaper takes up a subject of this kind, a number of well ‐ meaning people make a variety of suggestions as to what ought to be done to secure the purification of the particular Augean stable under discussion and to ensure the reception by the purchaser of the article which he really desires to have. But what ought to be done and what can be done are two very different things, and the question of what it is possible to do in the present state of scientific knowledge—and under the existing law as it is at present administered— is, as a rule, avoided by the writers referred to. It has been suggested, for instance, that it should be made compulsory that all vessels in which spirits are sold should bear a label distinctly stating the exact nature of the contents of such vessels. This would be an excellent suggestion if it could be effectively carried out, but, before this can be done, it is necessary to devise a method of compulsion. A man who sells as malt whisky an article mainly or entirely composed of spirit to which that title should not be applied would not have any very serious scruples as to the truth of the statements which appear on his labels. He must be compelled to act honestly by some sufficient force, and, short of a law which would permit the manufacture and “blending” of whisky to be carried out by certain persons only, according to specified rules, and under strict Government supervision in every case, no legislative enactments whatever would have the effect of preventing the various forms of this particular fraud. At present there are no legal definitions whereby the composition and characters of the articles described as “malt whisky” and “whisky” are laid down, excepting the definitions which may be held to be implied in the application of the 6th section of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act of 1875 to the case. This section requires that an article shall be of the “nature, substance, and quality demanded by the purchaser.” On the strength of this section it is quite unjustifiably assumed that the compulsion referred to can be effectively secured by the operation of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts. According to our legal system it is essential under the criminal Acts— and the Food Adulteration Acts are criminal Acts—for the prosecuting authority to prove beyond all possibility of question that a person charged with an offence is guilty of that offence, and, in regard to the matter under consideration, it would therefore be necessary to absolutely prove by scientific evidence that any given mixed spirit, for the sale of which as malt whisky a prosecution had been instituted, was not of the nature, substance, and quality of the article demanded. Under the present conditions relating to sampling under the Acts this would be impracticable, except, possibly, on very broad lines; and, assuming that scientific investigation resulted in the possibility of fixing clear and definite points of distinction between the true and the false, there would still be the enormous difficulties and the heavy expenses attending the proving of offences of this character to the satisfaction of the Courts—difficulties and expenses which local authorities cannot fairly be expected to face. If, after the lengthy and expensive investigations that would be necessary, and which could only be properly carried out with Government aid, by a scientific Commission appointed by the Government, it were found possible to establish working definitions and standards, these would necessarily be only applicable to a limited extent, just as is at present the case in regard to milk and butter; while the question of quality can never be dealt with under repressive Acts of, Parliament of any kind. Assuming the establishment of standards of some kind we fully admit the possibility, under altered legal conditions, of checking the grosser forms of whisky sophistication by the employment of legal machinery, as is done with various other products; but vast amounts of various spirit mixtures could still be sold under false names with impunity. We should still have with us the legalised inferiority and the legalised adulteration of comparatively minor type which we have in the case of milk and butter. What is required and what alone can be effective, in dealing with sophistications which the law can never reach, is the provision of adequate and entirely independent guarantees which are based both on permanently‐applied analytical investigations carried out upon quantities of material which are not absurdly limited, and on a system of permanent and independent inspection,—both being supplied by some authority or authorities of sufficient standing. While the statements made by a reputable firm ought to carry weight, and ought, no doubt, to be accepted as valuable so far as they go, there is always necessarily and obviously a great element of weakness in the declarations put forward by a firm with respect to its own products. Particularly in view of modern commercial conditions something very much stronger than a personal asseveration as to the purity and excellence of one's own goods is now in reality required. That this is the case is shown by the fact that the demand for independent guarantees has recently been repeatedly voiced in the general press. The public are badly in want of education on all such questions and the Daily Telegraph is entitled to the thanks of the community for having initiated a discussion which can only be productive of good results in this direction.

The research reported here examines the experiences of women with learning disabilities who have lived at the only specialist refuge available in this country. A full description of the specialist refuge is given and lessons drawn for other learning disability service providers. The importance of safe, women‐only space is emphasised.

The purpose of this study is to describe the causes, nature, extent and effect of the influence of the American Library Association (ALA) on the development of modern Chinese librarianship from 1924 to 1949. This study was based primarily on documents located in the ALA archives, which houses the documents of the International Relations Committee of ALA. It was found that library development changed in China during the period by borrowing from American librarianship as conveyed by the ALA, largely as a consequence of the following: American library advisors or educators, such as Arthur E. Bostwick, Charles H. Brown and Charles B. Shaw, conducting surveys of libraries in China; an American library and/or a library school in China; projects for the encouragement of public libraries; fellowships granted to Chinese librarians for study in the USA; the establishment and operation of the CLA; and the Book Program to strengthen library collections during the time of the China‐Japan War.