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Having a great e‐learning strategy and having great e‐learning programs are just no guarantee of success. Without a clear and well‐thought‐out implementation strategy and plan, one's e‐learning efforts will most likely fall far short of one's goals, learners' needs and management expectations. What often gets in the way of successful implementation are the myths that have seemingly become e‐learning folklore. In this article nine of these myths are explored, along with how they impact one and one's organization. Ensuring the real return on one's e‐learning investment requires not only that one dispels these myths, but also that one clarifies what can and should be expected. Expectations, although less measurable than hard investments, are most often far more important. Expectations drive decisions. Expectations drive behavior. And expectations drive results.

For the Republic of Ireland, as for most European countries, the period since the Second World War has been one of growth and expansion in higher education. This has resulted partly from a growing population of young people and partly from the demand for trained manpower in response to increasing industrialisation and technological change. Total enrolment in all sectors of higher education trebled from 15,000 in 1950 to more than 45,000 in 1983, and during the same period the number of students in the universities rose from 8,000 to 27,000. The rapid increase in enrolments led to the appointment of a Commission on Higher Education which reported in 1967. Many of its recommendations have been overtaken by subsequent developments, but two central themes were that increased state investment in higher education was a precondition of social and economic progress, and that the growing demand for higher education was so large and so diverse that new institutions should be established to cope with it. Accordingly, in addition to expansion in virtually all the existing universities and colleges, two new national institutes of higher education have been established since 1970, together with nine regional technical colleges, in which the emphasis is on courses in the applied sciences and technological and business studies. As far as state investment in higher education is concerned, around 80% of the financial provision for almost all the institutions is derived from state funds. The distribution of these funds to the universities and national institutes of higher education is one of the functions of the Higher Education Authority, a body established in 1968 on the recommendation of the Commission, and whose other functions include the continuous review of the need for and provision of higher education, and the coordination of financial planning and development.

The history of the early years of the library movement in Ireland must be read in conjunction with its political counterpart in order to understand why, although the enabling Acts were almost contemporaneous with those in Britain, little or no growth took place in public sector libraries outside the major cities in the turbulent times before 1928. The academic libraries looked for scholarly excellence and subject specialisation in their staff and were satisfied that, given these qualifications, the collection and organisation of their book resources were adequately catered for. But the pressure of a lending system, with its requirement of an organised and controllable lending stock, ensured that those engaged in it in the major urban centres quickly recognised the need for special qualification, and turned to the Library Association in Britain to follow its courses leading to Fellowship. The need for an Irish library school was perceived, and Adams suggested Dublin as its base, as early as 1919. Little progress was recorded until 1928 when two major developments took place simultaneously — the School of Library Training was established in University College Dublin and the Library Association of Ireland was founded. William Martin in his thesis for the Fellowship of the Library Association of Ireland suggests that the impetus for the establishment of the school came from within University College Dublin where it was perceived as a vehicle for enabling graduates to obtain posts in the emerging County Libraries. Others, with perhaps more authority, have held that there were pressures on the College by the fore‐runner of the Library Association of Ireland (Cumann na Leabharlann) to provide an opportunity for Irish people engaged in library work to obtain a qualification in their own country. Whichever the reason, it is clear that there was conflict between the School, which was conceived by the University as offering a postgraduate qualification, and the public library sector which saw only the danger that such a regulation would close all opportunity for qualification, and by implication promotion to the new county libraries, to all but a very few of their staff. In the circumstances University College agreed to admit non‐graduate public library staff having an approved length of experience and having successfully completed a year's study of the Arts course to the Diploma Course. This practice has continued to the present day.

The Colorado Digitization Program has received several IMLS Leadership Grants. The Heritage Colorado and Western Trails grant projects both involved extensive collaboration between libraries, museums, historical societies and archives. Successful collaborative activities included creating best practices, metadata and scanning standards, training, metadata input tools, technological interoperability, and funding strategies.

TWO Government reports in one week—one at first unobtainable because of a union dispute, the other a vast opus of three volumes, with three separate volumes of maps—this was the fate of librarians in Britain during the second week of June 1969. So long to wait for these reports of Dainton and Maud, then so much to read.

The reading room of the large library was packed to capacity. The Saturday morning rush of harassed students revealed their anxiety to make the most of the short hours of an early closing day. All‐important examinations loomed ahead. It was necessary to be first in the field, to procure the essential books available in the various courses of innumerable subjects. Surging round the entrance desk of the reading room, the work‐weary handed in their quota of white paper slips, then waited with an uneasy patience for the arrival of the books on which their future depended.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between affective commitment to the supervisor and three work outcomes: innovative work behaviour and two types of learning behaviours, namely, feedback seeking for self‐improvement and error reporting. Additionally, it seeks to examine the mediating role of work engagement in these relationships.

In total, 192 research scientists from six science research centres in Ireland completed self‐reported questionnaires. Structural equation modelling was used to test the research hypotheses.

Results indicated that as hypothesised, work engagement fully mediated the link between affective commitment to the supervisor and the three employee outcomes included in this study.

The cross sectional design of this study does not permit causal inferences. Additionally, all data were self‐reported and therefore common method variance may be an issue. Despite these limitations, the results suggest that affective commitment to the supervisor is likely to enhance employees' work engagement, innovativeness and learning. These findings imply that building employees' commitment to their supervisors can be a potent strategy for increasing individual and organizational effectiveness.

This is the first study which has linked supervisory commitment to innovative work behaviour, feedback seeking and error reporting. Furthermore, it highlights one potential mechanism in the form of work engagement through which supervisory commitment relates to these work outcomes.

THE Reference Department of Paisley Central Library today occupies the room which was the original Public Library built in 1870 and opened to the public in April 1871. Since that date two extensions to the building have taken place. The first, in 1882, provided a separate room for both Reference and Lending libraries; the second, opened in 1938, provided a new Children's Department. Together with the original cost of the building, these extensions were entirely financed by Sir Peter Coats, James Coats of Auchendrane and Daniel Coats respectively. The people of Paisley indeed owe much to this one family, whose generosity was great. They not only provided the capital required but continued to donate many useful and often extremely valuable works of reference over the many years that followed. In 1975 Paisley Library was incorporated in the new Renfrew District library service.

To report on the 2004 Jerusalem Conference on the Digitisation of Cultural Heritage, in October 2004.

Provides a brief review of the two day conference, which included participants from the USA, Italy, France and other European Union countries.

The conference addressed the digital concerns of archivists, librarians and museum personnel and provided a forum for the interchange of ideas and problem areas among these three professional groups.

Gives a useful summary of the main sessions of a conference of interest to information management professionals.

WE place this special Conference number in the hands of readers in the hope and belief that it will offer features of distinct interest which will increase the value and enjoyment of Brighton. There can be no doubt that the organizers of Library Association Conferences have endeavoured to surpass one another in recent years; almost always, it may be said, with success. Brighton, like Blackpool if in a rather different way, is a mistress of the art of welcome, and it will be long before another town can surpass her in the art. She is at her best in September when the great, and to some appalling, crowds of her promenades have thinned out a little. This year, then, librarians have an interesting time ahead; although, as we glance over the programme again, we fear that the outdoor and other pleasures we have subtly suggested will occur only fitfully. There will be so much to do in the way of business.