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Discusses the second implementation phase of a quality costing system in a large engineering company providing capital plant for the nuclear and defence industries. Explains that the system is based on an adapted version of the process model outlined in BS 6143: Part 1: 1992, and was adapted to enable better understanding of business processes and the information provided by the system. Compares the implementation process and the results obtained from the first and second phases of system implementation. Shows that a comparison of process model results between different processes is not straightforward, and comes to a similar conclusion to the literature; that quality costing does not provide for improvement per se. Indicates, however, that the adapted version of the process model can be implemented in different types of company, but suggests that, to make comparisons between different areas, generic processes or quality cost measures must be identified.

Describes the introduction of a quality costing system, using the process model, within a division of GEC Alsthom Engineering Systems Ltd. The system was introduced to identify and prioritize improvement areas within the context of a continuous improvement programme. Includes a critical review of a former quality costing system within the division based on the prevention, appraisal and failure model. Initial work focused on the use of the IDEF methodology, recommended in BS 6143: Part 1: 1992, to model major business processes. However, this approach was found to be inappropriate as the models created were complex and failed to gain widespread acceptance within the division. A hybrid model, using integrated flowcharts, was developed; this proved successful in securing understanding and ownership of major processes. Indicates a cost of non‐conformance of approximately 10 per cent and identifies four main areas for improvement activities.

Quality costs have been discussed widely in the literature. This discussion has not always agreed and it is possible to identify two basic schools of thought; one asserts the existence of a minimal level of quality cost for a given level of prevention and appraisal activities, and the other asserts that through prevention quality improvement is constant. This paper summarises these positions and outlines a behaviour model of quality costs that unifies and clarifies them. The behaviour model is based on the consideration of the cumulative effects of prevention. Ceteris paribus, continuous prevention activities should permit quality improvements whilst at the same time reducing the costs necessary to obtain them. The behaviour model introduces the effect of external quality requirements in an attempt to explain how, over time, quality improvement efforts do not necessarily result in decreased quality costs as customers’ quality requirements rise over the same period.

The purpose is to bring together all bibliographic references of the published literature on electronic books (e‐books) and related technologies in one source so that it will save time for others in conducting literature searches and reviewing the developments.

The information included in this bibliography is collected systematically from all the published sources in the world such as journal articles, conference papers, conference proceedings, books, reports and PhD theses on e‐books until the last quarter of 2004. Mainly it covers e‐books, e‐books publishing, the impact of e‐books on different types of users, e‐book publishing techniques and trends, e‐book user interfaces and other technologies related to e‐publications.

As computer usage continues to grow exponentially, the desire of users to use electronic publications (e‐publications) has also increased tremendously. This has led to the publication of materials in electronic form as e‐publications on both CD‐ROMs and web. The e‐book is one of the several forms of e‐publications and its popularity has been growing steadily for the past decade.

This bibliography will be useful to all researchers conducting research in any areas related to e‐books and e‐book publishing.

Despite widespread interest in the resources and people of Alaska, few libraries outside of the state maintain extensive collections on these subjects. In this article, David A. Hales reviews a multifarious sample of informative materials.

IN the death of Mr. JAMES DUFF BROWN, the library profession loses one of its most striking personalities and librarianship its most powerful influence for progress. Any attempt at present to estimate the extent of his influence upon the modern public library must necessarily be inadequate, because not only are some of the movements he started only beginning to gather force, but his retiring nature made him refrain from labelling many things as his own. With the possible reservation that he was unable to do himself justice on the platform, he was the ideal born public librarian. As an organiser and teacher of librarianship, as a keen and discerning student and critic of tendencies, methods and results, and as an expounder of professional knowledge through the medium of the written page, he was without an equal. Like all pioneers and men of strong opinions, he did not make only friends ; but he had world‐wide friendships, and he forced the attention and respect of all library workers. On another page of this issue an old friend and one‐time colleague of his gives a brief outline of his life and works, and we need not do the same again here. But as his successors in the editorship of THE LIBRARY WORLD, which he founded and edited until a year or two ago, we cannot refrain from adding our tribute to his memory. Representing the best type of efficiency and progress in librarianship, he was a real friend and teacher, and his death leaves a sad gap in our ranks.

This paper aims to evaluate the maturity matrix (MM) (a facilitated formative self‐assessment tool for organisational development in primary care) on satisfaction, differences between GP and staff, the extent to which practice teams worked on goals set, and to identify suggestions for change to MM.

The approach taken was a cross‐sectional survey administered to all participants by mail in 57 family practices, 278 participants, (143 GPs; 135 staff) in Denmark, one year after participating in the MM project.

At practice level 44 returned at least one questionnaire. At participant level, 144 returned the questionnaire: 82 GPs; 62 staff. A total of 93 gave positive statements on satisfaction with MM, 16 stated initial expectations were not met, 79 would recommend MM to colleagues. Differences between GPs and staff were only statistically significant regarding “increased insight into organisation of work after participation in the MM project”. There was a tendency that GPs were more positive and likely to give an opinion. A total of 22 planned how to meet the goals set at the first MM meeting and 18 felt that they achieved them. In 24 out of 44 practices MM was stated to contribute new ways of working. A total of 12 of 144 stated that they needed more follow‐up support.

The results indicate that MM is a workable method to assess and gain insight into practice organisation with no major differences between GPs and staff.

The paper examines participants views' on MM one year after introduction.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether audit firms use transparency reports (TRs) as a tool to standardize their brand image or whether the semantic and content analysis in these reports indicates a higher importance of country effects.

The sample includes 28 TRs published in English by the Big-4 audit firms from five EU countries (the UK, Ireland, Luxemburg, Hungary and Malta), as well as in the USA and Australia.

Using content analysis, this research finds that there is variation in the language used in TRs both across audit firms and jurisdictions. Most TRs from different countries of the same firm tend to be clustered, suggesting that audit firms use transparency reporting as a strategy to differentiate themselves from their competitors. In fact, EY and KPMG seem to have more standardized internal procedures and standardized information. Regarding country effects, the results indicate that TRs in the UK are longer and show more detailed information.

Overall, this research is innovative in the sense that it applies a new methodological approach to an emerging topic such as audit transparency reporting. It identifies emerging topics of voluntary disclosure, such as financial data of the firm, gender and ethnic origin of employees, community involvement or sanctions, among other topics of interest which might be explored in detail by future research to understand the construction of the profession.