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Since the murder of Steven Hoskin, there have been considerable changes in the way that agencies in Cornwall operate. In order to prevent further tragedies on such a scale, a protocol was agreed by the agencies about when an alert should be triggered (Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Safeguarding Adults Board, 2008). This paper describes the process and implications of the protocol from the perspective of Devon and Cornwall Police, South Western Ambulance Service Trust and Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust. The protocol has improved and encouraged information sharing within and between agencies, which will help to identify and reduce the risks to vulnerable adults.

Current approaches to text retrieval based on indexing by words or index terms and on retrieving by specifying a Boolean combination of keywords are well known, as are their limitations. Statistical approaches to retrieval, as exemplified in commercial products like STATUS/IQ and Personal Librarian, are slightly better but still have their own weaknesses. Approaches to the indexing and retrieval of text based on techniques of automatic natural language processing (NLP) may soon start to realise their undoubted potential in terms of improving the quality and effectiveness of information retrieval. In this article we will explore what that potential is. We will divide information retrieval functionality into conceptual and traditional information retrieval and we will examine some of the current attempts at using various NLP techniques in both the indexing and retrieval operations.

Current issues of Publishers' Weekly are reporting serious shortages of paper, binders board, cloth, and other essential book manufacturing materials. Let us assure you these shortages are very real and quite severe.

THE question of the advisability of exercising a censorship over literature has been much before the public of late, and probably many librarians have realised how closely the disputed question affects their own profession.

WHILE there is no doubt that the system of issuing books at “net” prices is of great benefit to booksellers, there is also no doubt that, unless care is taken, it is a serious drain upon a limited book‐purchasing income. A few years ago the position had become so serious that conferences were held with a view to securing the exemption of Public Libraries from the “net” price. The attempt, as was perhaps to be expected, failed. Since that time, the system has been growing until, at the present time, practically every non‐fictional book worth buying is issued at a “net price.”

This article discusses the possibility of the automation of sophisticated subject indexing of medical journal articles. Approaches to subject descriptor assignment in information retrieval research are usually either based upon the manual descriptors in the database or generation of search parameters from the text of the article. The principles of the Medline indexing system are described, followed by a summary of a pilot project, based upon the Amed database. The results suggest that a more extended study, based upon Medline, should encompass various components: Extraction of ‘concept strings’ from titles and abstracts of records, based upon linguistic features characteristic of medical literature. Use of the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) for identification of controlled vocabulary descriptors. Coordination of descriptors, utilising features of the Medline indexing system. The emphasis should be on system manipulation of data, based upon input, available resources and specifically designed rules.

Drawing on Shakespeare, and in particular Hamlet's psychological crisis, this paper examines the relationship between emotions and meaning, a key theme in artistic work since Aristotle but, it is argued, largely ignored in psychology and the social sciences. Now, however, against a background of international terrorism, lessons are being learned from literature's insights.

Points out that ruins have long held a fascination for those concerned with images of picturesque charm or sublime horror. Recent attitudes have broadened in an appreciation of the potential that standing ruins and their sites have for students of architecture, archaeology and landscape history, while many are now examining the roles that these remains might also have for the flora and fauna of a particular location. Examines the work that is being undertaken to consolidate and repair a number of ruined churches in the county of Norfolk and illustrates how such work can broaden the base from which other projects may be undertaken. Part I considered how a group of standing ruins had been seen to provide sufficient social and economic value to justify a significant investment of public money. Part II discusses the practical issues raised by such work.Quality indicators Research implications** Practice implications** Originality** Readability***

To describe a browsing and searching personalization system for digital libraries based on the use of ontologies for describing the relationships between all the elements which take part in a digital library scenario of use.

Identification of all the desired functionalities and requirements that are necessary to fully integrate the use of a digital library in an e‐learning environment, and the basic elements that are used to build the ontology that describes such scenario.

The elements that determine the functionalities of the desired personalization system: first, the user's profile, including navigational history and user preferences; and second, the information collected from the navigational behavior of the digital library users.

The ontology is not complete. In fact, the ontology in itself will evolve with the new apparition of desired functionalities and requirements of the personalization system.

Such a personalization system will be very helpful to the users of a digital library to improve their experience of use.

The use of ontologies promotes the integration of new services into existing ones, and the interoperability with other systems through the appropriate semantic web services. New system functionalities and requirements can be added by including the appropriate description into the ontology framework that defines the digital library scenario of use.