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Organizations find it increasingly difficult to stay competitive in today’s global economy. Leaders in the workplace are using benchmarking, competency, competency models, and competency studies to help make human resource decisions, such as hiring, training, and promotions. In training and development (T&D), it is helpful for competencies to focus on knowledge, skills and/or abilities. But neither the field of T&D, nor competency within the field, is static. Reported here is a careful review of literature showing the trends in competency over the past three decades in the training and development field, and provides some speculation regarding competencies needed in the near future for professionals in T&D. Two of the most apparent changes in T&D are the shift to performance improvement and the use of technology. Thus the skills, knowledge, and abilities involving these areas will continue to become increasingly necessary for T&D professionals.

The trajectory of François Perroux across the Vichy regime poses about all possible range of methodological issues to the historian of ideas: individual versus collective biography, ideational versus ideological reading, internal versus external analysis, etc. The chapter outlines key elements about Perroux’s trajectory showing the entanglements and boundaries of science and politics in the transition from democratic to authoritarian rule and vice versa. A particular emphasis on uncertainties and adjustments shows, against the tendency to a teleological explanation induced by a linear interpretation of his career, that different paths were considered by Perroux, but that his choices were nevertheless constrained by the forces of both the scientific and political fields.

Building industrial clusters is getting much more political attention and strategic orientation in all developing countries. This study started by revising the conceptual and theoretical frameworks for industrial clusters, followed by some insights and contributions about empirical bases for clusters' dynamics and processes. The study focused on the case of Agadir Agreement between four Arab countries (Egypt, Jordon, Morocco, and Tunisia), which was initiated after the Euro-Mediterranean partnerships, and the rationale of the agreement was based on the concept of cumulative value-added origin. The study based its methodology on analyzing the international and bilateral trade flows of six industrial goods from the automotive sector among the four countries and with the EU countries to detect the degree of industrial collaboration and the achieved success of each country in this sector. The study indicated that the four countries used the concept of industrial clusters for economic development, but the results of the analysis showed that till now Agadir Agreement only achieved a shallow integration, while failed to deeply integrate as one big collaborative industrial cluster.

The following annotated list of materials on instructing users in library and information skills covers publications from 1982. A few items have not been annotated because the compiler was unable to secure copies of these items.

The Kidlink project began in 1990 with the goal of creating a global dialogue among the ten to 15‐year‐old youths of the world. The primary medium for this exchange has been through e‐mail mailing lists. Over four years, that project has experienced nearly an order of magnitude growth. This growth has entailed major changes in both the way the dialogue itself has been structured and in the organization of the volunteers who run the project. Growth is much more of a challenge for those Internet projects that provide contact with individuals than for those that are primarily providing access to information. The success of KIDLINK provides a useful model for others.