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It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

THE National Engineering Laboratory was created in 1949 and operated as part of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Its nucleus was part of the Engineering Division of the National Physical Laboratory, and it was natural therefore that one of the principal areas of work was lubrication and wear, following on from the work of Stanton, Clayton and Fogg at NPL in the 1930s and 1940s. The Lubrication and Wear Division was one of seven divisions at the Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory (MERL) (later renamed the National Engineering Laboratory) devoted to the science of mechanical engineering. The Division was headed by Dr. (now Professor) F. T. Barwell, and it is interesting to look at the structure of the group which he built up. Much is heard nowadays of ‘the multi‐disciplinary nature of tribology’; it was obviously recognised by Barwell almost a generation ago that a successful attack on the problems of lubrication and wear could only be made by a coherent group of metallurgists, physicists, chemists and engineers.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research has been responsible for investigations on the corrosion of metals since 1924, when a Corrosion Research Committee was set up with the late Dr. G. D. Bengough as its first senior investigator. In 1927 research on atmospheric corrosion directed by Dr. W. H. J. Vernon was taken over by D.S.I.R. and in 1928 the Group was transferred from the Royal School of Mines in London to the then Chemical Research Laboratory at Teddington. This establishment had been inaugurated several years previously as a separate D.S.I.R. station situated in the same grounds as the National Physical Laboratory. Quite recently it has achieved the status of National Chemical Laboratory; but the ‘C.R.L.’ (now the ‘N.C.L.’) has always derived great benefit from its proximity to its much larger and older sister station.

The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research was established by Order in Council during the 1914–18 war, with its own vote and with the Lord President of the Council as responsible Minister, as a means of helping the country when peace returned.

To describe how an EDRMS was implemented at the National Weights and Measures Laboratory and indicate whether the benefits expected have been delivered.

The paper sets out the business case, describes the implementation, shows the outcomes (planned and unexpected), and ends with a conclusion about the degree of success.

Generally the project was successful, with excellent take‐up by users. It has involved records staff in change management issues as the system highlights areas of inconsistency in document management. Careful preparation of the Business Classification Scheme pays dividends on implementation. Use of the OGC Gateway project control helped make sure that the project was completed to time and budget.

The National Weights and Measures Laboratory is the smallest UK government agency and is an agency of the Department of Trade and Industry. As such it was able to learn from the latter in relation to EDRMS implementation.

This paper is a useful case study investigation of the introduction of EDRM.

The paper gives insight into EDRMS implementation in a small user group. It sets out the lessons learned that could be used in other implementations.

Deriving a measure of efficiency of public-funded organizations (primarily not-for-profit organizations) and ranking these efficiency measures have been major subjects of debate and discussion. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relative performances of public-funded research and development (R&D) organizations functioning across multiple countries working on similar research streams. The authors use multiple measures of inputs and outputs for this purpose.

The authors use the data envelopment analysis (DEA) as the primary methodology of analysis The keywords highlighting the major research areas in the field of non-metrology, conducted by National Physical Laboratory (NPL), India, were utilized to select the global comparators working on similar research streams. These global comparators were three R&D organizations located in the USA and one each located in Germany and Japan. The relative efficiencies of the organizations were assessed with the following output variables – external cash flow, and the numbers of technologies transferred, publications and patents; and the following input variables – amount of grants received from the parent body, and the number of scientific personnel working in these public R&D organizations. The authors follow the output-oriented measure of efficiency at constant return to scale and variable return to scale, along with scale efficiencies.

The performance of NPL, India under multiple dimensions has been evaluated relative to its global comparators – the National Institute for Materials Science, Japan; the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA; Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Germany; the National Centre for Atmospheric Research, USA; and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA. The study indicates suggested measures and a set of targets to achieve the best possible performance for NPL and other R&D organizations. In most cases of efficient local but not so efficient global efficiency scores indicate that, on an average, the actual scale of production has diverged from the most productive scale size.

The approach highlights the utilization of the DEA methodology for relative R&D performance assessment of global comparators. The discriminatory analysis has brought into sharp focus the dichotomy between local efficiency and global efficiency scores of these units and issues of scale size and regional disparities. The outcome of this approach is dependent upon correct selection of input and output variables and data availability.

The study results have profound implications for the management of public R&D institutions across nations working on similar-focused research streams, but functioning within different societal, economic, and political contexts.

The present work, being perhaps one of the few multinational studies of relative performance assessment of pubic-funded R&D organizations working on similar research streams, signifies the relevance of such an approach in the field of R&D/innovation management. This has opened up new avenues for further research in this area.

WORK on lubrication and allied subjects had been proceeding at the National Physical Laboratory for a number of years and some idea of the contribution made there to the science of lubrication will be gathered when names of Stanton, Jakeman, Clayton and Fogg are mentioned.