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At the commencement of this decade, leaving behind the “striking seventies”, we christened it the “anxious eighties”, for there was a profound disquiet and uncertainty among most of the population, a fear that things were going to get worse, but they could have hardly expected the catastrophic events of the year 1981. The criteria of quality of life are its richness, grace, elegance; by the promise it contains; inspiration and purpose, hope, determination (to survive, to make certain that the evildoer is not permitted to succeed), love of one's country — pro patria, of other days.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

People who have yet failed to realize how serious the food situation may become are inclined to criticize the multiplication of Orders and appeals, and in some cases to contest their wisdom. Mistakes may have been made or fresh conditions may have arisen to make less urgent some particular restriction, but generally the position has grown more critical in recent weeks, and instead of looking for any relaxation of the regulations now in operation the public should be prepared for still more drastic orders. No one as a result of the restrictions on food consumption yet introduced has suffered anything more than inconvenience arising out of interference with established habits. There has been no hardship and no hunger. In Germany the rationing of bread began so long ago as January in 1915, and to‐day there is hardly an article of food which is not rationed. When the existing prohibitions, regulations, and appeals issued by LORD DEVONPORT are summarized it will be realized to how limited an extent they have disturbed the character or the quantity of the food which may be consumed without exceeding the directions of the Food Controller. The position may be stated under the following headings:—

Before providing an overview of the conference with the above title and this Special Issue, this paper aims to present a view of the meaning of systemic risk, factors that affect systemic risk and measures of systemic risk. Thereafter, the conference presentations and the papers in this issue are summarized.

Characteristics and measures of systemic risk are reviewed. Conference papers and presentations are summarized.

While some aspects of systemic risk of a financial institution can be measured, an important aspect associated with contagion through markets is not easily captured by simple measures.

The conference and the papers in this issue contribute to the policy debate about sources and characteristics of systemic risk.

This literature review aims to provide a synthesis of key information available about the management of independent secondary school libraries in England and Wales. The review has been the foundation of a PhD research project that is investigating issues about the management of school libraries in English and Welsh independent schools.

The literature review covers both hard copy and electronic formats identified from accessing library catalogues, contacting relevant organisations and key players, conducting online databases and wider internet searches plus other elements of the literature search. The review is structured to address the literature about independent schools, their libraries, national and international guidelines for best practice on school librarianship, previous research, the role of the school library manager and select key current issues.

The literature review indicates that there is a substantial current literature about general school librarianship, much of which is relevant to the management of independent school libraries. However, the independent school library sector itself has not been widely researched and the published information about it is scant.

The literature review has largely focused on published information about general school librarianship where it impacts on independent school libraries. This is because there is little information specifically about the management of independent school libraries. Because each school library is different and is a reflection of its own school's culture, a general overview of the management of independent school libraries has not previously been produced. The review is a selective literature review, but identifies the key works relevant to the management of specifically independent school libraries.

The review has helped to structure and direct a PhD research project that is contributing to the literature and addressing some of the gaps in knowledge.

Literature on school librarianship tends to focus on issues that are topical at the time of publication. A review of the literature about the broader management of the school library is original. Also, a literature review that is relevant to the management of independent school libraries is unique. The review will be of value to the broader PhD research about the management of independent school libraries. It will be of particular interest and worth to independent school library managers, but also to general school library practitioners and those with an interest in the sector in the research, government and wider educational communities.

The Milk and Cream Standards Committee, of which Lord WENLOCK is Chairman, have commenced to take evidence, and at the outset have been met by the difficulty which must necessarily attach to the fixing of a legal standard for most food products. The problem, which is applicable also to other food materials, is to fix a standard for milk, cream and butter which shall be fair and just both to the producer and the consumer. The variation in the composition of these and other food products is well known to be such that, while standards may be arrived at which will make for the protection of the public against the supply of grossly‐adulterated articles, standards which shall insure the supply of articles of good quality cannot possibly be established by legal enactments. If the Committee has not yet arrived at this conclusion we can safely predict that they will be compelled to do so. A legal standard must necessarily be the lowest which can possibly be established, in order to avoid doing injustice to producers and vendors. The labours of the Committee will no doubt have a good effect in certain directions, but they cannot result in affording protection and support to the vendor of superior products as against the vendor of inferior ones and as against the vendor of products which are brought down by adulteration to the lowest legal limits. Neither the labours of this committee nor of any similar committee appointed in the future can result in the establishment of standards which will give a guarantee to the consumer that he is receiving a product which has not been tampered with and which is of high, or even of fair, quality.

The Food Bill has emerged from the Grand Committee on Trade, and will shortly be submitted, as amended, to the House of Commons. Whatever further amendments may be introduced, the Bill, when passed into law, will but afford one more example of the impotence of repressive legislation in regard to the production and distribution of adulterated and inferior products. We do not say that the making of such laws and their enforcement are not of the highest importance in the interests of the community; their administration—feeble and inadequate as it must necessarily be—produces a valuable deterrent effect, and tends to educate public opinion and to improve commercial morality. But we say that by the very nature of those laws their working can result only in the exposure of a small portion of that which is bad without affording any indications as to that which is good, and that it is by the Control System alone that the problem can be solved. This fact has been recognised abroad, and is rapidly being recognised here. The system of Permanent Analytical Control was under discussion at the International Congress of Applied Chemistry, held at Brussels in 1894, and at the International Congress of Hygiene at Budapest in 1895, and the facts and explanations put forward have resulted in the introduction of the system into various countries. The establishment of this system in any country must be regarded as the most practical and effective method of ensuring the supply of good and genuine articles, and affords the only means through which public confidence can be ensured.

The brief announcement that the Government had accepted that there should be regulations on open date marking of food, to come into effect in 1975, will come as no surprise. It is a timely reminder of what public pressure can achieve these days; how sustained advocacy and publicity by interested sectors of society—magistrates, local authorities, public health workers, consumer groups—can secure legislative changes which, in this case, run counter to trade opinions and the recommendation originally made by the Food Standards Committee that such a proposal was not practical and the existing law was an adequate protection. This was stated in the FSC Report on Food Labelling of 1964, although there was no indication of the evidence reviewed or that the subject had been considered very deeply; it was, after all, only a small fraction of the problem of food labelling control. It was also stated in this Report that in certain cases, date‐stamping of food could give to purchasers a false sense of security, “not justified by the conditions under which the food has been kept since manufacture”.

Few issues in recent times have so provoked debate and dissention within the library field as has the concept of fees for user services. The issue has aroused the passions of our profession precisely because its roots and implications extend far beyond the confines of just one service discipline. Its reflection is mirrored in national debates about the proper spheres of the public and private sectors—in matters of information generation and distribution, certainly, but in a host of other social ramifications as well, amounting virtually to a debate about the most basic values which we have long assumed to constitute the very framework of our democratic and humanistic society.