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Acquisition is an essential element in Universal Availability of Publications. An extensive literature review and a questionnaire survey revealed that few countries have a national acquisition policy but that there are numerous examples of informal arrangements involving substantial numbers of libraries. Factors influencing the existence and nature of a national acquisition system include the level of national commitment to libraries, attitudes of libraries to co‐operation, and administrative responsibility for libraries. National plans must be geared to national needs and circumstances; systems may be centralized or decentralized (by subject or other features), and may be centrally planned or based on voluntary co‐operation. The National Library may have a critical role to play. Five possible models are: a centralized unit of first resort; a decentralized region‐based system; centralized national subject libraries; decentralized responsibilities; and a central collection of journals only. Each country can decide on the appropriate model for its situation and requirements.

Using the backdrop of an (apparently) extended visit to the West Indies, analogies with key concerns of internal audit are drawn. An unusual and refreshing way of exploring the main themes ‐ a discussion between Bill and Jack on tour in the islands ‐ forms the debate. Explores the concepts of control, necessary procedures, fraud and corruption, supporting systems, creativity and chaos, and building a corporate control facility.

Using the backdrop of an (apparently) extended visit to the West Indies, analogies with key concerns of internal audit are drawn. An unusual and refreshing way of exploring the main themes ‐ a discussion between Bill and Jack on tour in the islands ‐ forms the debate. Explores the concepts of control, necessary procedures, fraud and corruption, supporting systems, creativity and chaos, and building a corporate control facility.

The author writes from experience, originally as a member of the Aslib Consultancy Service and subsequently as an independent consultant. She explores the expectations of the client and the consultant, qualities desirable in consultants and job satisfactions, and goes on to analyse in detail the consulting process, the pathology of information systems and the role of library consultants as change agents.

After a discussion of what we mean by ‘person‐dependence’ and how we have come to recognize it, we present some examples of this phenomenon, based on observations we have made during the course of our work as consultants and thus taken from real life, but let us assure our past and present clients that the names have been changed to protect the guilty! The case histories are presented in a fairly light‐hearted way, but when we encounter a case of person‐dependence in a client organization we certainly do not treat it lightly. After the examples we draw some tentative conclusions about the factors within organizations which can lead to person‐dependence.

The report of the Metals Information Review Committee contains two recommendations relating to referral. The first, classed as a Principal Recommendation, was to the effect that a pilot referral centre for metals information should be established at the Metals Society and funded by the Department of Industry. The second, listed among the Other Recommendations, was that the British Library Research & Development Department should investigate the effectiveness of current informal referral practices, including the role of referral in technology transfer. It noted that the project should include consideration of whether there should be a national referral system for science and technology, or whether smaller, subject or industry‐oriented services are more appropriate. According to the report, this recommendation was based on the finding that ‘the referral function is a basic component in effective access to and availability of information, independent of improving bibliographic control and information dissemination. It provides a key to maximising the usefulness of existing resources of knowledge and information’.

The establishment of the British Library Lending Division, amalgamating as it has the work of the former National Central Library and the National Lending Library for Science and Technology and creating a comprehensive service for both science and the humanities, has had a profound effect on inter‐library lending services in the United Kingdom and a considerable influence on inter‐library lending throughout the world.

The problems of One‐Man‐Bands (OMBs) began to be taken seriously in the early 1980s when the Aslib OMB group was formed. The group received considerable attention in the professional press, and became the object of a study by Judith Collins and Janet Shuter who identified them as “information professionals working in isolation”. Many of the problems identified in the Collins/Shuter study remain — not least of these being the further education and training needs of OMBs. These needs are studied in this report. The author has firstly done an extensive survey of the literature to find what has been written about this branch of the profession. Then by means of a questionnaire sent to the Aslib OMB group and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (INVOG), training and education needs have been pinpointed. Some of these needs have then been explored in greater detail by means of case studies. The author found that the most common deterrents to continuing education and training were time, cost, location, finding suitable courses to cover the large variety of skills needed and lastly, lack of encouragement from employers. The author has concluded by recommending areas where further research is needed, and suggesting some solutions to the problems discussed.

Every library or information service is at bottom wholly dependent on sources of information external to it. It must acquire from outside all the documentary information that it transmits to users. But at this conference we are thinking more particularly of external agencies that provide material or services that might and could legitimately be provided internally.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.