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Charts the adoption of an internal TQM programme by Aspen Business Communications plc, a UK employee communications agency. Outlines the initial task of identifying the problems and persuading staff that TQM was the answer to improving a perceived lack of quality in the company′s services. Studies the results of a series of internal surveys on staff attitudes and appreciation of problems within the company that affect customer service. Concludes with an assessment of a pilot TQM project and the first steps in rolling out a larger company‐wide project.

I am not a great believer in conspiracy theories, whether of the left or of the right. When we approve of something, we tend to regard the people who promote it as a legitimate pressure group fighting for the right kind of change. It is only when we disapprove of something that we tend to brand the same kind of activity as a conspiracy.

A BODY known as the Local Government Personnel and Management Services Group has been moved to issue a short paper commenting on the Bains Report issued by the Bains Committee to which the Group submitted evidence.

This paper examines the role of libraries and information services, in promoting the ‘open society’ espoused by Karl Popper and George Soros. After a brief discussion of the nature of an ‘open society ’, the paper covers the role played by provision of knowledge and information, of new technology, particularly the Internet, and of critical thinking and digital literacy in the development of this form of society. Conclusions are drawn for the role of libraries and librarians, with seven general principles suggested.

OCR and COM are relevant to and useful in the computer operation of information systems; both usually involve the use of an outside bureau. This paper describes both techniques, with emphasis on practical points for making the most efficient use of each. Guidelines to the selection of OCR and COM bureaux, to systems design, and to the costs of the techniques are given.

This Society, originally known as “The National Pure Food Association,” has been reconstituted under the above title. The objects of the Society are to assist as far as possible in checking the widespread evils of food adulteration, for this purpose to bring about a public realisation of the admittedly serious character of food frauds, and, under expert advice, to co‐operate with constituted authority in effecting their repression. The policy of the Society is directed by a representative Council, and, the Society being thus established on an authoritative basis, cannot fail to become a powerful and valuable organisation if adequately and generously supported by the public. The governing body of the Society is constituted as follows:—

FOR the student who has to choose a field of study in which to learn and exercise his bibliographic skills Sociology affords an interesting and attractive challenge. Indeed, to understand his chosen profession it must necessarily be placed within its social context. Most students at some stage of their development reflect on the social problems that beset the human situation, and some, as the mass media would have us believe, are anxious to remould the “sorry scheme of things” as represented by the existing social structure.

Bibliographers and book collectors must continue to endure “Double, double toil and trouble” so long as publishers refuse to heed Lord Falkland's wise dictum:— “When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.” Some American and British publishers simply will not let well enough alone in accepting book titles. They persist in issuing books under one title on one side of the ocean and under another title on the other side of the ocean. Prospective book buyers must therefore spend considerable time verifying title entries and comparing the contents of books if they wish to avoid a duplication of an author's works. In 1940, Hodder & Stoughton of London published John Buchan's joyful recollections, Memory Hold ‐ the ‐ Door. The Houghton Mifflin Company of Boston simultaneously released the book under the title, Pilgrim's Way. It would be interesting to learn how many librarians and bibliophiles unwittingly duplicated the memoirs in the innocent belief that they were acquiring distinct narratives. Either title was appropriate, but the dual titles resulted in confusion.

A FIRST attempt to give the dates of the introduction of printing into the various places in a county, generally results in an exhibition of the ignorance of the compiler. Further, when the information has not been systematically collected but simply forms part of a general collection of titles, relating not only to that county but to the country at large, the local specialist will probably quote vaguely of “rushing in where” he “fears to tread.” My only apology, and I consider it a perfectly valid one, for publishing the following notes on Essex printers and booksellers, is that no one else has done it.

Like catering or teaching, retailing is traditionally regarded as “women's work”. As such it suffers from the familiar downgrading of “feminised” industries with low pay, poor status, and few prospects. But, even in retailing, as one moves up the company hierarchy the numbers of women rapidly diminish — the boardrooms are, as elsewhere — strictly a male preserve. Why do so many women never make it beyond the bottom rung of the promotion ladder?