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Reports the emergency stopgap measures undertaken by industry giant Tele Link to counteract downward market trends and the ensuing problems caused by its Efficiency Program not being managed effectively, resulting in lingering and negative impact on surviving employees’ behaviors and attitudes, demonstrated by decreases in productivity, motivation, emotional health, job satisfaction, and confidence in management, as well as increases in absenteeism. Also reports Tele Link was unprepared to handle the inevitable pre‐announcement rumor mill and was forced to present cutbacks prematurely, lengthening the period of time from announcement to implementation and fueling anxiety at the time. While Tele Link’s handling of the Efficiency Program is well rated it did concentrate, almost entirely, on the “during” phase, with no formal plans to help survivors mourn or adjust to new circumstances. Emphasizes that the power of informal communication, in this case the “rumor mill”, should not be underestimated, and management should not overestimate their own ability to control it.

When struggling companies decide to offload a significant number of the workforce, the bad times are not necessarily over for the people left behind. Negative emotions can include confusion, insecurity and anxiety as “survivors” worry about such issues as increased workload and long‐term job security. An employee’s initial relief at having been spared can be replaced quickly with a concern that he or she will be targeted in the next tranche of dismissals.

On‐going technological advances may soon allow the development of an affordable, personal, easy‐to‐use, all‐purpose information storage and retrieval technology similar to the Memex system described by Vannevar Bush. This paper proposes an updated design for Memex (‘Memex‐TV’) based on high‐capacity data networks, multimedia and new user interface technologies. It is argued that technology such as Memex‐TV may well develop as a spin‐off from advances in entertainment technology. Section 6, ‘An evening with Memex‐TV’, illustrates the possible future interweaving of information retrieval and entertainment. Finally, it is argued that librarians need to consider entertainment technology's potential to influence the future of libraries more seriously.

General Breaking the language barrier. Language and time are probably the two biggest headaches for a company that trades information across national borders. In search of a pain reliever, the California‐based information broker Dynamic Information, followed one of the first principles of practical problem solving: it recognised what it had — a partner in Japan — and used it.

Machine tending is the oldest of applications for the Industrial Robot, and is even more economically beneficial today than it was in 1960 when the first robot was installed at a die casting machine. Robots now serve many more types of machines and a number of recent applications are described. These include injection moulding machines, machining centres, CNC lathes, cylindrical grinders and press brakes. All these cases identify the key benefit of “lights out” operation. However, the absence of operators brings the problems of unscheduled stoppages going undetected until “the day shift arrives”. One answer discussed is remote monitoring by tele‐linking the machine to a control centre. Finally, a case study is described of a polishing cell for stainless steel sanitary and catering equipment in which the robots handle the parts as well as manipulate the polishing tools.

Kent Messenger papers go electronic A £350,000 drive to improve its electronic publishing system is nearing completion for the Kent Messenger Group (KM) of newspapers. When complete, the new system will handle the total advertisement and editorial input and sub‐edit, copy make‐up and accounts for all seventeen KM titles. Among them the various publications generate some 1,200 tabloid pages each week — all of which will be individually composed online at each regional office (as soon as the system is complete) and then transmitted to KM's central production plant for typesetting, make up and printing.

SINCE the world is so replete with institutes of various kinds it is unlikely to welcome another without a close scrutiny of its intentions, even when launched with all the eclat of a House of Commons dinner attended by distinguished figures from the industrial and organizational fields.

The growing use of the Internet, online hosts, electronic banking and bulletin board systems means that with increasing frequency evidence needs to be collected from remote computers for use in legal proceedings. Issues of the evaluation of weight still need to be addressed even if strict rules of admissibility are removed. The background processes involved need to be understood if courts are to be able to test evidential quality. The controls that should be in place are discussed and a series of tests of provenance and reliability are suggested. Such tests, however, will never be more than decision aids.

After considering the background to the regulation of the telecommunications industry, the paper examines the promotion of competition and protection of consumers in the sector. It concludes with the view that Oftel is seeking to develop a more robust style of regulation and is a likely model for other EC Member States.

Telemedicine has enabled speech and language therapists (SLTs) to remotely assess swallowing difficulties (dysphagia) experienced by nursing home residents. The new technique, “teleswallowing”, was designed by the Speech and Language Therapy Service at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It allows prompt assessment, avoiding potential risks of aspiration pneumonia, malnutrition, poor rehabilitation, increased hospital stays and reduced quality of life (Hinchey et al., 2005; Langmore et al., 1998). The purpose of this paper is to report on a second pilot of teleswallowing and the concomitant adoption study.

The adoption study employed qualitative methods, including consultations with senior managers, semi-structured interviews with nursing home matrons/managers and nurses, two focus groups and semi-structured interviews with SLTs. The project clinical lead kept an activity log, which was used to estimate resource savings.

Over a three-month period, six SLTs and 17 patients in five nursing homes participated in teleswallowing assessments. Teleswallowing benefited both patients and participating nursing homes. Better use of therapist time and cost savings were demonstrated and evidence showed that the service could be successfully scaled up. Despite this, a number of barriers to service transformation were identified.

This is the first implementation of teleswallowing in the UK, but it has been used in Australia (Ward et al., 2012). The approach to engaging stakeholders to understand and address barriers to adoption is novel. The value lies in the lessons learned for future innovations.