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Charts the success of an experiment by B&Q, the large DIY chainstore, in opening a store, staffed entirely by older workers. The subsequent success of this proactive response to the changing demographic structure has proved to managers and public alike, that older workers are a valuable part of the UK labour market.

Image theory has been used, in numerous studies, as a basis for understanding and describing the decision‐making activity of managers in both cooperative and competitive environments. The fundamental division of duties prescribed by image theory – namely adoption decisions and progress decision – maps very well to the adaptability requirements of intelligent agents. The issues of adaptive planning and execution monitoring in agents can be well served by applying the empirical lessons learned from the application of image theory across groups of decision makers. This paper explores the concepts of adoption and progress decisions in the context of image theory and provides a basis for creating image‐theoretic agents. This paper sets the foundation for an interdisciplinary bridge between Beach and Mitchell’s Image Theory for human decision making, and the construction of intelligent agents. We begin by presenting image theory and describing its use among human decision makers. We then show how the mechanisms of image theory can be implemented in an agent‐based architecture to implement both execution monitoring and adaptive planning. This is done through the image‐theoretic constructs of progress decisions and adoption decisions. We conclude by presenting logic‐programming implementation of the Imaginal Agent Architecture that supports the adaptive planning and execution monitoring of agents through the use of meta‐level constructs for adoption and progress decisions.

Means, medians and SD for available socio‐economic status (SES) black‐white differences are here substituted for those of IQ in a between‐groups model published by the author over a decade ago. The goodness of fit of the SES variables used is compared with that for the earlier IQ data. Even when SES variables are relatively successful this can be viewed as additional evidence of the importance of IQ differences to black‐white differences in delinquency.

In light of critiques of structured studies of market orientation in firms, this paper reports on a qualitative investigation of market orientation amongst craftspersons. Behaviour is conceptualised as the result of interactions between individuals' value sets, goals, perceptions and activities. Following examination of the theory that the distinct value sets of craftspersons render them unlikely to behave in a market oriented way, the methods and results of an empirical study of craft food producers are reported. The study finds that participants strongly perceived themselves as prioritising non‐commercial, lifestyle‐oriented goals. At the same time, however, much evidence was found of market oriented tendencies and the desire to pursue commercial ambitions. Analysis proposes that the specialist niche markets in which these participants find themselves mean that adherence to “craft” principles positively contributes to marketing advantage and achievement of commercial goals. The implications for market orientation research are discussed.

We confess that we get a little tired of the claims of originality put forward by librarians or their admirers, often for things that have been in use for a quarter of a century. The public events diary, exhibitions of holiday literature, this or that form of reading list, library lessons, and what not, all of which have been familiar to us since the beginning of the century, have all been claimed recently by some library or other which is “showing the way.” Originality, alas, is very rare; and the claim might be avoided we think. At the same time, we much prefer the librarian who faces a problem himself, and shouts with delight at his solution, to one who faces nothing.

AT this time of the year librarians take their holidays. They will need the break this year as much as in any year since the end of the war. There are many problems to be faced in the autumn and winter, among them the continuous rising prices of everything, and the diversion of public funds to rearmament, which must have some repercussions upon the library service. Whether it is yet a fact that the pound is worth little more than five shillings in real money, we are not prepared to say, but it is certain that every cost has increased, and is continuing to increase. Especially is this so in connection with book production and bookselling; even, as our correspondent on another page suggests, in some cases the royalties of authors are in jeopardy. How far this will go it is impossible to say. At the same time the rates everywhere promise to increase still further, and in spite of the advances, it is unlikely that libraries will be exempt from the stringencies of the time. Such predictions have, however, been frequently contradicted by our past experience. Some of the real advances libraries have made have seemed to be the direct result of bad times. This is hardly a holiday meditation, but we think our readers will need all the physical and mental refreshment they can get before they face the possibilities that may follow.

WE endorse with much pleasure the welcome that has greeted the election of the new President of the Library Association. When the Association, in what seems now a somewhat remote past, determined to place the executive side of its business in the hands of a permanent Secretary, the question of the continuance of an Honorary Secretary was given careful consideration. It was resolved that he should continue and that his main function would be to represent the President at all times when the latter was not available. He had other duties, even if they were not clearly expressed, including a general overall initiative in committee and Council matters. The successive holders of the office since, Stanley Jast, Dr. E. A. Savage and Lionel R. McColvin proved so clearly the wisdom of that decision that the Association made each of them President; they have been heads of the profession in a real sense, inspiring and actively creative. The last of them, Mr. McColvin, is known everywhere librarians meet, here and overseas, and only the newest library recruits are unfamiliar with his reports, essays and many books, or have not heard of his home and other county surveys and his fearless, suggestive appraisals of what he has seen and thought. In a rather difficult time the Library Association is fortunate to have so statesmanlike a librarian to lead it.

The debate concerning the religious use of psychoactive substances may seem an unlikely candidate for revival in the current prohibitionist climate. Drug consumption is far more likely to incite public concern over the harmful and habit forming properties of certain substances, than conjure up an enthusiasm born of the 1960s for their potential to produce a sincere mystical experience. However, the recent emergence of religious movements who consume plant hallucinogens as their sacrament, and the growth of drug tourism for the spiritually inclined, reflects a renaissance in the use of psychoactive plants and chemicals for spiritual inspiration. This trend presents a challenge to the way in which certain drugs are culturally and legally defined, and brings the concept of religious freedom into the sphere of drug policy.