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At this conference, librarians and information officers tried to discover whether they could be more efficient and effective through acquiring a better understanding of their relationship with those who supply them with products and services. The conference was structured into sessions which looked at particular relationships, e.g., with the publisher, retailer, data base provider, information service. Representatives of technical and commercial services gave brief presentations and fielded questions in discussion groups. Trevor Haywood, the theme speaker, visited each group, and as part of his final presentation, published here, brought together general conclusions emerging from the groups.

Regarding the information society’s outcome, the only certainty is that there has been a revolution in the management of bit‐split knowledge and information. A flood of information has not significantly changed society in a direction or towards a state where a community could be characterized as a society of nearness, experience or citizenship, for example. Information and knowledge are probably the very concepts that have been confused most in the information society debate. Knowledge is to be understood as a phenomenon that is larger than information but uses information as its building material. Wisdom is additionally considered to include and cover the questions for which there are no unambiguous answers. It is wisdom that people use to estimate and distinguish good from evil and right from wrong. This is a task that calls for wisdom which computers do not have. Potential growth of wisdom in the information society is an issue that is difficult or impossible to say anything about with certainty. The reality of an information society includes the fact that wisdom is connected to moral and ethical judgements, and that the solutions are not always stronger than the powerseeking choices or egoistic interests of individuals, businesses, communities or states. Even if wisdom should promote the common good, it seems to be used, to an equal degree, to exclusively promote the good of the wise individual. But is it still wisdom we are talking about?

Poses the question: in envisaging a digitally networked future, what kind of graffiti can we discern on the emerging cyberwall to help us predict its likely impact on large populations? All evaluation of infant technologies is a complex business. Technology gives and it takes away. Science transforms human behaviour but we want it to be subject to the scrutiny of independent moral principles, which themselves shift. Argues that the long‐term advantages or disadvantages that will spin off from the electronic flow and rush of information will grow out of the wider, messier social, political and economic imperatives of the future world within which networking will reside. Electronic communication along networks operates on many levels: it is heavily diffused throughout the rest of the technical pantheon. Its exacerbation of the already discernible drift towards social isolation and alienation and its role in facilitating the economic and social rejuvenation of large, as opposed to élite, populations seem more questionable.

The development of a society reliant on information is traced from the scientific revolutions of the mid‐seventeenth century. Throughout Europe (and later the world) this led to new methods of dissemination and control of published information, through libraries and other institutions, and more recently through the application of electronic technology. The term “information society” should not be restricted to an IT‐based culture: the roots are much deeper and the concept of information continues a long tradition.

The article explores Africa’s initiative at building a regional plan for the formulation and development of a National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICIP) in every African state. The paper also examines the challenges and opportunities confronting Africa in its bid to launch itself into the information age. The role of information, communication and knowledge in accelerating African socio‐economic development is emphasised. The paper makes a critical examination of the globalisation of economies and argues that globalisation appears to favour the rich and not so much the poor. It challenges the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to provide funding for the project if it is to succeed. It eventually concludes by making the observation that Africa’s Information Society Initiative (AISI) should promote Africa.

Continuing education for library and information management Ealing College of Higher Education is using a grant from BLR&DD to examine two main areas: para‐professional education and the coordination of external course provision. The present project, which runs from October 1985 to March 1986, is building on past work at Ealing. Ealing has developed a substantial database of short courses in librarianship and information science with details of cost, duration, location and subject. The work on para‐professional education will assess staff needs and will note experience in other countries, including the United States. The study of coordination will involve surveying course providers to see how they decide what courses to arrange, and how to price and market them. Further details are available from Dr Stephen Roberts, Ealing College of Higher Education, School of Library and Information Studies, St Mary's Road, Ealing, London W5 5RF (Tel: 01–579 4111 ext.3337).

The use of practical teaching restaurants as experiential learning resources is widely practised in UK institutions offering hospitality management programmes at undergraduate degree level. Surveys the extent to which students are permitted to make management decisions in such teaching restaurants. While some institutions give students considerable freedom to manage their restaurants, others give little opportunity to experience a realistic work environment. The use of computerized management information systems (MIS) to support decision making is widespread, but there are still many unpursued opportunities open to institutions. Concludes that unless students are given the opportunity to manage their teaching restaurants and also are provided with the information systems to help guide their decisions, teaching restaurants are not fulfilling their potential as an experiential learning resource.

The formulated proposals for this legal principle in the trade battern of the European Community have again appeared in the EEC draft Directive. It has been many years in coming, indicating the extreme difficulties encountered in bringing some sort of harmony in the different laws of Member‐states including those of the United Kingdom, relating to the subject. Over the years there were periods of what appeared to be complete inactivity, when no progress was being made, when consultations were at a stand‐still, but the situation was closely monitored by manufacturers of goods, including food and drink, in the UK and the BFJ published fairly detailed reviews of proposals being considered — in 1979 and 1981; and even as recently as the last few months — in “Consumerism in the Community”, the subject was briefly discussed.