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Managing food service operations to achieve a specific food cost percentage has long been a fundamental principle of the restaurant business. Management bonuses and other rewards are often based on achieving these predetermined goals. Available tools such as menu engineering and contribution margin, although sound in theory, are not frequently used. Demonstrates the use of menu engineering and contribution margin concepts in terms of customers served. Concludes that the goal of any restaurant should be to apply marketing techniques based on menu engineering and contribution margin concepts in order to achieve the highest possible financial results.

The purpose of the paper is to present an analysis of the disciplinary action taken against members of the founding bodies of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). This exercise illuminates an aspect of accounting's past which has tended to be overlooked in conventional histories of the profession.

An analysis of the internal records of the ICAEW has been conducted. In addition, the archives of the ICAEW's predecessor bodies, entries in various censuses and contemporary sources have been reviewed for relevant material.

Analysis of the records of the ICAEW and its founding bodies reveals a number of cases where disciplinary action was taken for breaches of ethical principles. The expulsion of a member, however, was always preceded by an external “prompt” such as the member's conviction on criminal charge, his disappearance or bankruptcy. This perhaps suggests that the early professional bodies were more inclined to protect the private interests of their members rather than the public interest.

The paper's findings add to the literature on the professionalisation of the British accountancy profession. By focussing on the less‐celebrated aspects of the founders' behaviour, this paper puts the success of the profession in achieving public acceptance into sharper perspective.

THE new President of the Library Association, a handsome portrait of whom appears in the December Library Association Record, brings to the office the influences of a career of fine public service. We, in common with every journal that speaks to and for librarians, assure him of loyalty and congratulate ourselves on this addition to the roll of distinguished men who have served librarianship. The Record is wise in reminding us that we are more than a librarians' association and the regular election of men of affairs as presidents is a policy that used to be followed and should now be continued. The policy need not exclude in normal circumstances an alternate librarian president.

THE attention which has lately been given to the subject of registration may well be taken as indicative of a growing desire for it, and no one who has closely followed the growing importance of libraries in the educational life of the country, and the consequent impetus given to the craft of librarianship, can have doubted that ere many years had passed it would be necessary to establish a professional register as other professional and trade bodies have done.

THE first of the Islington Public Libraries, opened on September 21st, has proved a phenomenal success, and, at the same time, has thrown an interesting light on several modern theories in librarianship. It is, as our readers know, the fust of a system of five libraries, towards the erection of which Dr. Carnegie has given £40,000. The building itself is, as many librarians had an opportunity of judging at the “private view” described in our last number, of an exceedingly well‐lighted and attractive character. The arrangement and accommodation provided present several novel features. On the ground floor, opening from the Central Hall, is the Children's Lending Library and Reading Room. This is stocked with about 3,000 volumes for lending purposes, including French and German juvenile literature, and the reading room portion has seating accommodation for about a hundred children. A representative selection of children's magazines are displayed here, and there are special study‐tables for girls and boys equipped with suitable reference collections. A feature of this room is a striking dado of pictures illustrating scenes from English history, which goes far to make the room interesting and attractive.

Want to keep up with personal computing periodicals? It's not easy. One look at the magazine racks in any good bookstore will show you that there are too many PC magazines out there for any sane person to follow in their entirety. That's particularly true if you're a librarian or otherwise have a life.

Job satisfaction is essential in understanding turnover intentions. Previous studies reveal that highly educated hospitality employees generally have lower levels of job satisfaction, indicating that the antecedents of job satisfaction may be different from hospitality managers and frontline employees. This study compared the different antecedents of job satisfaction for housekeeping managers and employees.

This study used a mixed-methods approach for a two-part study. The researchers recruited housekeeping managers for the exploratory survey. The results of open-end questions helped us build a custom dictionary for the text mining of comments from Glassdoor.com. Finally, a multilinear regression of themes from housekeeping employees’ ratings on Glassdoor.com was conducted to understand the antecedents of job satisfaction for housekeeping managers and employees.

The results of the exploratory survey indicated that the housekeeping department has an urgent need for organizational support and training. The text-mining revealed organizational support impacts both managers and frontline employees, while training impacts managers more than employees. Finally, the regression analysis showed compensation, business outlook, senior management, and career opportunity impacted both groups. However, work-life balance only influenced managers.

With a large number of employees at low salaries, housekeeping departments have a higher-than-average turnover rate for lodging. This study is among the first to compare the antecedents of managers’ and frontline employees’ job satisfaction in the housekeeping department, extending Social Exchange Theory. It provides suggestions for the housekeeping department to decrease turnover intentions.

NO doubt the Tighe Report, which is condensed in The L.A. Record for July, will have the scrutiny of all librarians. It is concerned with working conditions as they affect working hours, welfare and training and reads as if it were a series of excerpts from Brown's Manual. The “Scheme of Conditions of Service” under which public librarians work—the Report is confined to these; a further report on non‐public libraries is contemplated—makes no allowance for the late hours in comparison with those worked by other Council employees. “Some other” would be a more appropriate phrase as in many towns committee clerks, solicitors and accountancy officers have regular evening duties which are far later than 8 p.m. The report asks the framers of the “Scheme” to provide special pay for hours beyond normal office hours. Hours worked should, as far as possible, be continuous, and not “split,” and if they must by split have, between the shifts, a five‐hour interval. It is not explained how this excellent suggestion can be implemented on a day extending from, say, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Is 9–12, 5–8 contemplated? In any case the problem is to get two meals digestibly into the interval. Welfare provisions should include a staff room, where meals can be prepared and eaten, with the proper equipment, furniture and a clock; separate lavatory accommodation for each sex and again the necessary equipment of towels, etc.; first aid supplies; and protective overalls or dust jackets. “The wearing of uniform overalls on public duty”—where we suggest they would be most indicative and useful—“should not be compulsory.” We are not sure if this means that overalls need not be worn or that they need not be uniform in materials and pattern. Educational suggestions include the recognition of hours spent in attending professional meetings and week‐end and summer schools, an adequate staff library of books and periodicals; and every basic text‐book in a “sufficient number of copies to meet the full demands of the staff.” The Report does not indicate if this also means the class text‐book which the assistant uses throughout his course. Staff guilds or committees, on the familiar plan which has been usual in some libraries for forty years, should be encouraged. There is nothing in these recommendations which is new, but they are worth while, as their author implies, as a check which may be used to suggest minimum improvements.

THE wheels of the warring world continue to turn with as yet no obviously decisive result. In no place, however, does normal life prevail, however much it may appear to do so. We hear of unoccupied men and women, but rarely meet them; most able‐bodied folk have their national employment, as well as their vocation, today, and the whole race is better for it. Savage and critical as the scene is our people have kept physical and mental health in an unprecedented measure. So far as libraries are concerned, we live in times really remarkable, because the reading of books has been proved to be necessary to the well‐being of the community in the most strenuous days. A glance at the average library report will give evidence enough, and we are receiving more reports of late than in the first and second year of war. One such report, from Worthing, is a typewritten document showing that 55 per cent. of the population are actually enrolled, and that this town of less than sixty thousand people borrowed in 1941–2 little less than 800,000 volumes, a turnover of over twelve per head. We do not know that this is unique, but it must be regarded as the tale of a service which reaches everybody, because most books taken out of a library are read by several members of the household into which they go. While this is the tale of a seaside “neutral” area, from which, however, visitors are barred during “the invasion season,” in the more dangerous areas with their greatly reduced populations issues are returning to pre‐war levels. Even where this is not so, it is found that head for head more books are given out by public librarians than ever before. When we add to their work that of the subscription libraries, a great activity of which we have no figures, the claim that the English are becoming a literate nation seems to have some substance. Anyway, it reads words in enormous quantity.

Those who contemplate attending the Annual Conference of the Library Association at Portsmouth would be well advised to secure their accommodation immediately if they have not done so already. The demands upon hotel space have been very much greater than even sanguine members anticipated, and already we hear of people being refused rooms because they are no longer available. Portsmouth, of course, is the naval centre of the Empire, and that common‐place piece of knowledge is magnetic, nevertheless. There are other attractions in Portsmouth. Its situation, practically adjacent to the Isle of Wight, with all its charms, on one side, and its nearness to the New Forest and the belt of Hampshire towns on the west, and on the east with such places as Chichester, Selsey, Bognor, Worthing, and Brighton make it, from the location point of view, of special interest. There is the further call of the literary associations of Portsmouth. Every book on the Navy has something about it, as those of us who read W. H. G. Kingston, Captain Marryatt and many another sea‐author can testify. Perhaps the most important author who came out of Portsmouth was not a sea‐writer but the son of a naval outfitter—George Meredith. Pernaps to a post‐War generation he seems old‐fashioned, involved, unnecessarily intricate, precious, and possesses other faults. This is a superficial point of view, and certainly in his poems he rises to heights and reaches depths that are denied to most writers of to‐day. In any case, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel and Beauchamp's Career, to say nothing of The Egoist, are among the great novels of the English language.