An international collaboration between IFLA, the UNESCO Institute of Statistics and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed standards for new library indicators for the twenty-first century. The existing international library statistics were developed nearly 40 years ago. This book presents the first results using the new statistics, and look forward to the next steps. It also contains other initiatives and developments in the fields of library statistics, benchmarking and indicators.

The transformation of the Bodleian Libraries provides an example of how major libraries can meet twenty-first century challenges: in 2008 it was facing a failed system installation, a failed plan to cope with its storage needs and the threat of losing status as a repository suitable to house important manuscripts. Three years later it had a new state-of-the-art repository already holding 7 million items under full automated control, a new advanced library system, transformed reader spaces and the reconstruction of its major building well under way; This was achieved in record-breaking time without significant interruptions in service.

The idea that morris dancing captures the essence of ancient Englishness, inherently carefree and merry, has been present for over 400 years. The Ancient English Morris Dance traces the history of those attitudes, from the dance's introduction to England in the fifteenth century, through the contention of the Reformation and Civil War, during which morris dancing and maypoles became potent symbols of the older ways of living. Thereafter it developed and diversified, neglected and disdained, until antiquaries began to take an interest in its history, leading to its re-invention as emblematic of Victorian concepts of Merrie England in the nineteenth century. The quest for authentic understanding of what that meant led to its revival at the beginning of the twentieth century, but that was predicated on the perception of it as part of England's declining rural past, to the neglect of the one area (the industrial north-west) where it continued to flourish. The revival led in turn to its further evolution into the multitude of forms and styles in which it may be encountered today.