Michael Locke

In the pre-plastic era everything was made from natural materials, often by skilled craftsmen. The materials that they used are now often rare and easily misidentified. Are they made from bone, ivory, horn, tortoiseshell shell, skin or scales, or some other now forgotten exotic material? This technical book will help collectors, antique dealers, museum conservationists, and frequenters of flea markets to know more about the vast array of those artifacts, their biology, rarity, value, and how to conserve and restore them. Included in this comprehensive guide are hundreds of images of actual collectibles ranging from knives to buttons.

This report is based on an action research project which involved service users, managers, staff and trustees. It identifies enablers of and barriers to increased user involvement. It also describes emerging approaches and important themes. It will help practitioners, managers and trustees plot their own journeys towards increased user involvement. The report: proposes 'user-centred user involvement', distinguishing it from 'management-centred user involvement', as a tool for analysing whose interests are served; highlights critical factors that enable change, such as: leadership style, consistent commitment, building strong relationships and communication between decision makers and users; can be used to assess if the conditions for developing user-centred user involvement exist; can also be used for planning change. This report is aimed at managers, service users, trustees and consultants who are working to increase user involvement in their own organisations. It will also be useful to researchers as a contribution to knowledge and debates about user involvement.