bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Moving Toward Sustainable Finance: Leveraging Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance and Risk Management to Drive Corporate Financing Efficiency
Authors: Li Li , Suhrab Muhammad , Radulescu Magdalena , Banuta Mariana
Published: February 2025

The growing demand for companies to adopt environmentally sustainable and ethical practices has led to a greater focus on the organization's environmental, social, and governance accomsplishments. This study aims to investigate the relationship between environmental social and governance (ESG) and corporate financial risk (CFR) on corporate finance efficiency (CFE) in China, using a dataset of 400 Chinese firms registered on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share exchanges between 2013 and 2022, the analysis uses a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with entity-fixed effects regression and a robustness test. The findings show a positive relationship between ESG and corporate finance efficiency, implying that promoting ESG practices can boost corporate financing efficiency. However, the study also found the negative effect of high financial risk on corporate financing efficiency. These findings have significant implications for businesses, investors, and policymakers. Businesses can enhance their long-term financial performance by giving ESG practices top priority and controlling financial risks. Policymakers can utilize these findings to encourage businesses to enhance their ESG practices and risk management to increase overall financing efficiency.
Sustaining in Uncertain Time: Investigating Pension Fund Performance during Market Stress
Authors: Lakštutienė Aušrinė , Sutiene Kristina , Kabasinskas Audrius , Malakauskas Aidas , Kopa Milos
Published: February 2025

The academic discourse on stress in the global economy and financial markets has ignited discussions regarding regulatory oversight of pension fund management and investment strategies. This study investigates how pension funds (PF) respond to short-term and long-term risks, as well as their recovery periods following market shocks. To address these inquiries, we classify financial market stress, considering both short-term and long-term risks. Utilizing the change point detection technique and Bayesian average (Zhao et al., 2019), we analyse shifts in the dynamics of PF values managed by SEB and Swedbank from 2004 to 2023. The research explores not only timings and the number of change points but also their likelihood over time. Drawdowns, recovery rates, and timing ratios are particularly insightful for assessing PF performance during crises and market disturbances. These findings contribute to the understanding of PF behaviour in various market conditions and underscore the significance of adaptive investment strategies in navigating financial uncertainties.
The New Voice Pedagogy
Authors: David Marilee
Published: February 2025

The simple but vital premise behind this important book is that a healthy voice is a beautiful voice, and a clear tone and pleasant sound will arise from a healthy vocal technique. Based on the concepts of voice therapy, laryngology, and voice science, The New Voice Pedagogy presents a no-nonsense look at the ways knowledge gained through modern science can be applied to teaching voice. Marilee David, an experienced teacher and performer, first explains the physiology of the voice, then examines individual aspects of singing, such as breathing, mouth position, phrasing, tone quality, pitch, resonance, and registration, and offers instruction and exercises appropriate to each component. David also considers the effects of different lifestyle factors and situations on the voice, such as singing with a cold or illness, common medications, obesity, hormones, and aging. She describes symptoms and treatments of common voice problems, including hoarseness, laryngitis, types of dysphonias, and examples of abuse and misuse, giving an overview of voice therapy and diagnostic tools. An important chapter on ethics, unique to this book, uses case studies to examine ethical questions that arise in the voice studio. New to this second edition are expanded sections on posture and kyphosis, HIV and AIDS, and the aging voice, and a helpful glossary of terms used in voice therapy, laryngology, and voice science is included. The bibliography of over three hundred books and articles provides a supplemental reading list for those interested in learning more, and a new final chapter summarizes the pedagogical concepts explored.
The Musical Instrument Desk Reference
Authors: Pagliaro Michael J.
Published: February 2025

In The Musical Instrument Desk Reference, Michael Pagliaro, musical instrument authority extraordinaire, provides the one-stop shop for those in need of a quick, visually-rich reference guide to band and orchestral instruments. Descriptions and illustrations of everything from the physics of sound to detailed discussions of each orchestra and band instrument make this work the ideal desktop reference tool for the working musician. Through its Quick Start and In Depth features, readers can quickly decide how deeply they want to delve into the instrument at hand. Following a contemporary format designed to facilitate what any musician or music instructor needs to know, The Musical Instrument Desk Reference eliminates the need to leaf through multiple method books or trawl through websites to find information.

The Musical Instrument Desk Reference includes general information on fingering, the anatomy of musical instruments, sound production, amplification, and control, as well as the science of sound. Readers will find individual chapters on woodwinds, brass instruments, non-fretted string instruments, and percussion instruments. In each category, Pagliaro delves deeper, describing for woodwinds such things as tuning, key systems, fingerings, sound production, tone holes, assembly, materials, embouchures, and reed use; for brass instruments such matters as valve systems, fingering patterns, French horn types, mouthpiece selection, and intonation; for non-fretted string instruments such issues as tuning and fingering, playing position, bowing technique, instrument parts, and materials; and for percussion instruments such elements as instrument types and their classifications, tuning procedures, and accessories.

The Musical Instrument Desk Reference is the perfect guide for anyone interested in or responsible for working with varieties of instruments and their players. Teachers, students, teachers in training, music instructors, instrument technicians, and musicians can quickly locate any specific detail related to any band or orchestral instrument.
Avant Garde
Authors: Maconie Robin
Published: February 2025

Gertrude Stein and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead were unlikely friends who spent most of their mature lives in exile: Stein in France and Whitehead in the United States. Their friendship was based on a mutual admiration for the philosophical pragmatism of William James and skepticism toward the European tradition of intellectual abstraction extending as far back as Plato and Aristotle. Though neither was musical, both were leading exponents of a new orientation toward time and knowledge acquisition that would go on to influence succeeding generations of composers. Through Virgil Thomson, Stein came to influence John Cage and the New York school of abstract music; through his teaching in the United States, Whitehead’s philosophy of time and cognition came to be seen in America and abroad as an alternative to Newtonian neoclassicism, an alternative clearly acknowledged in the metric modulations of Elliott Carter and Conlon Nancarrow as well as the post-1950 total serialism of Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

The seemingly unlikely influence of Stein and Whitehead on Thomson, Cage, Carter, and the minimalists tells a remarkable story of transmission within and among the arts and philosophy, one that Robin Maconie unravels through his series of essays in Avant Garde: An American Odyssey from Gertrude Stein to Pierre Boulez. Maconie explores, from Hollywood to Harvard, the way in which music functions as a form of communication across the boundaries of language, serving the causes of trade and diplomacy through its representation of national identity, emotional character, honorable intention, and social discipline. The study of music as a language inevitably became the object of information science after World War II, but, as Maconie notes, 60 years on, music’s refusal to yield to scientific elucidation has generated a stream of anti-music propaganda by a powerful collective of celebrity science writers. In a sequence of linked essays, Stockhausen specialist Robin Maconie reconsiders the role of music and music technology through careful examination of key modern concepts with respect to time, existence, identity, and relationship as formulated by such thinkers as Einstein, Russell, Whitehead, and Stein, along with Freud, Schoenberg, Wittgenstein, and Marcel Duchamp.

This foray into art, music, science, and philosophy is ideally suited for students and scholars of these disciplines, as well as those seeking to understand more deeply the influence these individuals had on one another’s work and modern music.
Children's Literature and British Identity
Authors: Knuth Rebecca
Published: February 2025

For more than 250 years, English children’s literature has transmitted values to the next generation. The stories convey to children what they should identify with and aspire to, even as notions of “goodness” change over time. Through reading, children absorb an ethos of Englishness that grounds personal identity and underpins national consciousness. Such authors as Lewis Carroll, J. R. R. Tolkien, and J. K. Rowling have entertained, motivated, confronted social wrongs, and transmitted cultural mores in their works—functions previously associated with folklore. Their stories form a new folklore tradition that provides social glue and supports a love of England and English values.

In Children’s Literature and British Identity: Imagining a People and a Nation, Rebecca Knuth follows the development of the genre, focusing on how stories inspire children to adhere to the morals of society. This book examines how this tradition came to fruition, exploring the works of several authors, including:

Robert Baden-Powell

Robert Ballantyne

J. M. Barrie

Enid Blyton

Angela Brazil

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Randolph Caldecott

Lewis Carroll

Roald Dahl

Daniel Defoe

Charles Dickens

Maria Edgeworth

Kenneth Grahame

Kate Greenaway

G. A. Henty

Thomas Hughes

Charles Kingsley

Rudyard Kipling

C.S. Lewis

A. A. Milne

Hannah More

E. Nesbit

John Newbery

George Orwell

Beatrix Potter

Arthur Ransome

Frank Richards

J. K. Rowling

Anna Sewell

Robert Louis Stevenson

J. R. R. Tolkien

P. L. Travers

Sarah Trimmer

Charlotte Yonge

Evaluating the connection between children’s literature and the dissemination and formation of identity, this book will appeal to both general readers and academics who are interested in librarianship, English culture, and children’s literature.
The Geography of South America
Authors: Rumney Thomas A.
Published: February 2025

South America is an area of fascination and study for geographers and other scholars from around the world, and its land and people have played important roles in the discovery and distribution of civilizations, resources, and nations for millennia. The region has long stimulated a large amount of research across the many subdisciplines of geography, and Thomas A. Rumney collects, organizes, and presents as many scholarly publications as possible in The Geography of South America: A Scholarly Guide and Bibliography. Every South American nation is included: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Beginning with an overview of the region as a whole, successive chapters, one per nation, are divided by specific subdisciplines of geography: cultural, social, economic, historical, physical and environmental, political, and urban. Each section is then divided by document type: atlases, books, book chapters, articles from scholarly journals, master’s theses, and doctoral dissertations. Although the majority of entries focus on English-language works, selected entries written in Spanish, French, German, and other languages are also included (with the entry titles translated into English and noted accordingly).
Global Supply Chain Security
Authors: Giermanski James
Published: February 2025

In this timely work, James Giermanski describes the advent and development of security operations in the global supply chain, outlining the respective contributions of governmental and nongovernmental stakeholders to this worldwide concern. Global Supply Chain Security explores the potential impact of port-related catastrophic events in the United States and their effects worldwide, concentrating, in particular, on the United States’ contribution to global container security.

Offering insights on deficiencies in U.S. policies, Giermanski underscores the vulnerabilities in the supply chain that U.S. government agencies have ignored, avoided, and even denied. Global Supply Chain Security treats both the terrestrial and maritime borders of the United States, reserving for special analysis the threat to the nation’s southern border of hazardous materials or materials in transshipment or in-bond, as well as the questionable leadership exhibited by the Department of Homeland Security in its diagnosis and treatment of these threats. Finally, Giermanski covers the important role played by the private sector and the off-the-shelf, innovative products that have been introduced to supply chain management and security.
Bon Jovi
Authors: Olson Margaret
Published: February 2025

In 1986, when Bon Jovi’s third studio album, Slippery When Wet, was released, America had found its next superband. In Bon Jovi: America’s Ultimate Band, Margaret Olson chronicles the history and music of the band from its inception to present day. She closely examines Bon Jovi’s musical and social relevance to listeners past and present, exploring the remarkable ways the band has emerged as the expression and product of deep cultural needs and how, within a few years of commercial success, it has made a lasting impact on Generation X, the music business, and American culture. Through opportunities offered by cable television (particularly MTV), Hollywood, and corporate brands, Bon Jovi has been able to influence not only the music, film, and television industries but also the worlds of fashion, musical theater, art, philanthropy, and politics.

Like any megaband, its members have struggled with addiction, the demands of fame, and a lack of critical respect. They have persevered, however, to become one of the United States’ world’s best-selling touring bands. Bon Jovi is a testament to the way modern culture and entertainment can become intertwined, and its success underscores the length of the band’s career, the professionalism of its management, the recognition of what audiences want, and the unique way the music—more than anything else—both reflects and shapes the social and musical American landscape it inhabits.

Titles in the Tempo series are ideal introductions to major pop and rock artists, the music they produce, and their cultural and musical impact on society. Bon Jovi: America’s Ultimate Band should interest fans, students, and scholars alike.
The Greatest Sitcoms of All Time
Authors: Gitlin Martin
Published: February 2025

Since the advent of network television, situation comedies have been a staple of prime-time programming. Classics of the genre have emerged in every decade, from The Honeymooners and Make Room for Daddy in the 1950sto 30 Rock, The Office, and Modern Family of the twenty-first century. Other shows that have left enduring impressions are The Andy Griffith Show, Get Smart, The Bob Newhart Show, Barney Miller, Cheers, The Cosby Show, The Golden Girls, Home Improvement, Will & Grace, and Everybody Loves Raymond. All of these shows are assured a place in history and would make almost anyone’s list of the most beloved comedies.

In The Greatest Sitcoms of All Time, Martin Gitlin has assembled the top seventy sitcoms in television history. The rankings are based on such factors as longevity, ratings, awards, humor, impact, and legacy. Iconic programs such as I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show,and Leave It to Beaver join contemporary shows The Simpsons, Arrested Development, and Family Guy on the list. Other programs include perennial favorites like All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Seinfeld, as well as short-lived treasures that never found the audiences they deserved like Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.

Each entry contains a comprehensive compilation of information, including:

Cast members

Character list

Network

Air dates

Ratings history

Time slots

Series overview

Notable episodes

Awards

Fun facts and quotes

Appendixes list the top male and female sitcom characters of all time, the best sitcom spin-offs, and shows that just missed the cut.

By ranking these programs, The Greatest Sitcoms of All Time is sure to inspire debate. Whether you agree with this list or whether your favorite show placed as high as you think it should have, this book will be an entertaining and informative read—not only for students and scholars of television history but for sitcom fans as well.
Who Did It First?
Authors: Leszczak Bob
Published: February 2025

“Everybody has to start somewhere. Businessmen start on the ground floor and try to work their way up the corporate ladder. Baseball players bide their time in the minor leagues wishing for an opportunity to move up and play in the majors. Musical compositions aren’t very different—some songs just don’t climb the charts the first time they’re recorded. However, with perseverance, the ideal singer, the right chemistry, impeccable timing, vigorous promotion, and a little luck, these songs can become very famous.” So writes Bob Leszczak in the opening pages of Who Did It First? Great Rhythm and Blues Cover Songs and Their Original Artists

Here readers will discover the little-known history behind legendary rhythm and blues numbers on their way to the majors. As Leszczak points out, the version you purchased, danced to, romanced to, and grew up with is often not the first version recorded. Like wine and cheese, some tunes just get better with age, and behind each there is a story. Who Did It First? contains interesting facts and amusing anecdotes, often gathered through Leszczak’s vast archive of personal interviews with the singers, songwriters, record producers, and label owners who wrote, sang, recorded, and distributed either the original cut or one of its classic covers.

The first in a series devoted to the story of great songs and their revivals, Who Did It First? is the perfect playlist builder. Whether quizzing friends at a party, answering a radio station contest, or simply satisfying an insatiable curiosity to know who really did do it first, this book is a must-have.
Making the Most of the Cloud
Authors: Hastings Robin
Published: February 2025

Cloud computing can be confusing - the number and types of services that are available through “the cloud” are growing by the day. Making the Most of the Cloud: How to Choose and Implement the Best Services for Your Library takes you through some of the more popular cloud services in libraries and breaks down what you need to know to pick the best one for your library.

Some of the cloud services covered are:

Email

Integrated Library Systems (ILS)

Backups

Project Management

Graphics Software

and much more...

With chapters covering cloud topics from the definition of a “cloud” to security in the cloud, this book will be beneficial for any library which is thinking of moving their services outside their organization.
Implementing an Inclusive Staffing Model for Today's Reference Services
Authors: Nims Julia K. , Storm Paula , Stevens Robert
Published: February 2025

Reference service remains a core function of modern libraries. However, how and where we provide assistance has evolved with changing technologies and the shifting habits and preferences of our users. One way libraries can provide the on-demand, in-person assistance while managing and developing new services and resources that will benefit current and future users is to reconsider how their reference points and services are staffed and adopt a staff-based reference model.

The authors, staff members at Eastern Michigan University, chose to address this by implementing an inclusive reference model in which staff and student assistants are trained to answer certain levels of reference questions while working at the reference desk and at other service points. The result was that librarians became more available to work with students who needed in-depth assistance and users were able to get simple questions answered throughout the library. Similar training for all staff and student assistants who work in the library results in better service, more accurate answers, and improved interdepartmental communication.

In Implementing an Inclusive Staffing Model for Today's Reference Services, they describe step-by-step how to transition from the traditional librarian-staffed reference desk to an inclusive reference model where non-MLS personnel are equipped and empowered to answer reference questions wherever these questions might be asked. Users ask questions of staff at all service points, not just at the Reference Desk. It is vitally important that those who work at circulation, periodicals, maps, archives and other public service points be trained in how to answer certain reference questions. When this is accomplished, users who have simple questions will not have to make useless treks to the Reference Desk.

Topics covered include:

Recognizing that nearly all staff answer reference questions, but few are trained to do so

documenting the necessity for a change in reference model

gaining buy-in from all interested parties—librarians, non-MLS staff, and administrators

determining the optimal staffing level

creating training materials and schedules

monitoring the quality of reference service

supervising staff

evaluating the new model using multiple methods

Additionally, each chapter contains practical resources such as checklists, forms, and sample materials, and other usable features to support readers as they implement the inclusive reference model.

The book describes in detail the process of transforming traditional reference into a model that transcends departmental and job title boundaries, is focused on the user, and allows librarians to better utilize their time and talents, and include non-professional staff in their reference services.
Transforming Libraries, Building Communities
Authors: Edwards Julie Biando , Robinson Melissa S. , Unger Kelley Rae
Published: February 2025

This book is for those moving their library beyond places to find information. Written by practicing public librarians and an academic librarian with an interest in public libraries, the book focuses on how public libraries can become more community centered and, by doing so, how they can transform both themselves and their communities. The authors argue that focusing on building community through innovative and responsive services and programs will be the best way for the public library to reposition itself in the years to come.

Repositioning the library acknowledges that information is in abundance in contemporary life. And while accessing information will always be at the heart of what libraries do, it isn’t the only thing they do. It may not be, in the future, even the most important thing that they do. This book encourages librarians to admit that our role has evolved and to reframe the discussion so that it is about what we actually can do – play an essential role in meeting community needs and building strong and vibrant local communities. The authors argue that repositioning libraries as community centered institutions is a responsibility. Libraries bring people together. They create community, and they also create mini-communities – everything from book groups to writing circles to new citizen groups to linguistic or ethnic communities reflected in programming and in collections. These mini-communities help provide fellowship and foster relationships amongst the group members, but also, because they exist in the public place that is the library, help the larger community recognize and learn about the mini-communities that create the larger community. This is the work of libraries.

The book is divided into three parts which include explorations into the importance of the community centered library, practical advice on making your library more community centered, and a showcase of community centered library programs, services and initiatives across the United States. A special focus of the book is on how community development literature and practice can inform librarianship, with an emphasis on Asset Based Community Development principles. The book looks at how community centered libraries build individual and community assets and how, in doing so, they serve as essential community anchors and institutions.
Between the Lines
Authors: Melnick R. Shep
Published: February 2025

Judicial interpretation of federal statutes has often been at the center of political controversy in recent years. In fact, it would be difficult to find a major domestic policy area in which statutory interpretation by the federal courts has not played a significant role in shaping the activities of government. In most important cases, judges base their interpretation not on the letter of the law, but on their reading of its history, purpose, and spirit. What judges discover between the lines of statutes often has major policy consequences.

This book examines how statutory interpretation has affected the development of three programs: Aid to Families with Dependent Children, education for the handicapped, and food stamps. It explores how these decisions have changed state and national policies and how other institutionsespecially Congresshave reacted to them. Although these three programs differ in several important ways, in each instance court action has expanded program benefits and increased federal control over state and local governments.

R. Shep Melnick ties trends in statutory interpretation to broader policy developments, including the expansion of the agenda of national government, the persistence of divided government, and the resurgence and decentralization of Congress. He demonstrates that Congress frequently modifies or overturns court rulings, and he explains why statutory interpretation became so controversial in the 1980s.

Between the Lines also explores the understanding of welfare rights that has guided the development of welfare policy over the past fifty years. What basic beliefs about the welfare state underlie court decisions interpreting these statutes? To what extent do members of Congress share these views? How have the assumptions of judges and members of Congress changed over time? These are some of the questions addressed in this detailed study of American welfare policy.
Barriers or Benefits?
Authors: Vogel David
Published: February 2025

Government health, safety, and environmental standards have, in the past two decades, often created barriers to international trade. These non-tariff barriers have become the focus of trade disputes, negotiations, and agreements. This book explains the dynamics of conflict and cooperation over consumer and environmental regulation between the European Union and the United States. It explores the most celebrated cases of transatlantic conflicts over regulatory standardsthe EU's beef hormone and legtrap bans, and America's fuel economy regulationsas well as the successes of the two partners in coordinating rules for chemical and drug testing, animal inspection, and the reduction of ozone-depleting chemicals.

David Vogel argues that transatlantic regulatory conflict has less to do with protectionism and more to do with deeply rooted differences in cultural values and political priorities in Europe and the United States. These differences, he explains, constitute a fundamental and ongoing source of trade conflict between the EU and the U.S.

The pattern of EU-U.S. regulatory relations has important implications, not only for the United States and Western Europe, but for the entire global economy. Whatever regulatory standards both adopt become de facto global standards. According to Vogel, the most important challenge for the U.S. and the EU is to promote and strengthen international regulatory cooperation. Each needs to pay more attention to their common interests in promoting international trade and improving global standards than to their often heated differences over particular consumer and environmental policies.
Driving Forces
Authors: Dunn James A.
Published: February 2025

To its critics, the automobile is a voracious consumer of irreplaceable energy resources, a leading polluter of the environment, and a destroyer of cohesive communities. The most outspoken opponents call for greater regulations and restrictions to ultimately replace the automobile as the country's primary means of transportation. But their proposals all ignore one simple fact: Americans love their cars! Millions of citizens have made the automobile the most successful method of mass transportation ever developed, and they are not about to give up the personal mobility it offers. This book presents the controversial view that, for the vast majority of Americans, the automobile is not the problem, but the solution to transportation needs. While acknowledging the automobile's significant drawbacks, the author refutes much of the shrill rhetoric and doomsday predictions of its opponents. He takes a skeptical look at the major policy initiatives to tax, regulate, and provide alternatives to the automobile, pointing out that any policies designed to remove Americans from their cars without offering them a superior means of mobility are "worse than useless" and doomed to failure. The book offers suggestions and guidelines for politically realistic initiatives that preserve the benefits of the automobile while building public support for policies that will reduce its negative effects on energy use and the environment.
Global Zero Alert for Nuclear Forces
Authors: Blair Bruce G.
Published: February 2025

Bruce Blair examines operational safety hazards for nuclear forces deployed on combat alert in Russia, the United States, and elsewhere. He provides new information on command and control procedures and deficiencies that affect the risks of accidental, unauthorized, or inadvertent use of nuclear weapons, particularly those in the former Soviet Union. Blair proposes changes in nuclear operations that would reduce these risks. Remedies range from eliminating targets from missiles to taking all nuclear forces off alert ("zero alert") so that no weapons are poised for immediate launch. In the "zero alert" scenario, missiles and bombers lack nuclear warheads or other vital components and require extensive preparations for redeployment. Blair assesses the effects of such measures on strategic deterrence and crisis stability in the event of a revival of nuclear confrontation between the United States and Russia. He also describes the burdens of verification that his remedies impose. This book is the first in a series devoted to aspects of operational safety and nuclear weapons. Other topics in the series include joint U.S.-Russian missile attack early warning, ensuring the security of dismantled warheads and bomb materials, and command-control problems in the emerging nuclear states.
Institutional Disability
Authors: Katzmann Robert A.
Published: February 2025

This case study of transportation policy for disabled people illustrates the flaws in policymaking that lead many Americans to believe government is not working as it should. Robert A. Katzmann examines the workings of the legislative, administrative, and judicial processes, both separately and in interaction, as he relates the erratic path of transportation policy for the disabled over two decades. An estimated 13.4 million people in this country have difficulty using public transportation, but the federal response to their problems of mobility is of fairly recent vintage, beginning with legislation in the early 1970s. Since then, there have been many twists and turns in policy, involving a wide array of governmental institutions. These constant shifts have confused state and local governments, the transit industry, and the disabled community. Assessing why policy was so erratic, Katzmann concludes that in part the confusion resulted from the inability to choose between conflicting approaches to the problem--one oriented toward the rights of equal access for the disabled, and the other favoring effective mobility by any practical means. In addition, the conflict between these two policy approaches was compounded by increasing fragmentation within and among national institutions.
Justice for All
Authors:   The Brookings Institution
Published: February 2025

To consider the problems of high litigation costs and delay that burden both plaintiffs and defendants, average citizens and large corporations, Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggested in August 1988 the formation of a working conference of natural competitors in the legal system. In response, the Brookings Institution and the Foundation for Change invited leading litigators from the plaintiffs' and defense bar; civil and women's rights, consumer, and environmental lawyers; representatives of the insurance industry; general counsels of major corporations; former judges; and law professors from throughout the United States to analyze these issues and develop a set of concrete recommendations for procedural reform.

The 36 members of the working group, together with the Rand Corporation's Institute for Civil Justice, which served as a technical consultant, met at Brookings six times between September 1988 and June 1989. In conjunction with the conference, the Foundation for Change commissioned Louis Harris and Associates to conduct a major survey of over 1,000 federal trial judges and litigators on their views about procedural reform.

The recommendations in this report are significant not only because they are comprehensive in scope but also because of the diverse group of individuals who stand united behind them. The report reflects a consensus that a comprehensive program for civil justice reform can be successfully implemented and that such reform can significantly reduce litigation costs and delay.
Mismanaged Trade?
Authors: Flamm Kenneth
Published: February 2025

The semiconductor industry is at the forefront of current tensions over international trade and investment in high technology industries. This book traces the struggle between U.S. and Japanese semiconductor producers from its origins in the 1950s to the novel experiment with "managed trade" embodied in the U.S.-Japan Semiconductor Trade Arrangements of 1986, and the current debate over continuation of elements of that agreement. Flamm provides a thorough analysis of this experiment and its consequences for U.S. semiconductor producers and users, and presents extensive discussion of patterns of competition within the semiconductor industry. Using a wealth of new data, he argues that a fundamentally new trade regime for high technology industries is needed to escape from the present impasse. He lays out the alternatives, from laissez-faire to managed trade, and argues strongly for a new set of international ground rules to regulate acceptable behavior by government and firms in high-tech industries.

Flamm's detailed analysis of competition within the semiconductor industry will be of great value to those interested in the industrial organization of high-technology industries, as well as those concerned with trade and technology policy, international competition, and Japanese industrial policies.
Making Schools Work
Authors: Hanushek Eric A.
Published: February 2025

Educational reform is a big business in the United States. Parents, educators, and policymakers generally agree that something must be done to improve schools, but the consensus ends there. The myriad of reform documents and policy discussions that have appeared over the past decade have not helped to pinpoint exactly what should be done.

The case for investment in education is an economic one: schooling improves the productivity and earnings of individuals and promotes stronger economic growth and better functioning of society. Recent trends in schooling have, however, lessened the value of society's investments as costs have risen dramatically while student performance has stayed flat or even fallen. The task is to improve performance while controlling costs.

This book is the culmination of extensive discussions among a panel of economists led by Eric Hanushek. They conclude that economic considerations have been entirely absent from the development of educational policies and that economic reality is sorely needed in discussions of new policies. The book outlines an improvement plan that emphasizes changing incentives in schools and gathering information about effective approaches. Available research and analysis demonstrates that current central decisionmaking has worked poorly. Concentrating on inputs such as pupil-teacher ratios or teacher graduate degrees appears quite inferior to systems that directly reward performance. Nonetheless, since experience with such alternatives is very limited, a program of extensive evaluation appears to be in order.

Attempts to institute radical change on the basis of currently available information involve substantial risks of failure. Many people today find proposals such as charter schools, expanded use of merit pay, or educational vouchers to be appealing. Yet there is little evidence of their effectiveness, and widespread adoption of these proposals is sure to run into substantial problems of im
Monitoring Government
Authors: Light Paul C.
Published: February 2025

Until the Department of Housing and Urban Development scandal in 1989, the public knew little about federal inspectors general (IGs). Suddenly, Congress, the press, and the public were seeking answers to a scandal that challenged the role of the IGs in ensuring government accountability. Within days, the IGs were front-page news, and greater emphasis was placed on fraud, waste, and abuse as a measure of whether government could be held accountable.

Monitoring Government offers the first systematic evaluation of the offices of inspector general OIGs and examines the government-wide investment in the IG concept. Despite their increasingly prominent, often controversial, role in the internal oversight of government, very little is known about their institutional or operational problems. To some in the executive branch, OIGs exercise too much discretion at the expense of executive control. To others in Congress, they do not have enough autonomy and responsibility. Overall the question is not only how the OIGs have functioned, but also what role they soundly play in our system of separation of powers.

Paul Light begins with a brief history of the IG concept, from the passage of the 1978 IG Act to the changes in mission with new administrations. He explains the different approaches to accountability, discusses the nature of monitoring the political incentives surrounding findings and recommendations made by IGs, and looks at the dominance of compliance monitoring as the front line against fraud, waste, and abuse.

The book addresses a number of specific issues regarding the policing of government. Using detailed interviews with past IGs and senior-level officials across government, as well as a case study of the Housing and Urban Development scandal, Lights examines a series of specific operational issues. Envisioning a broader role for the IG in the future, he offers recommendations to strengthen the search for accountability.
None of Your Business
Authors: Swire Peter P. , Litan Robert E.
Published: February 2025

The historic European Union Directive on Data Protection will take effect in October 1998. A key provision will prohibit transfer of personal information from Europe to other countries if they lack adequate protection of privacy. If enforced as written, the Directive could create enormous obstacles to commerce between Europe and other countries, such as the United States, that do not have comprehensive privacy statutes.

In this book, Peter Swire and Robert Litan provide the first detailed analysis of the sector-by-sector effects of the Directive. They examine such topics as the text of the Directive, the tension between privacy laws and modern information technologies, issues affecting a wide range of businesses and other organizations, effects on the financial services sector, and effects on other prominent sectors with large transborder data flows. In light of the many and significant effects of the Directive as written, the book concludes with detailed policy recommendations on how to avoid a coming trade war with Europe.

The book will be of interest to the wide range of individuals and organizations affected by the important new European privacy laws. More generally, the privacy clash discussed in the book will prove a major precedent for how electronic commerce and world data flows will be governed in the Internet Age.
Gay Families and the Courts
Authors: Mezey Susan  Gluck
Published: February 2025

Susan Gluck Mezey's newest book, Gay Families and the Courts, is a compelling examination of the role of the state and federal courts in furthering the goals of the gay and lesbian community. Unlike Mezey's earlier book, Queers in Court, this book evaluates the extent to which litigation is effective in advancing equal rights for gay families_families in which at least one member is gay_as they seek to expand their opportunities and battle discrimination. Mezey shows how the courts address gay and lesbian rights and sexual orientation in schools and social organizations such as the Boy Scouts along with family-oriented problems such as marriage and parenthood. In doing so, Mezey emphasizes the complexity of the issues involved in the cases, and assesses the degree to which the outcome of the litigation is explained by the type of case, the type of court, and the judge's perception of his or her role as a policymaker. It is a valuable reference for scholars interested in judicial, legislative, and executive policymaking at the federal and state level as well as anyone interested in LGBT politics.
Problem Solving Courts
Authors: Miller JoAnn , Johnson Donald C.
Published: February 2025

Problem Solving Courts explores a relatively new approach to criminal justice—one that can have a powerful impact on how convicts connect with their communities. Problem solving courts, born out of the drug court movement in the 1980s, are run by judges who, with the assistance of law enforcement agents and mental health workers, meet with convicts on a weekly basis to talk about their treatment. Treatment programs often include therapy, in addition to the possibility of incarceration or early 'parole' in which an offender can complete his or her sentence under the jurisdiction of the court. In this unique collaboration, scholar JoAnn Miller and judge Donald C. Johnson, creators of three successful problem solving courts themselves, address the compelling needs for alternatives to prisons, analyze problem solving courts in depth, and assess the impact problem solving courts can have on convicts and their communities. Problem solving courts can include: community courts that seek to improve the quality of life in neighborhoods struggling with crime and disorder; drug treatment courts that link addicted offenders to drug treatment instead of incarceration; family treatment courts that seek to stop the cycle of drugs, child neglect, and foster care; and domestic violence courts that emphasize victim safety and defendant accountability.
Growing up with Your Children
Authors: Carey Seamus
Published: February 2025

Most books aimed at parents focus on the development of children. Yet, good parenting requires the healthy and ongoing personal development of parents along with an adult sense of fulfillment. Growing Up with Your Children: 7 Turning Points in the Lives of Parents offers insight into the turning points that parents go through in the process of their own personal development in the context of family life. By combining engaging short stories from the everyday lives of families with philosophical wisdom passed down from the best thinkers throughout history, Carey offers unique perspectives on overcoming the stubborn obstacles parents face in achieving personal growth. In working through these seven turning points, parents can effectively guide their children while finding joy and fulfillment in their own lives.
How Your Child Heals
Authors: Johnson Christopher M.
Published: February 2025

Good communication between parents and doctors is the cornerstone of getting good care for the child. Doctors are increasingly pressed for time and appointment visits are shorter than ever. Unfortunately, when time is short, what often suffers is explaining to parents what to expect and why. There is another reason explaining often takes a back seat in parent-physician encounters—they are increasingly encounters between strangers. These days many children rarely see the same doctor twice, and more doctor visits happen in emergency departments and walk-in clinics, places where the doctors and families are strangers to each other. In these conditions parents need to learn how to make the most of their brief time with the doctor. This book will help them do that. This book is not a description of a laundry list of pediatric diseases. There are already plenty of those on bookstore shelves. Rather, it uses specific, familiar examples—things like ear infections, asthma attacks, broken bones, and appendicitis—to explain what is happening inside a child's body as it heals. But the book goes beyond that. It does not simply explain; it demonstrates, using vivid narrative techniques so readers can better visualize the processes being described.
United States Protocol
Authors: French Mary Mel
Published: February 2025

United States Protocol is a must-have reference for communicating with government and business officials, international organizations, and high-level military personnel, both in the United States and abroad. Everything you need is presented in a comprehensive, detailed, and well-organized book that makes it easy to navigate official protocol. Former President Bill Clinton says in his foreword that it is 'an authoritative user's manual for international relations, it promises to become an indispensable reference_not only for those in Washington, but for all Americans in contact with people in other nations.' Ambassador Mary Mel French uses her personal experience as a former Chief of Protocol to give us the most up-to-date and user-friendly guide to diplomatic protocol at the international, national, and state level. She includes meticulous instructions, in-depth diagrams and tables, a comprehensive table of contents, and a plethora of examples that make United States Protocol the perfect guide to any official event.