Reference Update Service
April 2011
1. “Sustained Partnerships Enable Long-Term Climate Solutions”
Rafal Serafin and Surinder Hundal, Climate Change Partnerships, EJournalUSA, April 2011, 3 pages.
Specific mutually beneficial global-to-local partnerships linking business, government and community organizations can generate creative and innovative responses to climate change more quickly than top-down control and enforcement.
2. “Case Study: Clean Business Partnership Promotes the Economics of Mitigation”
Holly Wise, Climate Change Partnerships, EJournalUSA, April 2011, 2 pages.
A partnership called the Czysty Biznes or Clean Business helps small and medium businesses in Poland improve their environmental performance, become more engaged in community efforts to reduce carbon emissions, and become more competitive in local, national, and international markets.
3. “Case Study: Tourism Partners Share Ideas for Adapting to Climate Change”
Holly Wise, Climate Change Partnerships, EJournalUSA, April 2011, 2 pages.
The International Tourism Partnership (ITP) promotes environmentally friendly partnerships in the tourism industry that encourage and enable international hotels to improve the sustainability of their operations.
4. “Case Study: Eco-Schools Generate Innovative Local Climate Change Solutions”
Holly Wise, Climate Change Partnerships, EJournalUSA, April 2011, 2 pages.
Eco-Schools is a public-private partnership that helps 32,000 schools in about 50 countries apply the concepts of low-carbon living. Students, teachers, and community residents learn about the implications of climate change and techniques of sustainable development.
5. “U.S.-Vietnam Economic and Trade Relations”
CRS Report for the Congress, April 5, 2011, 25 pages.
Since the resumption of trade relations in the 1990s, Vietnam has rapidly risen to become a significant trading partner for the United States. Along with the growth of bilateral trade, a number of issues of common concerns, and sometimes disagreement, have emerged between the two nations. Congress may play a direct role in the U.S. policy on some of these issues.
6. “A G-Zero World”
Ian Bremmer and Nouriel Roubini. Foreign Affairs, March/April 2011, 6 pages.
The authors examine the influence of the United States as the global economic force following the global financial crisis of 2008-09 and the era of a G-Zero world, one in which no single country or bloc of countries has the political and economic leverage--or the will--to drive a truly international agenda.
7. “Rethinking the Great Recession”
Robert J. Samuelson. The Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2011, 9 pages.
The author, a columnist for Newsweek and The Washington Post, discusses the recession that has hit the U.S. economy since 2007, focusing on the important lessons that Americans are missing about the future of the U.S. economy.
8. “Strategies for Learning from Failure”
Amy C. Edmondson, Harvard Business Review, April 2011, 7 pages.
If organizations are to benefit from failure, employees must feel safe admitting or reporting on it.
9. “Failing by Design”
Rita Gunther McGrath, Harvard Business Review, April 2011, 7 pages.
A certain amount of failure, managed well, can be useful. How to set up intelligent trials and learn from inevitable errors.
10. “Asia in 2010; Continent Ascendant”
Lowell Dittmer. Asian Survey, January/February 2011, 4 pages.
The author, a professor of Political Science at the University of California, surveys the political, social and economic conditions in a number of Asian countries during 2010.
11. “Fostering Ethical and Humane Policing”
Eugene O’Donnnnell, Ethical and Effective Policing, eJournalUSA, April 2011, 3 pages
Respecting human rights is fundamental to ethical, humane policing.
12. “Fighting Police Corruption: An Interview With Charles Campisi”
Ethical and Effective Policing, eJournalUSA, April 2011, 2 pages
The New York Police Department has pioneered innovative, proactive techniques to root out police misconduct and corruption, says the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau Chief.
13. “Nuclear Power is Worth the Risk”
James M. Acton, Foreign Policy Online, March 14, 2011, 3 pages.
The ongoing crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station returns safety issues to the forefront of the nuclear power debate. The author, an associate in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, discusses the risks of nuclear power and how to balance them.
14. “Consumption, Not CO2 Emissions: Reframing Perspectives on Climate Change and Sustainability”
Robert Harriss and Bin Shui. Environment, November/December 2010, 8 pages.
The authors discuss the need for a reframing of the perspectives on climate change and sustainability, focusing on the complexities associated with how humans perceive sufficiency, consumption, and well-being.
MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
15. “The Zuckerberg Revolution”
Neal Gabler. New Perspectives Quarterly, Winter 2011, 3 pages.
The author, a senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Norman Lear Center, profiles Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and how his “social inbox” transforms people's lives, not only how they interact but also how they think and feel.
16. “Learning to Love the (Shallow, Divisive, Unreliable) New Media”
James Fallows. The Atlantic, April 2011, 10 pages.
The author, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, discusses the role of online social media in 21st century journalism, arguing that the use of new media as a news source is evidence of changes in journalism and the news business in the U.S.
17. “Navigating the Future”
Larry Kramer. American Journalism Review, Winter 2010, 6 pages.
The author, a former editor of the San Francisco Examiner, discusses upheavals in the U.S. journalism industry brought about by the Internet and digital technology, and how news organizations might find profitable business models in the future.
18. “The Fact-Checking Explosion”
Cary Spivak. American Journalism Review, Winter 2010, 6 pages.
The author, an investigative reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, explores the growth of fact-checking features in the U.S. news media, especially regarding the claims of politicians during election campaigns. Also discussed is whether the practice influences the behavior of politicians and voters.
19. “Digital Tidbits”
Maha Kumaran and Joe Geary. Computers in Libraries, January 2011, 7 pages.
The authors offer tips to librarians on the use of various digital resources, focusing on free technology that they can use on a daily basis either to organize their lives or to help quickly answer questions from their users.
20. “The Next Generation of Discovery”
Judy Luther and Maureen C. Kelly. Library Journal, March 15, 2011, 6 pages.
The authors discuss some "discovery" tools that enable researchers and other library patrons to search all databases a library subscribes to with a single query. They explain features that librarians should consider when selecting such a tool.
U.S. POLITICS, SOCIETY AND CULTURE
21. “American Education”
By Ben Wildavsky, Foreign Policy, March/April 2011, 4 pages.
Relax, America. Chinese math whizzes and Indian engineers aren't stealing your kids' future.
22. “The Road to (and from) the 2010 Elections”
David W. Brady, et al. Policy Review, February/March 2011, 12 pages.
The authors, senior fellows at the Hoover Institution and political science professors at Stanford University, examine the elements that led to the results of the 2010 mid-term congressional elections in the United States and what they may portend for the nation.
23. “The Next America”
Ronald Brownstein. National Journal, March 31, 2011, 7 pages.
The author, an editorial director of National Journal Group, discusses the growing minority population in the United States and its implications for the 2012 U.S. presidential election.
24. “The Role and Relevance of Multilateral Diplomacy in U.S. Foreign Policy”
Brett D. Schaefer. The Heritage Foundation Lecture #1178, February 14, 2011, 6 pages.
The author, the Jay Kingham Fellow in International Regulatory Affairs at the Heritage Foundation's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, examines the dynamics of multilateral diplomacy and the role of diplomacy to advance and promote the foreign policy objectives of the United States.
25. “Actually Going to Class, for a Specific Course? How 20th-Century”
Jeffrey R. Young. The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 4, 2011.
The author examines how learning technologies which allow students to have access to information from any location are having an impact on the traditional structure of the college course. He also discusses why traditional lecture-based instruction is the wrong approach to engage students.
26. “Wanted: Ways To Measure Most Teachers”
Stephen Sawchuk. Education Week, February 2, 2011, 6 pages.
In light of a debate about the use of value-added measures in U.S. education, the author, an assistant editor for Education Week, discusses an initiative to devise a system that measures the effectiveness of teachers of subjects including art, career education, and history.
27. “Information Technology and Tomorrow's University”
Jolene Koester. Educause Review, January/February 2011, 6 pages.
The author, President of the California State University system, explores the importance of integrating information technology with higher education, and how it can improve the system of higher education.
28. “How Skyscrapers Can Save The City”
Edward Glaeser. The Atlantic, March 2011, 12 pages.
Besides making cities more affordable and architecturally interesting, tall buildings are greener than sprawl, and they foster social capital and creativity. The author, an economics professor at Harvard University’s Department of Economics, discusses the development of skyscrapers in cities throughout history.