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Throughout the world, reform initiatives have been set up to fix perceived and actual corporate governance shortcomings. One of the proposed remedies has been to improve the independence of the board of directors. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the issue of independence as one element to improve board effectiveness. In doing this, the focus is mainly on the monitoring role, and to a lesser extent on the strategic role of the board of directors.

A comparison of the definitions of independence provided by the corporate governance codes and recommendations reveals that they approach the concept of independence mainly from a formal point of view, where independence equals being in a position free of any possible conflicts of interest. It is stated that this approach does not capture all the aspects of independence and that independence cannot be an end in itself. Instead of emphasising independence, the paper hypothesises that, to ensure board effectiveness, a board of directors is needed which, among other things, vigilantly monitors the company and pursues an objective decision‐making process.

Without neglecting the importance of other elements in achieving this two‐fold goal, the paper highlights the need for directors to have the “right attitude”. To achieve this, three conditions have to be jointly fulfilled: each director should have the ability as well as the willingness to be a critical thinker, with an independent mind, however, the environment should also be such as to facilitate directors to display this attitude.

These three factors – ability, willingness and environment – are discussed in depth and integrated into a tentative framework for evaluating the chance that a given director will display this attitude. As such, this paper is of value both for practitioners as academics and will mostly affect their understanding of the concept of independence.

Climate change is a global threat to social, economic, and environmental sustainability. In an increasingly urbanized world, homeowners play an important role in climate adaptation and environmental sustainability through decisions to landscape and manage their residential properties.

In this chapter, we review the potential impacts of climate change on environmental sustainability in urban ecosystems and highlight the role of urban and suburban residents in conserving biodiversity. We focus extensively on the interactions of homeowners and residential landscapes in urban coastal and desert environments.

Understanding how human-environment interactions are linked with a changing climate is especially relevant for coastal and desert cities in the United States, which are already experiencing visible impacts of climate change. In fact, many homeowners are already making decisions in response to environmental change, and these decisions will ultimately shape the future structure, function and sustainability of these critically important ecosystems.

Considering the close relationship between biodiversity and the health and well-being of human societies, understanding how climate change and other social motivations affect the landscaping decisions of urban residents will be critical for predicting and enhancing sustainability in these social-ecological systems.

THE beneficent work of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust in connection with libraries continues to demand the attention of everyone concerned with them. This year it is evidenced by the publication of the Report of the County Library Conference held last November, the papers by the delegates to America last year now gathered under the title Aspects of the American Public Library Service, and by the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Trust itself. These excellent publications, which are distributed with a generosity that we cannot too warmly appreciate, show undoubtedly that the Trust is the most active force in the library world at the present moment. This has been due not merely to the command of financial means which the Trust possesses, but also to a strong and consistent policy in which it has implicit faith. When it is remembered that ten years ago what are now called County Libraries were almost unknown in this country, the pace will be seen to have been remarkable. In no small measure has this been due to the eloquence, tact and abundant energy of Colonel Mitchell, who has been possessed with a missionary spirit of a quite unusual type.

Millions of the British people have for some years now been struggling valiantly to live with hard times, watching them day by day grow worse but always hopefully that the cloud had a silver lining; that one day, reason and a sense of direction would prevail. Tyranny in many forms is a feature of history; the greatest epics have been risings of ordinary people to overthrow it. The modern form of tyranny is that of Money; the cruel and sinister ways in which it can be obtained and employed and the ineffectiveness of any measures taken to control the evils which result. Money savings over the years and the proverbial bank book, once the sure safeguard of ordinary people, are whittled away in value, never to recover. Causes always seemed to be contained within the country's own economy and industrial practices, and to this extent should have been possible of control. The complex and elaborate systems constructed by the last Government were at least intended for the purpose, but each attempt to curb excessive demands for more money, more and more for doing less and less— the nucleus of inflation—produced extreme reactions, termed collectively “industrial strife”. Every demand met without compensatory returns in increased work, inevitably led to rises in prices, felt most keenly in the field of food and consumer goods. What else would be expected from such a situation?

Until recently, most North Americans thought of Central America as the land of bananas and exotic vacations. Today, government, media, and public concern are focused on the region's instability and the United States' role in it. This “crisis” in Central America has generated a barrage of publications. Perhaps an appropriate title for this article would have been “Central America: Crisis in the Library.” The growing number of publications on Central America is matched by growing demand for them in both public and academic libraries. This bibliography will help librarians build an adequate and balanced collection on Central America without having to locate and examine each book.