Get environmental @ your library
Contact: Megan McFarlane
Campaign Coordinator
(312) 280-2148
NEWS
For Immediate Release
September 30, 2008
(CHICAGO) Libraries are blogging, hosting movie screenings and discussion groups - to promote awareness of the benefits of going green.
Throughout October, the Memorial Hall Library of Andover, Mass., will host Go Green @ your library, a series of four weekly programs focusing on environmentalism. Programs will discuss such topics as green transportation, climate changes and green living.
Additional activities during the month will include a book signing with Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stonyfield Farm and author of “Stirring It Up,” and a fair designed to introduce patrons to products and services that encourage green living.
This past summer the Goshen Public Library of Goshen, N.Y., created the “Change your world @ your library” adult summer reading program. The library partnered with a local historical society to offer a series of environmental events, including “Transforming Trash to Treasure,” during which participants used recycled glass jars to create a decorative candle holder. Participants also watched Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and participated in a film discussion with a local meteorologist about the effects of climate change.
Beth Filar Williams, coordinator of library resources distance learning and supervisor of interlibrary loan at University of North Carolina Greensboro in Greensboro, N.C., has created a blog that deals solely with what libraries can do to go green. Williams’ blog “Going green @ your library” (
http://greeningyourlibrary.wordpress.com/) is updated frequently to reflect this rapidly growing area of interest and covers issues such as hosting green conferences and the advantages of green rooftops. Each posting links back to supporting articles and informational links that provide for well researched supplementary reading. The blog also promotes an extensive list of additional green blogs for librarians and library-loving audiences.
Also, the American Library Association (ALA), in an effort to be more ecologically conscious, will be promoting the 2009 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago as a green conference. Details will be announced soon.
The Campaign for America’s Libraries is a public awareness campaign designed to educate the public about the value of libraries and librarians. The Campaign uses the trademarked brand -- @ your library® -- to unify the communications activities of libraries across the country.
