American Libraries’ Spring Green

Contact: Greg Landgraf


Associate Editor, American Libraries


(312) 280-4216


glandgraf@ala.org

NEWS


For Immediate Release


March 23, 2010

CHICAGO –

American Libraries is springing forward with a batch of green content.

The 2010
American Libraries' Library Design Showcase extensively covers environmentally sensitive new and renovated library buildings both
online and in the April print issue. The online section on green buildings highlights a host of approaches to reducing waste, energy and water consumption, and pollution.
Learn more about unique approaches such as the double-skin glass curtainwall at Cambridge (Mass.) Public Library, which efficiently insulates the building against heat gain or loss and improves ventilation while preserving full views of the surrounding area or the Beloit (Wis.) Public Library's new central library, which reclaimed an abandoned downtown department store, reducing the amount of construction materials needed while giving the library a bigger space than any new construction in the downtown area could accommodate. Two special sections also cover topics with a significant environmental component—libraries with remarkable landscaping work that enhances the patron’s experience while helping reduce water consumption, filter pollution from rainwater runoff, and increase biodiversity, and libraries that have made special efforts to harvest and control natural light to reduce energy consumption.

And all year long, in the blog
“Green Your Library,” Laura Bruzas shares practical, affordable tips for improving environmental friendliness and sustainability, with topics ranging from saving paper with e-newsletters and shifting away from styrofoam cups, to encouraging bike use and booking green speakers for library programs. Readers are encouraged to pitch in and share easy-to-implement ideas and comments.

Adding to the ongoing green initiatives,
American Libraries is also currently determining individual reader preferences for digital versus print delivery. Starting in March, each new issue of
American Libraries is accompanied by a digital edition and readers can choose to receive print plus digital, or digital-only.
Read the entire March digital edition in the easy-to-use flipbook format, or download it as a PDF for offline reading. (If you haven’t already taken
American Libraries’
brief survey, you can do so now and your input will help us move toward delivering the magazine the way you prefer.)

American Libraries, the flagship magazine of the American Library Association, is delighted to extend its 100-year tradition of keeping readers informed in print and (increasingly) online and keeping library and information science and technology workers in touch with the profession’s most current concerns.