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The article discusses the highlights of the Association of College and Research Libraries' (ACRL) 14th National Conference held in Seattle, Washington from March 12 to 15, 2009. The event incorporated elements of sustainability, including the use of green conference hags made of recycled materials and the absence of handouts at program sessions. A keynote speech was delivered by poet, novelist, humorist and filmmaker Sherman Alexie. Attendance was at 3,263, of which 80% signed a Green Pledge that committed them to put ecological ideas into practice.

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The Grove Library in Perth, Western Australia, is an example of an aspirational community statement about an environmentally sustainable future, expressed through its library. There is inevitably a sense of euphoria around the opening of a new ``green'' public building, with an optimistic expectation that all systems will perform as designed. However, the intent that The Grove should be a pioneer demonstration building implicitly included acceptance of the risk that some of the untried technologies would not perform as anticipated. The challenge is to analyse and accept any shortcomings as equally valid ``learnings'', rather than allow them to overshadow the overall success of the project. This paper is not, however, a treatise on the technological aspects of the building. The ordinary business of a new library goes on while staff and the management work through challenges with the infrastructure, as is equally true of conventionally designed new buildings. This paper explores the community expectations and realities around an aspirational green building; the on-going interaction of a green library with its staff, customers and visitors; and the programming.

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The award winning Lanchester Library is the largest deep plan naturally ventilated building in Europe and has consistently delivered significant energy savings compared to air conditioned buildings. The article provides some background to the design and explains the sustainable features of the building as well as describing how flexibility was built into the building to enable the library service to evolve in response to changing user needs.

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Environmental information is broad in its scope. It can be presented from many points of view, numerous sources, and in a variety of formats. It can influence people's perception in many different ways. By presenting a discussion on the history and role of the Task Force on the Environment and the Electronic Green Journal, this article attempts to answer a question -- how can we as information professionals play a real role in helping people find quality environmental information? The answer may lie in utilizing our skills in the creation and implementation of good, efficient searching strategies to serve the public needs and in the production of a creditable publication.

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Due to its belief in the importance of creating a sustainable earth ecological environment, in November 2006, in the lush and abundant green environment of Beitou Park, Taiwan’s first diamond level green building was built - Taipei Public Library, Beitou Branch. The Beitou Branch makes every effort to promote sustainable development of environment, and amongst some of the concrete strategies are:providing green building visits, training green volunteers and holding a book club, collecting green building and ecological conservation collection and doing extension activities. In coordination with World Environment Day and using local resources, environmental groups are invited to cooperate on designing reading events relating to ecological conservation themes for different target reader groups. It is hoped that through diverse environmental education methods, the concept of cherishing the environment amongst book lovers will sprout.

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The author discusses how libraries can enhance their capacity to endure through sustainability. According to the author, libraries should be environmentally sound and economically feasible, and provide equitable services that are socially justifiable. The author says that libraries are part of a social, environmental, and economic community, and their proactive participation in that ecosystem is important for their success.

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In modern librarianship there is a lot more need for practical engagement than just fostering information literacy and dissemination. The 2030 United Nations agenda emphasizes action points for environmental sustainability, which involve reduction of pollution and waste, governing the environment, boosting the renewable energy, health ecosystems, combating climate change, improving soil and water sanitation, increasing resource efficiency, and safeguarding the oceans. These actions necessitate collective responsibility from all stakeholders including; LIS professionals, policy makers, politicians, development partners and practitioners. The aim of this paper was to establish the practical and probable measures through which LIS professionals can engage in the action of environmental restoration. The study was informed by published literature on the involvement by LIS and other professionals, locally and internationally in environmental sustainability actions. An online questionnaire, with structured and open ended questions, was used to collect data from 60 LIS professionals in Africa, of whom the majority (55%) were from Uganda, 56.7% male, and 81.7% primarily working as librarians. The study revealed that LIS professionals are aware of environmental degradation activities though only 55% are aware of the global environmental strategy of the 2030 UN Agenda. Deforestation and air pollution were reported as the most commonly known activities which destroy the environment. It was established that LIS professionals and their affiliate institutions and organizations are mostly involved in the greening campaign more than any other activity. The main challenge to environmental conservation, as reported from the study, is lack of sufficient resources to support the planned activities, however, it was suggested that LIS professionals engage more in the development, implementation, and promotion of awareness campaigns for waste reduction and environmental literacy. Finally it was recommended that LIS professionals develop a strong collaboration with other stakeholders and engage in all other possible activities to enhance environmental sustainability.

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Reuse is generally considered to have environmental benefits, but it has not yet been widely adopted in environmental policy or strategy. In this paper, a simple model of second-hand markets is explored with a case study of used books that illustrates the behavior of the model and shows that such a model is consistent with the data. Three questions of the dynamics of reuse are addressed: (1) If it becomes easier to buy and sell used goods (via Internet markets or other means), by how much will sales of used goods increase? (2) When sales of used goods increase, by how much will sales of new goods decrease? (3) When is reuse better than recycling? Expanding from the case study, the model is used to examine how reuse affects the consumption of new goods, and the relative merits of reuse versus recycling. When the used goods market is small, the ratio of the price of used and new goods, an observable quantity, is approximately equal to the fractional decrease in sales of new goods that will result from increased sales of used goods. A formulation of the environmental impact of reuse and recycling is developed that includes the market impact of reuse. Illustrating this formulation for books with a simplified analysis, reuse of books through sales in a second-hand market is estimated to save more than twice as much energy, with considerable uncertainty, than making books from recycled paper. The formulation provides a basis for identifying products and markets for which reuse can be an effective environmental strategy.

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Standardization is an important part of successful building and construction today. The ISO/TR 11219:2012. Information and Documentation. Qualitative Conditions and Basic Statistics for Library Buildings; Space, Function and Design is a standardization document for librarians, architects and other professionals involved in library planning and construction. It provides guidelines and normative references as well as facts and figures concerning all parts of a library building. This chapter is a rereading of the Technical Report from a sustainability point of view. Sustainability as defined here is not a simple buzzword associated with environmental protection and resource efficiency, but a complex concept concerning socially, economically and ecologically responsible action. It becomes obvious that the Technical Report provides many standards and guidelines connected to the sustainability issue along these lines. Erfolgreiches Bauen ist heutzutage eng mit Standardisierung verbunden. Der ISO/TR 11219:2012. Information and Documentation. Qualitative Conditions and Basic Statistics for Library Buildings; Space, Function and Design ist ein Fachbericht für Bibliothekare, Architekten und andere beteiligte Fachleute im Bibliotheksbau. Er enthält Richtlinien und normative Referenzen sowie Kennzahlen und Daten für sämtliche Bereiche eines Bibliotheksbaus. Dieses Kapitel ist ein Wieder-Lesen des Technical Report unter dem Aspekt der Nachhaltigkeit. Im hier beschriebenen Sinne ist Nachhaltigkeit nicht nur ein einfaches Modewort, das mit Umweltschutz und Ressourcenschonung assoziiert wird, sondern ein komplexes Konzept, das soziale, ökonomische und ökologische Verantwortung in konkretes Handeln umsetzt. Es wird deutlich, dass der Technical Report viele Standards und Richtlinien bietet, die mit Nachhaltigkeit in diesem Sinne verbunden sind.

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The Mindful Librarian: Connecting the Practice of Mindfulness to Librarianship explores mindfulness, approaching it in such a way as to relate specifically to the many roles or challenges librarians face. Coinciding with the increased need to juggle a variety of tasks, technologies, ebooks, and databases, the new Association of College & Research Libraries Framework for Information Literacy, and the challenges faced by solo librarians in school libraries which have suffered cutbacks in help in recent years, the time is exactly right for this publication. The authors hope to be helpful in some small way towards improving the joy and quality of life that librarians and library science students experience in their personal lives and jobs. The loftier goal would be to create a new lens from which to view librarianship, having a transformative impact on readers, and opening a new dialog within the profession. The topic of mindfulness is not new; it has been connected to various religious traditions in a wide variety of ways for centuries, most notably Buddhism. In the latter part of the 20th century, however, a secular version was popularized largely by the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn and his work on MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) at the University of Massachusetts's Medical School. The medical benefits and the overall quality of life improvements from its adoption have exploded in recent years, in particular, the last two decades which have seen mindfulness traditions incorporated into education to a greater degree and with very positive results.

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They have been popping up in droves. On front lawns and street corners. In parks, community centers, and hospitals. You can even find them at beaches, malls, and barbershops. What started in 2009 with a box on one man's lawn has spawned 60,000 Little Free Libraries around the globe. The ubiquitous book-exchange boxes now outnumber public libraries in the US about three to one.

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Old buildings are being recycled into libraries all over the world. Many buildings were given a new purpose, such as an old grain silo, a post office, barracks, a brewery, a factory, a railway station, and a horse stable, to name but a few that were transformed into a library. The process of rededication of a building with a former different usage into a library means per se a special aspect of sustainability -- it is quite obviously a matter of recycling. The transformation of an existing building with a prior non-library function into a library brings the challenge and the opportunity for sustainable thinking in library planning. As nonrenewable resources are decreasing, reusing and recycling are going to become increasingly necessary in the future. The recycling of old buildings means reducing the ecological footprint of library buildings in a cost-effective and efficient way. Beside ``green'' aspects like water conservation, energy conservation, recycled or sustainable building materials, indoor air quality, and solar power from photo-voltaic panels, the planning of an adaptive reuse is a very different task than the planning of a library in a totally new building. Some best practice case studies from libraries, not only in Germany, but other countries in Europe will be presented as well.

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Old buildings are being converted into libraries all over the world. The process of re-using a building which formerly had a different function into a library is quite obviously a recycling issue. The transformation of an existing building with a prior non-library function into a library brings the challenge and the opportunity for sustainable thinking in library planning. As non-renewable resources are decreasing, re-using and recycling are going to become increasingly necessary in the future. The recycling of old buildings means reducing the ecological footprint of library buildings in a cost-effective and efficient way. Quite apart from “green” aspects like water conservation, energy conservation, recycled or sustainable building materials, indoor air quality, and solar power from photovoltaic panels, the planning of an adaptive re-use is a very different task than the planning of a library in a totally new building. Some best-practice case studies from different countries are presented. Überall auf der Welt werden bestehende alte Gebäude in Bibliotheken umgewandelt. Dieser Prozess der Umwidmung eines Gebäudes mit einer vormals anderen Funktion ist ganz offensichtlich ein Fall von Recycling. Die Umwandlung eines Bestandsgebäudes in eine Bibliothek stellt eine Herausforderung und eine Chance dar, Nachhaltigkeitsaspekte in die Planung einzubringen. Da nicht erneuerbare Ressourcen schwinden, wird das Wiederverwenden und Recycling in Zukunft zunehmend notwendiger. Das Recycling eines alten Gebäudes bedeutet, den ökologischen Fußabdruck eines Bibliotheksgebäudes auf kosteneffiziente und effektive Weise zu verringern. Abgesehen von den ‚grünen‘ Themen wie z.B. die Verringerung des Wasserverbrauches, Energieeinsparung, die Verwendung von aufbereiteten und nachhaltig produzierten Baumaterialien, die Qualität der Innenraumluft oder die Nutzung von Solarenergie mittels Fotovoltaik ist die Nachnutzung eine gänzlich andere Herausforderung als die Planung eines völlig neuen Bibliotheksgebäudes. Drei Best Practice Beispiele aus unterschiedlichen Ländern sollen das illustrieren.

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The article discusses aspects of sustainable design, architecture, and construction in libraries. The author discusses the use of sustainable improvements in architecture to reduce consumption of energy in the U.S. and suggests that, as public spaces, library buildings are good candidates for updates in sustainable improvements. Topics include climate control, resistance to heat transfer, and zero-energy buildings.