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Purpose This paper aims to propose a model which serves to illustrate that a number of factors are responsible for, and contribute to, the different forms of sustainability of digital information services. It also seeks to identify some areas of information research and their interrelationship in the context of sustainability of digital information services. Design/methodology/approach This research is based on critical analysis of a range of research and policy documents, and an environment scan, in different aspects of sustainability of information systems and services. Recent and relevant past research studies as well as some relevant government policies and initiatives have been critically analyzed in order to identify various factors that are said to contribute to the economic, social and environmental sustainability of information services. Findings It is noted that the sustainability of information has not been studied within the mainstream information science research. However, several previous research studies have produced findings and models that can be used to achieve some aspects of sustainability of information. It is also noted that various parameters of sustainability are inter-related and hence a proper research agenda has to be prepared, and concerted research efforts are needed in order to be able to develop and manage sustainable digital information services. Practical implications A model has been proposed showing the various factors to be studied for achieving the economic, social and environmental sustainability of information services. Interrelations among the different factors and their implications for sustainability of digital information systems services are also discussed. Originality/value The model is expected to open new vistas for research in the economic, social and environmental sustainability of digital information systems and services. It will develop new tools, technologies and applications for building sustainable information systems and services appropriate for the digital era.

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Speichern als BibTeX  Speichern als EndNote  Abstract

About a year ago I was talking to the chief sustainability officer at the University of Utah about my work as a librarian, and she made a surprising suggestion: ``Why don't you come work with us for a while?''

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The article describes the role of libraries in promoting sustainability. It is asserted that libraries should choose to create, manage and promote an environment that supports the health and sustainability of human beings. The West Vancouver Memorial Library in British Columbia manages its resources through its Green Building Operations Policy.

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The article offers advice for librarians on how to adopt sustainability as a core value. Particular focus is given to the reports of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has found that the immediate consequences of climate change are more dire than originally predicted. Additional topics discussed include making sustainability an inherent element in library school curricula and the deadly wildfire season in California in 2018.

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In 2007, the Chinese University of Hong Kong Library kicked off a conference series with the main theme of `Academic Librarian.' In 2016, the fourth conference of the series entitled Academic Librarian 4: Sustainable Academic Libraries: Now and Beyond was co-organized by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Library and the Chinese University of Hong Kong Library. The Academic Librarian 4 Conference addresses the multi-dimensional issues of sustainability pertaining to academic libraries under four major themes: (1) Sustainable Environment; (2) Sustainable Resources; (3) Sustainable Technologies; and (4) Sustainable Services. Apart from reviewing the key issues concerning the sustainability of academic libraries brought up by the conference papers, the author also highlights the way in which the Academic Librarian 4 Conference made every effort to make this a sustainable library event.

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Das Thema Klimawandel ist zurzeit allgegenwärtig. Die Klimajugend demonstriert und streikt regelmässig für eine bessere Zukunft. Die Route, welche die demonstrierenden Jugendlichen nehmen, führt sie direkt an meinem Arbeitsplatz in Bern vorbei. Das veranlasste mich dazu, mich über die Aktivitäten der Klimajugend zu informieren. Dabei stiess ich auf den Climate Action Plan (CAP), den die Schweizer Fraktion der Klimajugend aktuell ausarbeitet. Beim Durchschauen der Arbeitspapiere der CAP- Arbeitsgruppe Bildung fiel mir auf, dass bei den Kooperationspartnern und Wissensorten keine Bibliotheken vorkommen und das, obwohl der Zugang und die Vermittlung von Information rund um das Thema Klima und Nachhaltigkeit eines der Hauptziele des CAPs ist. Ich arbeite in der Mediothek des Instituts für Weiterbildung und Medienbildung der PHBern. Da gibt es eine eigene Abteilung mit Medien zum Thema Bildung für Nachhaltige Entwicklung (BNE). Auch in anderen Bibliotheken findet man etliche Sachbücher zum Thema. Bibliotheken könnten im Prozess der Wissensvermittlung eine zentrale Rolle einnehmen. Offensichtlich reicht es aber nicht aus, einschlägige Literatur anzubieten, denn die Bibliotheken werden in ihrer Rolle als Wissensvermittler nicht wahrgenommen oder vergessen. Was müssen Bibliotheken also dafür tun, um die Themen Klima und Nachhaltigkeit stärker zu vermitteln? Und was tun sie bereits heute dafür? Damit das Thema Nachhaltigkeit und Bibliotheken im Rahmen der Bachelorarbeit untersucht werden konnte, musste das Thema eingeschränkt werden. Die Nachhaltigkeit schränkte ich auf die Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ein, welche im nächsten Kapitel vorgestellt werden. Die SDGs boten sich an, weil sie verhältnismässig jung und immer noch sehr aktuell sind. Gleichzeitig sind sie von internationaler Bedeutung und der zu untersuchende Zeitraum ist klar abgesteckt. Ein weiterer Grund ist, dass sie durch die Breite an Themen alle verschiedenen Aspekte der Nachhaltigkeit aufnehmen und sich nicht nur auf die ökologische Nachhaltigkeit beziehen.

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Research libraries have provided a key to unlocking the knowledge of the centuries. The nature of their stewardship of knowledge has led to a focus on understanding the value and sustainability in terms of collections. The extraordinarily rich collections have made a great contribution to education and to the communities they serve. A new theory of change which underpins the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG s) highlights the contribution that activities can make to improve national and international economic, social, community and governmental health. This article analyses the nature of major research library activities in light of the SDGs methodology. Taking this broad framework to the work of International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) libraries provides new insights into the value and broader contribution of those libraries. The indicators assessed in the framework specifically relate to the outcomes of education and information within the societies they service. The case study suggests that the libraries make a significant and deep contribution both to the current national environments as well as in creating a framework for future returns on the investment to their universities.

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The Sustainable Libraries Initiative's Sustainable Libraries Certification Program (SLCP) provides library leaders with a tested, structured path forward to increase your library's commitment to environmental stewardship, economic feasibility, and social equity.

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Speichern als BibTeX  Speichern als EndNote  Abstract

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Library kicked off a series of conference with the main theme on ‘Academic Librarian’ since 2007. In 2016, the fourth conference of the series entitled Academic Librarian 4: Sustainable Academic Libraries: Now and Beyond was co-organized by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Library and the Chinese University of Hong Kong Library. The Academic Librarian 4 Conference addresses the multi-dimensional issues of sustainability pertaining to academic libraries under four major themes: (1) Sustainable Environment; (2) Sustainable Resources; (3) Sustainable Technologies; and (4) Sustainable Services. Apart from reviewing the key issues concerning the sustainability of academic libraries brought up by the conference papers, the author also highlights the way in which the Academic Librarian 4 Conference tried every effort to make this a sustainable library event.

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Brazil, a world leader in natural resources, has been taking measures in order to guarantee an effective implementation of public policies, as well as effective environmental and educational management in its practices and services by aiming at environmental sustainability. However, regarding the Library Science field, specially the sector of Public Libraries, the roles and responsibilities of these institutions and librarians are little discussed in this scenario. This paper assumes that public libraries are institutions supported by the government, therefore they should be the first institutions to incorporate principles of sustainability and turn themselves into models of green cultural facilities in the country. This work presents a brief scenario of Brazilian public libraries, especially the Biblioteca Parque do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, the only facility of its kind that has achieved the Gold LEED Environmental Certificate. It also discusses the Ministry of Environment's Sala Verde project, which offers a collection of environmental books which aim at fostering the development of green rooms and their patrimony for environmental education and sustainability in Brazilian libraries. This study also suggests national guidelines for the implementation of public policies for green and sustainable libraries in the country. The objective is to stimulate such implementation in local and state governments.

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The sustainable development in librarianship is relatively a new research field. This paper aims to increase readers' understanding of sustainable development challenges in Library and Information Science (LIS) in terms of complexity and diversity. A detailed plan was drawn up from Preferred Reporting Items for the Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) to achieve the objectives of this study. An inclusion and exclusion criteria was established and each study item passed through identification, screening, eligibility and inclusion before being placed in the final pool of items. This paper reviewed literature chosen from LISA, LISTA, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases spanning from 2000 to 2020. Findings revealed that there was diverse type of sustainable development challenges in Library and Information Science (LIS). Absence of sustainable strategies, lack of sustainable education in the LIS curriculum, operations, services and buildings designs and massive energy consumption due to long service hours of libraries were major challenges. More importantly, the rapid digital and technological advances have made libraries' current equipment irrelevant casting a large carbon footprint on the globe. Challenges to adaptation are compounded by clinging to old traditions and resistance to change which limit the ability to plan for long term sustainable development (SD) goals. There is need to remove these obstacles to accrue benefits for today and far reaching implications for the future. The study provides an integrative report to help library leaders and educational policy makers in Pakistan to apply SD initiatives more effectively according to the institutes' contextual needs. The results of this study will also help further the sustainability agenda in LIS by incorporating sustainability into the LIS curriculum.

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Over the past few years, sustainable development has emerged the latest development slogan. Sustainable development has been defined as the development that meets the social, economic and technological needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. A good well-equipped library is a prerequisite for the intellectual, moral, and spiritual advancement and elevation of an individual right from childhood; it is an indispensable element of the absolute well-being of the citizens and that of the nation at large. To attain sustainable development, the role of libraries, and particularly school libraries, cannot be ignored hence the need to discuss this topic at this time.

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Library event planning involves decisions about what resources to buy or use, how attendees will travel to in-person events, how waste will disposed of, and how to move events online. All of these decisions must be carefully considered in the light of the climate crisis and the harm it poses to the community we serve. A variety of strategies have been undertaken to mitigate impacts and develop resilient responses to climate change.

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Introduction. Research linking sustainable development and information science has been sparse. In addition, while the United Nations early on recognized the importance of information for sustainable development, there has been very little progress in linking sustainable development with information related issues, such as information and communication technologies. A basic problem is the difficulty in connecting highly flexible concepts such as information andinformation society to the complex concept of sustainable development. Method. This paper reviews the development of the concept of sustainable development, discusses various failures connecting it to information as a strategic resource and attempts an articulation of the concept of sustainable information, building on sustainable development. Conclusions. Sustainable information is seen to consist of two distinct parts: information for sustainable development (seen as a resource for the project of sustainable development) and development of sustainable information (creating sustainable information and communication technologies). It is argued that an articulation of sustainable information is important for information science and neighbouring research disciplines. The paper concludes with suggestions on integrating concepts of sustainable information into educational programmes for information professionals. Specific emphasis is placed on sustainable information as an area to be developed within information ethics.

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The article concerns a new libraries development strategy, which means taking account of the sustainable development concept in which the main emphasis is put on minimizing the negative influence on the natural environment, social and intergeneration justice. This organization activity concept plays more and more essential role nowadays, when there is growing natural environment devastation, social and economic anxiety and social stratification. The libraries have been interested in the idea of sustainable development since the 1990s. In the article, the sustainable library idea was presented as well as some selected examples of sustainable libraries, the appropriate tools for measuring these types of institutions and the prospects of their development.

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This study aims to investigate sustainability awareness in libraries and compare the results between foreign and Finnish libraries. The study employed a descriptive survey method supported by a questionnaire. The survey was conducted at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Helsinki in August 2012 and it is a part of a Finnish national project “Sustainable development in libraries”. The Finnish-language questionnaire for public libraries was conducted in February 2012. The questionnaire was divided into five sections: environmental management, environmental economy, reduction of environmental burden, increase in environmental awareness and environmental communication. There were 141 respondents to the Finnish survey but disappointingly only 28 people answered the international survey. This statistically is not significant but the study gives some sense of the potential for investigating international opinion at a major conference such as IFLA. The study showed that there is much room for improvement in sustainability of libraries. Environmental communication seems to be the area that most needs improvement and the reduction of environmental burden is where libraries appear to be performing well. Significant differences were not noticed between Finnish and other libraries although it is not possible to draw definitive conclusions from such a small sample. Further research and more significant comparative studies on sustainability in libraries, in particular on social and economic sustainability, are required. Diese Studie untersucht das Bewusstsein für Nachhaltigkeit in Bibliotheken und vergleicht die Ergebnisse anderer Länder mit denen Finnlands. Die Studie wendet die Methode einer beschreibenden Untersuchung an, gestützt durch eine Umfrage. Die Untersuchung wurde während des IFLA World Library and Information Congress im August 2012 in Helsinki durchgeführt und ist Teil eines finnischen nationalen Projektes “Sustainable development in libraries”. Die Umfrage in finnischer Sprache wurde im Februar 2012 unter öffentlichen Bibliotheken durchgeführt und bestand aus fünf Abschnitten: Umwelt- management, Umweltökonomie, Reduktion der Umweltbelastung, Zunahme des Umweltbewusstseins und der umweltbezogenen Kommunikation. Es gingen 141 Antworten von finnischen Bibliotheken ein, aber enttäuschenderweise beantworteten nur 28 anwesende Bibliothekare den internationalen Fragebogen. Die Studie zeigt, dass zur Verbesserung der Nachhaltigkeit in Bibliotheken noch viel getan werden kann. Sowohl auf dem Gebiet der Kommunikation als auch bei der Reduzierung der Umweltbelastung scheinen Bibliotheken gut aufgestellt. Signifikante Unterschiede zwischen finnischen und anderen Bibliotheken wurden nicht festgestellt. Weitere Forschungen zur Nachhaltigkeit in Bibliotheken sind erforderlich, besonders hinsichtlich sozialer und ökonomischer Nachhaltigkeit.