


Libraries are so Green

Libraries were green before green was cool. What could be more environmentally friendly than communities sharing single copies of millions of books? “Read it and return it” sounds like a pretty green behavior to me.

Full-text access to thousands of newspapers, magazines, journals and e-books is pretty green too. I like the idea of promoting regular use of your local library as part of a green lifestyle:

  • Why buy books when you can borrow?
  • Save a tree — cancel your personal print subscription to The Advocate (or The Nation, or the Wall Street Journal, or whatever newspapers/magazines you subscribe to), and read it online through the library.
  • Faculty and grad students–Still getting your own personal paper copy of important academic journals? Save paper and gas by setting up an alert through your library’s subscription.
  • And since I conveniently work at Cecil H. Green Library, we can go with “Use your library … it’s Green!”

    Thoughts inspired by Stanford’s upcoming IT Open House, which is using a “Green IT” theme this year.

    5 Responses to “Libraries are so Green”


    1. 1 Jessica March 8, 2010 at 6:17 pm

      Some libraries also sell the books that are no longer needed in circulation. This also gives great deals to those who want cheap books while giving books a good home instead of being disposed of/recycled.

      Like

    2. 3 eileen August 17, 2008 at 4:05 pm

      I’m a huge fan of borrowing books epecially since I have so little room left to store new books. However, I’m a writer and have several friends who are writiers and I always feel guilty borrowing books instead of buying them knowing that I’m not financially supporting the artisits. I know that for most book deals, writers are paid an advance against sales; therefore they make a certain small amount then no more until they sell lots of books. It’s not that simple and there are other variables, but I still feel guilty.

      Like

    3. 4 Malgorzata Schaefer August 16, 2008 at 6:01 pm

      And obviously digitizing collections and then freely sharing them is another way libraries are Green – each library no longer needs to keep its own personal copy.

      Like


    1. 1 Why (academic) libraries rock « Feral Librarian Trackback on August 31, 2009 at 6:47 pm

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