At the 2018 American Library Association (ALA) conference in New Orleans we submitted the final report of the Special Task Force on Sustainability. In eight months this task force took a hard look at where opportunities can be found for ALA, our profession and libraries  to step up as leaders on the topic of sustainability.

Results of a national ALA membership survey indicate that ALA is not currently viewed as a leader on the topic of sustainability.

The final report outlines the efforts of this task force, shares the results of a membership survey and provides 52 recommendations to help advance the impact libraries can have to help their communities thrive in the future.

It was a pleasure serving on this task force. I am proud of the work we did. However, there is much to be done. I introduced this report to the ALA Council on Monday of the conference and the timing of my presentation on the agenda was pretty interesting. I was up after Council narrowly voted down a resolution that strongly suggested an increase in socially responsible investing and a divestment of fossil fuel holdings.

Those who serve on Council are good people, trying to balance the economics of the investment strategy while upholding our core values, not always an easy thing. This resolution has been brought up for a vote before, several times in fact, and each time a few more people vote for it. People are educating themselves, drawing a line in the sand about how far they are willing to compromise their values.

The world is changing and our thinking on many things must change too. Sustainability is not a destination. It is a way of thinking. The evolution of our profession must adopt this mindset and we’ve got a strong start in that direction with the report of this task force.

Stay tuned!