2023-2024 American Library Association (ALA) President Emily Drabinski made a rather large announcement at the opening ceremony of the 2024 ALA Annual Conference in San Diego, CA yesterday: the release of The National Climate Action Strategy for Libraries and the companion Implementation Guide.
“One of my presidential initiatives has explored how libraries can continue to tackle climate change,” said ALA President Emily Drabinski. “After a decade of advocacy within ALA, we partnered with the Sustainable Libraries Initiative to create a National Climate Action Plan for Libraries. I want to give a huge shout-out to the working group that created both the strategy and the implementation plan to help library workers do all they can in the face of this profound threat to our planet.”
In October 2023 we convened the National Climate Action Strategy Working Group* – a truly remarkable lineup of folks from the profession who have been hard at work to make the “grandest challenge of our generation” actionable in the library community.
Behold, the National Climate Action Strategy and Implementation Guide, produced thanks to a partnership of the Sustainable Libraries Initiative and the American Library Association.
*National Climate Action Strategy for Libraries Team
Principal Author: Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, Executive Director, Mid-Hudson Library System and the Co-Founder/President of the Sustainable Libraries Initiative (SLI)
Principal Advisors, SLI Advisory Board: Matthew Bollerman, SLI Co-Founder and CEO of the Hauppauge Public Library; Dr. Jen Cannell, School Library System Director at Southern Westchester BOCES and instructor at Syracuse University and St. John Fisher University; Jennifer Ferriss, Assistant Director of the Saratoga Springs Public Library (NY); and Lisa Kropp, Director of the Lindenhurst Memorial Library (NY)
Principal Advisors, ALA Executive Board: Sara Dallas, Director, Southern Adirondack Library System; and ALA Executive Board Member; Lessa Kananiʻopua Pelayo-Lozada, the Immediate ALA Past President and City of Glendale Assistant Director of Library, Arts and Culture in Southern California; and Christina Rodriques, Senior Program Manager for Member Relations at OCLC and ALA Executive Board Member.
National Climate Action Working Group Members:
Jensen Adams, Sustainability Manager, City of Kansas City and Chair of the ALA Council Committee on Sustainability;
Stacey Aldrich, State Librarian of Hawaii and Chair of the ALA Center for the Future of Libraries;
Tina Chan, Reference Services Program Manager and Humanities Librarian, MIT Libraries and Immediate Past Coordinator of the ALA Sustainability Round Table;
Beth Filar Williams, User Experience Research librarian at Oregon State University Libraries and Press and Founding Member, ALA Sustainability Round Table;
Mandi Goodsett, Performing Arts & Humanities Librarian and OER & Copyright Advisor at Cleveland State University and Coordinator of the ALA Sustainability Round Table;
Susan Hempstead; Assistant Director of Strategic Relations at Sno-Isle Libraries in Washington State;
Katina Jones, Program Manager, Evaluation & Assessment, Public Library Association
Veronda J. Pitchford, Assistant Director of Califa Group;
Mary Sauer-Games, Vice President of Global Product Management for OCLC;
Colleen Seisser, YALSA 2023-24 President, Assistant Director at the Westmont Public Library in Westmont, Illinois;
Michele Stricker, Deputy State Librarian, New Jersey;
Eira Tansey, Memory Rising.