Just back from doing a session of “Greening Your Library” for the Long Island Library Resources Council at the Plainview-Old Bethpage Public Library. I noticed a different attitude toward green in the room comparative to my upstate presentations. I didn’t feel like I had to sell going green too hard, people got it and seemed willing to invest in it which was refreshing.

There were a number of people in the room already doing great stuff, at least three libraries had “greened” their cleaning programs, one had a thin client computer network for the public, another had had a geothermal system from the 1960s which blew my mind!

Great questions came up – what does the inside of a solar tube look like? [mirrors and lenses] How to reduce bird strikes on windows? [window decal of a hawk/streamers outside for movement] Should we replace our lawn with clover? [probably not worth the effort to replace but worth exploring if you had no lawn or a small patch of lawn] How long will porous asphalt last? [20 years if installed correctly and maintained] Are solar shingles a viable roofing material? [almost, they are predicted to become widely available in 2011-2010 ]

I had an interesting conversation with Rebecca Miller, an editor of Library Journal while at the PLA Conference in Portland last week. As we discussed the value, importance and high level of interest in libraries going green I was challenged to try and articulate my philosophy about Sustainable Libraries and why having a sustainable library plays into the Sustainability Cycle I work within at my day job. [See p. 39 of the Handbook for New Public Library Directors in New York State for a graphic of the Sustainability Cycle]

“Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the capacity to endure. In ecology, the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. …” [Wikipedia, Sustainability]

I focus my daily work on helping libraries be sustainable – to find sustainable funding, to create sustainable governance and management structures and policies and to make their facilities sustainable in both a sense of economics and the environment. In a sense, those efforts are to the end of remaining “diverse and productive” as well since libraries that do not grow in in response to changing community needs, funding situations, and technological advances find their public support – both in people power and dollars – withering.

Working towards sustainable library buildings demonstrates to the public:

• a commitment to the future of the community and the environment
• working to achieve a high return on investment for tax payer dollars
• care and concern for the health and well-being of library patrons, staff and the community-at-large