A call for sustainable library operations and services: A response to ACRL’s 2007 environmental scan

Abstract

In the Association of College & Research Libraries' (ACRL) "Environmental Scan 2007," released in January 2008, there was no mention of the environmental sustainable development of academic libraries. This omission is disconcerting as piles of printed e-mail and unwanted books are thrown out of libraries, library users print page after page of documents, old computers and technologies are discarded, and there is no serious accounting of what type and how much energy is used in academic libraries on a daily basis. Academic libraries are ironic places of contradiction: environmental consumption within libraries is skyrocketing, but the very model of a library is built on sustainability. Today, that tradition of sustainability has been overshadowed by digitization, collection development, and the pursuit for new technologies. The sustainable development of collections and library services should become important components of academic library operations. Adapted from the source document.