"Sustainability" is coming to your local library.

How public libraries are becoming leaders in the practices and practicalities of the Sustainability movement.

The Lakeside library of the San Diego County Library system. It is one of a growing number of libraries across the country embracing and applying a broad concept of sustainability. (Photo by Deb Fallows.)

Our Towns has been following public libraries since we first wandered into the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington, Vermont more than a decade ago. We didn’t know what to expect. Why were we going into the library, we wondered to ourselves? What would we even ask them? Would they welcome us?

We needn’t have worried. Starting with Burlington, we have found the librarians and staff of public libraries across the country to be unfailingly welcoming, informative, and generous with their time. When we asked what was happening in their towns, they seemed connected to all the trends, stresses, and points of pride. They had insights into the wants and needs of the most ambitious and the most vulnerable in their communities.

Libraries became a first stop in most towns we visited. Over the years, we began fondly calling libraries “the gift that keeps on giving” for their constantly evolving stories and their role in the communities – well beyond lending books and offering information. They initiated programs for school readiness and adult literacy; immigrant settlement; tool and seed lending; tech instruction; small business ventures; creating havens of safety; local art celebration; so much more. We watched them become “second responders” to disasters ranging from hurricanes to the pandemic.

Now, we have learned of another new initiative coming from the library industry. This one is about Sustainability. The American Library Association (ALA) has been on the trail of sustainability for more than eight years. In January of this year, the ALA officially reaffirmed Sustainability as a core value, and defined it this way: making choices that are good for the environment, make sense economically, and treat everyone equitably.

The New York Library Association originally hosted the now well-established Sustainable Libraries Initiative (SLI), which outlines a certification process to becoming a sustainable library with practical steps and a process.

The complete piece on Sustainability in Libraries is here, on the Our Towns website. Please have a look for the deeper reporting on the people, places, and stories. Here are a few of the highlights:

—The San Diego County Library (SDCL) system, with 33 libraries blanketing a county the size of Connecticut, became the first officially certified sustainable library system on the west coast last June, setting themselves up as a leader and model of how libraries could move forward in principle and in practice. Deb visited there in July, an eye-opening and fun adventure.

—Inside the Lakeside branch of SDCL, being sustainable means embracing energy-saving systems like sensors which detect human movement for lights and cooling, LED lighting, eliminating plastic, and installing solar panels. On the grounds, it means landscaping with native plants, constructing swales for handling water, placing bike racks and EV charging stations, and appealing to nature through local art installations. Reaching the customers of the library means creating special programs on awareness and practices for composting, recycling, architects’ talks about the sustainable-oriented features of the buildings and grounds.  And what kids visiting the children’s areas wouldn’t notice the swales, vegetation, and wildlife outside the big windows, and ask what they were about?

Matt Bollerman, a co-founder of the Sustainable Libraries Initiative, says that this deliberate creation and recognition of sustainable practices, gives the libraries “a context and a structure” to deliver the story of sustainability more meaningfully to the community.

Being on a wavelength with their customers is something librarians excel at. Migell Acosta, the director of the SDCL system, is sensitive that many people are simply overwhelmed with the demands of daily life, so that thinking about the environment, sustainability and climate change just adds to their list of challenges. Based on “reading the room” of his library base in today’s times, he said: “We’re just living in this state of multi crisis and sometimes hitting people over the head with climate changes; it’s just too much… What can I do as an individual.. Why should I focus on climate change instead of on these 10 other crises that I’m going through?”

Acosta says that if you think about the library’s role, it is a place where the community can come and share their stories. As an individual, you may be making your best effort but think that you’re the only one. “You show up to one of our events and you find other people in the community who are conserving water, doing whatever,” Acosta continues, “and all of a sudden they realize, ‘Oh, I feel much like, hey, maybe we can get together, naturally.’” The outcome? “Community strength gets reinforced,” Migell Acosta says.

Reinforcing community and helping saving the planet: an ambitious goal of libraries. Please read more here.