Libraries are so Green
2008 August 1
Libraries were green before green was cool. What could be more environmentally friendly than communities sharing single copies of millions of books? “Read it and return it” sounds like a pretty green behavior to me.
Full-text access to thousands of newspapers, magazines, journals and e-books is pretty green too. I like the idea of promoting regular use of your local library as part of a green lifestyle:
And since I conveniently work at Cecil H. Green Library, we can go with “Use your library … it’s Green!”
Thoughts inspired by Stanford’s upcoming IT Open House, which is using a “Green IT” theme this year.
I’m a huge fan of borrowing books epecially since I have so little room left to store new books. However, I’m a writer and have several friends who are writiers and I always feel guilty borrowing books instead of buying them knowing that I’m not financially supporting the artisits. I know that for most book deals, writers are paid an advance against sales; therefore they make a certain small amount then no more until they sell lots of books. It’s not that simple and there are other variables, but I still feel guilty.
And obviously digitizing collections and then freely sharing them is another way libraries are Green – each library no longer needs to keep its own personal copy.