Sustainability at the Library

What you can do

We encourage our users to support our sustainability commitment. Toner cartridges and paper used in public printing represent the major supply costs for the Library.

Help reduce waste in the Library:

Printing

  1. Save online articles and other information as pdf's on the network or a flash drive – send them to study group partners via email.
  2. Sign up for online blogs, and newsfeeds. See our Guide to Using RSS Feeds.
  3. Read articles online and take online notes rather than printing the entire article.
  4. Read the article abstract and skim the article before printing to make sure that it is useful for your research.
  5. Use a scanner to save text – you can email the file to yourself and read it online.
  6. Email articles from databases to yourself. Most of our databases allow users to create accounts and save citations and other information for viewing later.
  7. Email book citations to yourself from our library catalog.

Other Opportunities

  1. Recycle – use the receptacles for paper, cans, and bottles located in numerous spots around the Library.
  2. Turn the lights out in the bathroom as you leave if you are the last person in the space.
  3. Leave no trace with your food and drink.

If you have any other ideas, please use the online suggestion box to the right. We'll post your suggestions on the Library website in the future, and we will look closely at your suggestions as we move forward.

What we're doing

From the beginning of the College's efforts to develop sustainable practices, the Library has been implementing changes in our efforts to "go green."

We have collaboratively worked with the College electricians to relamp the library. As a result, we eliminated approximately 400 light fixtures and installed lighting that provides twice the amount of light as the old fixtures. New digital controls allow banks of lights to be automatically switched off when areas are not in active use. The estimated annual savings associated with this project is $20,000.

We also collaborated with the Office of Facilities and repurposed damaged desk chairs and other furniture from residence halls. The backs of the desk chairs were removed and the seats have been refinished. As a result, you will see numerous stools around the Library, which are perfect for propping up your feet, holding a laptop, or using as additional seating.

We no longer send out paper notices to faculty, staff and students - we use email. Date due receipts are thermally printed, using no ink.

One-sided printouts that are not picked up are reused by interlibrary loan for lending requests. Double-sided printouts that are not picked up are cut into book straps.

Interlibrary loan article/campus deliveries are paperless. Articles are sent via PDF to requesters.

We also participate in the Better World Books (BWB) project – library donations and discards are distributed to non-profit literacy partners around the world. To date, BWB has saved over 16.3 million pounds of paper from the landfill.