2011 GREEN BOOK FESTIVAL – Deadline to submit Satuday! May 5, 2011

Thanks Fred Stoss/TFOE for the info:

The 2011 Green Book Festival’s final deadline for entries to its annual competition honoring books that contribute togreater understanding, respect and positive action on the changing worldwide environment arrives on May 7.

All entries must be received by the deadline date. The 2011 Green BookFestival will consider published, self-published and independent publisherworks in the following categories: non-fiction, fiction, children’s books,teenage, how-to, audio/spoken word, comics/graphic novels, poetry, science fiction/horror, biography/autobiography, gardening, cookbooks, animals, photography/art, e-books, wild card (anything goes!), scientific, white paper, legal, business, mystery and spiritual.

Entries can be in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese or Italian.

Our grand prize for the 2011 Green Book Festival is $1500 and transportation to our May 21 awards in San Francisco OR an equivalent amount donated in your name to the environmental charity of your choice.

A panel of judges will determine the winners based on the following criteria:
1) The overall writing style and presentation of the work;
2) The potential of the work to enhance understanding of the environment
and its issues;

TO ENTER: Entry forms are available online at
http://www.greenbookfestival.com or may be sent to you by emailing
GreenBookFestival@sbcglobal.net or calling our office at 323-665-8080.

The Green Book Festival is produced by JM Northern Media LLC, producers of
the Hollywood Book Festival, New York Book Festival and DIY Convention: Do
It Yourself in Film, Music & Books.

Rebound Designs: reusing books July 7, 2010

At ALA in June, I wandered past a cool exhibitor & very friendly entrepreneur of  Rebound Designs  - Caitlin Phillips. Caitlin takes old books and creates beautiful and useful art from them!  Her main creations are these way cool book purses but she also creates wallets, and Naughty Bits Pins, and more.  You can read or listen to the NPR interview about how she  got this idea and how she creates these artful reused book purses.  Purchase one of Caitlin’s pieces from etsy - or if you are in the DC area, she is at Eastern Market in DC most weekends. Also follow her on twitter @bookgrrl to hear what her latest creation may be.

Great Resource: Top 50 Sustainability Books July 2, 2010

Highly recommend purchasing this book for your library and reviewing it for possible books to also have in your collection. The Top 50 Sustainability Books written by Wayne Visser on behalf of the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership and published by Greenleaf publishing (on FSC paper) is a wonderful collection of reviews of sustainable themed books. It’s easy to skim through or read from cover to cover. Each “chapter” highlights one book, with images and details for the book, followed by quick bulleted list of key ideas from the book, a one page synopsis, a box of quick snip-its from the book itself,  and an about the author section, sometimes with an actual interview transcript.

Wayne Visser is Founder and CEO of the thinktank CSR International, as well as Senior Associate of the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership. He is the author/editor of eight books, including six on sustainable and responsible business.  Watch a video of excerpts of some author interviews on vimeo.

Design Competition for Book Industry February 3, 2010

The Book Industry Environmental Council (BIEC), which includes publishers, retailers, printers and more, has been promoting environmental practices for the book industry, setting goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and looking into creating a label to indicate greener publishers. Enter their contest to create 3 progressive levels indicating  environmental achievement in publishing and win $500. Entries due March 1 2010. Read the details and guidelines. Download the poster (PDF).

How Green is My Library? book January 29, 2010

I have to promote a wonderful new book that was recently published called How Green is My Library? by Ned Himmel and Sam McBane Mulford (info) published by Libraries Unlimited. The book covers both design of green buildings and how to make your library green using green initiatives and green goals for such things as alternative transportation, recycling, etc. It offers checklists, guides, and tools for evaluating the greenness of existing or planned facilities and operations and many potential solutions for implementation of these ideas. Written for the novice through advanced,  it’s worth the purchase for any library. (I’ll admit I may be slightly biased as they used some of my blog post ideas in their book  -thanks Ned & Sam!

Also listen to the authors speak about their book at a FREE online webinar on Feb 11 at 2pm (eastern) through OPAL.

Call for Submission: Greening Libraries June 29, 2009

From Library Juice Press:

Greening Libraries, edited by Monika Antonelli and Mark McCullough and published by Library Juice Press, is a collection of essays, papers and articles on various aspects of the green library movement. The editors are seeking articles from a variety of perspectives on a wide range of topics related to green practices, sustainability and the library profession. Greening Libraries will offer an overview of important aspects of the growing green library movement, including, but not limited to, green buildings, alternative energy resources, conservation, green library services and practices, operations, programming, and outreach.

Deadline for Summaries: October 1, 2009 – Submit a brief summary of your proposed article (250 words or less) to Monika Antonelli or Mark McCullough

Recycle books into furniture April 14, 2009

From inhabitat.com

Book shelf made from old books:

Old phone book coffee table:

Green Publishing Webcast Summary March 11, 2009

(Article from Publishers Weekly) In late February a webcast sponsored by Green Press Initiative, Webcom and PW called  Successful Green Publishing was held with over 250 publishers in attendance. The webcast consisted of a panel of various publishers with an overview of the industry and discussing issues like setting goals for where the industry can go, how to determine saving by printing on recycled paper, and importance of having eco type  book labels on books to explain to the public a publisher’s commitment to the environment.  One main issue that came up was cost - it costs 15% – 25% more per book to print on recycled paper (but  The Green Book was mentioned – the first 100% recycled book Crown published in 2006 which became a bestseller, selling more than 200,000 copies.)  Another issue was finding FSC-certified printers and paper overseas and whether they should focus on printing (at a higher price) in the US.  Another issue was printing in general and how the industry might be able to cut back.

You will still have to register but you can listen to the archived session for FREE.

Also, you might want to check out a post I did  last fall of a  summary of the US Book Industry Trends & Findings.

Environmental Booklists February 10, 2009

• Booklist Online has a list of Core Collection: Environmental Essentials
• Ecolibrarian offers numerous book lists on topics such as Climate Change, Earth Books for Children, Environmental Justice, Green My Ride, etc.
• Check out Ecobrain for eBooks and mp3 audio about the environment and environmentally-friendly.
• The Environmental Defense Fund has a list (and a user generated poll) of the Most Influential Environmental Book.
• There is even a List of Environmental Books on Wikipedia.
• other suggestions? Please comment!

Recycled Book Art December 3, 2008

Before you get rid of an old childrens book try this idea and create a Literary Clock. The Instructables web site offers easy to follow steps with clear photos. Could be a fun holiday art project.