Green Book Festival 2012: call for entries September 26, 2011

Call for entries!  This annual competition -2012 Green Book Festival -  honors books that contribute to greater understanding, respect and positive action on the changing worldwide environment. Considerations to published, self-published and independent publisher works 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.

Grand prize  – $1500 and transportation to our May 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.

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.

Book Bikes September 15, 2011

As a librarian who loves biking & sharing books, what a fun concept – the  new book mobile is  a book bike!

Check out some of the libraries using this idea:

Chicago Book Bike

Pima County library’s book bike

Brazillian biciloteca

art from old books July 9, 2011

check out these beautiful art pieces created from discarded books by an Australian artist Kylie Stillman. Kylie carves trees out of old books —  Kind of ironic that trees are used to create books that are now used to create images of tree within them!  Check out more images on  http://1800recycling.com/blog/ or check out Kylie Stillman’s website!

(also check out more about 1800recylcing.com blog, recycling search, or their state by state resources)

Book Trees December 20, 2010

Check out these cool ideas created from taking discarded books and making trees and decorations:

Created by Gleeson Library, U of San Francisco, image from Shawncalhoun on Flickr:
From instructables:
From the James Cook University Library in Cairns, Qld via Flickr:
From Real Simple.com:
From bunchofpants on flickr.com:

Library Desk of Recycled Books @ Delft U September 22, 2010

At the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands – the images (©Ellen Forsyth) tell it all:  read more or and see lots more photos at inhabitat:

Ways to use old books March 10, 2010

This web site from Online Colleges lists 80 awesomely,  creative ideas for reusing – instead of just discarding – old books. Ideas are categorize into:  around the house (yoga block or a book safe – cut hole in center), at work/school (pen holder or book shelf), decorating (a lamp or decoupage tabletop), reusing the pages (wrapping paper, mulch, kitty litter), for crafts (make a gift bag or greeting cards), for kids (leaf press or paper mache), for clothing/jewelry  (make a handbag or brooch) and more.

Thanks Alliance Library System’s Going Green Blog for their post that brought this site to my attention!

Green Book Festival November 23, 2009

Any authors out there? There is a call for entries for books that “contribute to greater understanding, respect and positive action on the changing worldwide environment.” It’s for the 2010 Green Book Festival which will be held at the  Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia, CA on April 30-May 2, 2010.

The books can be published, self-published and independent publisher works 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, scientific, white paper, legal, business, mystery and spiritual and in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese or Italian.

Grand Prize winner will be the Green Book Festival Author of the Year and receive $1500 and transportation to the (april 2010) Earth Day celebration in Los Angeles OR an equivalent amount donated in your name to the environmental charity of your choice. More details!

what about a library card? September 28, 2009

Go green by going digital! Is it really greener?   Here is a blog post in MotherJones about Kindle ebook reader vs books

Kindle’s lifecycle impact is much less [than a book]: In its first year, it offsets the emissions created by its manufacture, and over its lifecycle, its carbon savings even out to about 370 pounds of CO2, or the equivalent of about 22.5 books per year.

But what if you crave paper books than an ebook format? in this article, they also calculate the cost-savings of using your library instead of buying books and the savings to the environment (and your wallet!) in the process.

Read the Cleanteach Group’s report on how green ebook readers are over print books, magazines and newspapers.

[thanks to MVCC for original post]

EcoLibris: It’s Time for a Green Book September 25, 2009

EcoLibris has a project called It’s Time for a Green Book: 1 Day, 100 bloggers, 100 green books, 100 reviews. Their goal is to have at least 100 bloggers, who review books on regular basis, simultaneously publish their book review  on Tuesday, November 10 2009. What is a green book? books that are printed using recycled and FSC certified paper. They are currently preparing a list of at least 100 books that are meeting the “green” criteria and asking publishers to send these to participating bloggers to review. If you want to participate read more on their blog or email  raz@ecolibris.net.

Books May 27, 2009

Books worth adding to your collection (of course that is if you have a budget at all in your library right now!)

RealClimate suggested two titles:

Fixing Climate: What Past Climate Changes Reveal About the Current Threat–and How to Counter It
by Wallace S. Broecker & Robert Kunzig
Their review: This is a book written in a particular style – a number of recent advances in relevant paleo-climate (abrupt changes, mega-droughts, etc.) are examined through the lens of a single scientist and their one key measurement or observation. This makes for a good narrative, but without wishing to take anything away from the great science discussed or the individual insights, it’s only a partial picture of how these interesting ideas actually took root and got validated by the wider community. The climate fix the book ends up backing is a scheme for the air capture of CO₂ (discussed here, and more recently here). The technology is fascinating, but at over a couple of hundred $/per ton CO₂, the economics are a long way from being viable.

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The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change (2nd edition)
by Richard C. J. Somerville
Their review: It is definitely worth paying attention to books that may have been out for a while, or in a new edition. We were particularly impressed with Richard Somerville’s award-winning introduction to understanding environmental change.

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Ice, Mud and Bloog: Lessons from Climates Past
By Chris Turney
Their review:  Also dwelling on paleo-climate is Chris Turney’s Ice, Mud and Blood. Eric reviewed this for Nature, noting that “Turney is by no means the first to try to articulate the point that paleoclimatology has lessons for our future. Richard Alley’s The Two-Mile Time Machine and Mark Bowen’s Thin Ice, to name just two, have made the same basic arguments. But Turney’s book is the most up to date, and I would certainly recommend it to colleagues, who will enjoy it and may well learn something new, as I did.”

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Also check out books Real Climate has been involved with since 2005:

• Our Threatened Oceans Stefan Rahmstorf and K. Richardson (2008)
• Climate Change: Picturing the Science. Gavin Schmidt and Joshua Wolfe, W.W. Norton (2009)
• The Long Thaw: How Humans are Changing the Next 100,000 Years of Earth’s Climate. David Archer, Princeton University Press (2009)
• Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming Michael Mann and Lee Kump, DK/Pearson (2008)
• Wie bedroht sind die Ozeane? Stefan Rahmstorf and K. Richardson (2007, in German)
• Global warming: Understanding the Forecast, David Archer (2006)
• Der Klimawandel Diagnose, Prognose, Therapie, Stefan Rahmstorf and H. J. Schellnhuber (2006, in German, Korean, Vietnamese; Arabic version forthcoming)
• Solar Activity and Earth’s Climate, Rasmus Benestad (2006, 2nd Edition)
• Paleoclimatology: Reconstructing Climates of the Quaternary, Ray Bradley (2005, 2nd Edition)

And a recommendation from Green Today, Green Tomorrow blog:

Environmenal Issues in American History: A Reference Guide with Primary Documents
by Chris J Magoc
Their review: discusses key environmental battles from the founding of our country to the present day.  Importantly, this book includes primary documents, so that the reader can “hear” from the people who are locked in these battles.