Month: April 2016

April 28, 2016

Save the date: SustainRT events at ALA

The ALA Annual Conference held in Orlando FL this year has now published their schedule.  And here are the Sustainability Round Table events and programs – save the date if you are planning to attend!

  • Saturday morning, June 25, 8:30 – 10 a.m. “Sustainable Thinking,” presentation by Matthew Bollerman (Hauppauge Public Library (New York) and Rebekkah Smith Aldrich (Mid-Hudson Library System (New York) will explore how to infuse the core value of sustainability into everything we do, taking a “whole systems approach” to leading our libraries into the future and building our base of support among those we serve along the way. 
  • Saturday afternoon, 1 – 2:30 p.m., SustainRT will hold its annual business meeting, “SustainRT: Libraries Fostering Resilient Communities.” ALL ARE WELCOME! 
  • Saturday evening, 5:30 – 7 p.m.  connect with SustainRT and the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table members during a joint social at Marlow’s Tavern, 9101 International Drive.
  • Sunday morning, June 26,   10:30 – 11:30 a.m., “Planting the Seeds: Libraries and Librarians as Change Agents for Sustainability within Their Communities” will explore how libraries of all kinds, already cornerstones of their communities and hubs of exchange, are uniquely positioned to act as change agents within those communities to become sustainable, resilient and regenerative.   Panelists will include Jodi Shaw, children’s librarian, Brooklyn Public Library; Madeleine Charney, sustainability studies librarian, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Mary Beth Lock, director of Access Services, Wake Forest University; and Ray Pun, first year student success librarian, California State University, Fresno.
  • Sunday afternoon, 4:30 – 5:30 p.m., “The National Library of Aruba: Promoting, Enhancing and Embracing Green Education” will feature a panel of representatives from the National Library of Aruba (NLA) and partner organizations from the Caribbean island nation, the Netherlands and the United States as they share their experiences holding a series of symposia from 2012-2015 for 6,000 students and teachers in secondary schools and higher education on sustainable energy, food supply, and soil practices.
April 22, 2016

SustainRT’s Madeleine Charney on Lost in the Stacks Radio Show RECORDING!

UPDATE!

If you missed it live you must listen to the recording!  Its all about SustainRT with lots of good music mixed in.

Hear the show at http://traffic.libsyn.com/lostinthestacks/LITS_Episode_301.mp3

Screen Shot 2016-04-22 at 8.39.00 AMTune in Friday April 22, Earth Day, for the Lost in the Stacks radio show at noon eastern! SustainRT’s Madeleine Charney will be on the show talking about the Sustainability Round Table and things sustainable for libraries.

 

So, what is Lost in the Stacks:

The one and only Research Library Rock’n’Roll show  – on Fridays at noon (eastern)!  Ameet and Charlie from the Georgia Tech Library pick a theme and free-associate an hour of music, interviews, and library talk every Friday for lunch. You’ll hear indie rock, pop rock, alt rock, New Wave, and the occasional oddity in between interviews with students, faculty, and librarians.

April 13, 2016

CFP: Libraries and Archives in the Anthropocene: A Colloquium

How cool does this sound!!!

Call for Proposals:  Libraries and Archives in the Anthropocene: A Colloquium
May 13-14, 2017
New York University

As stewards of a culture’s collective knowledge, libraries and archives are facing the realities of cataclysmic environmental change with a dawning awareness of its unique implications for their missions and activities. Some professionals in these fields are focusing new energies on the need for environmentally sustainable practices in their institutions. Some are prioritizing the role of libraries and archives in supporting climate change communication and influencing government policy and public awareness. Others foresee an inevitable unraveling of systems and ponder the role of libraries and archives in a world much different from the one we take for granted. Climate disruption, peak oil, toxic waste, deforestation, soil salinity and agricultural crisis, depletion of groundwater and other natural resources, loss of biodiversity, mass migration, sea level rise, and extreme weather events are all problems that indirectly threaten to overwhelm civilization’s knowledge infrastructures, and present information institutions with unprecedented challenges.

This colloquium will serve as a space to explore these challenges and establish directions for future efforts and investigations. We invite proposals from academics, librarians, archivists, activists, and others.

  • Some suggested topics and questions:
  • How can information institutions operate more sustainably?
  • How can information institutions better serve the needs of policy discussions and public awareness in the area of climate change and other threats to the environment?
  • How can information institutions support skillsets and technologies that are relevant following systemic unraveling?
  • What will information work look like without the infrastructures we take for granted?
  • How does information literacy instruction intersect with ecoliteracy?
  • How can information professionals support radical environmental activism?
  • What are the implications of climate change for disaster preparedness?
  • What role do information workers have in addressing issues of environmental justice?
  • What are the implications of climate change for preservation practices?
  • Should we question the wisdom of preserving access to the technological cultural legacy that has led to the crisis?
  • Is there a new responsibility to document, as a mode of bearing witness, the historical event of society’s confrontation with the systemic threat of climate change, peak oil, and other environmental problems?
  • Given the ideological foundations of libraries and archives in Enlightenment thought, and given that Enlightenment civilization may be leading to its own environmental endpoint, are these ideological foundations called into question? And with what consequences?

Formats:
Lightning talk (5 minutes)
Paper (20 minutes)

Proposals are due August 1, 2016.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent by September 16, 2016.
Submit your proposal here: http://goo.gl/forms/rz7uN1mBNM