Libraries, Information, and Sustainability

Booklist: Books on the Environment

2009-02-12T08:27:00.000-08:00

The current issue (February 15) of Booklist features new books on the environment. You can sign up for their free Online Newsletter Read Alert at:

http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?id=64&page=general_info

Managing Your Carbon Emissions -- at WLA!

2008-09-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

The upcoming Wisconsin Library Association meeting (November 4-7, Madison, Marriott West, Middleton) stresses the theme of sustainability. The keynote address on Wednesday, November 5th (9.00-10.00) is titled "Climate Change: Local to Global and Back Again," is by UW Professor Emeritus John Magnuson.

Another very relevant session titled "Managing Your Carbon Emissions: An Innovative, Wisconsin-Based Web Tool," is to be held at 10.45-12.00 on Thursday, November 6th.

See http://www.wla.lib.wi.us/conferences/2008/program/index.htm for more information.

A case study in retrofitting a library for energy efficiency ... maybe

2008-08-20T09:38:00.001-07:00

An article in the Cap Times today mentions that a UW-Madison engineering class recently performed an energy analysis on the Monroe Street Branch of the Madison Public Library. Great green savings ideas ... but enough money in the budget to implement them?

A study by students in Mike Oliva's sustainable design engineering class at University of Wisconsin-Madison last year found that the 47-year-old library could shave energy costs by using high-performance fluorescent light bulbs, natural lighting, double-pane windows, occupancy sensors for bathroom lights and fans and additional insulation. The students found, incredibly enough, that there was no insulation in the walls.

"The study was a good one, to look at an ancient building and see what you could do," said Library Director Barb Dimick. She thought some of the proposals, in fact, worthy enough to include in her 2009 capital budget.

"But now the operating budget is so bad that the whole thing is on hold," Dimick said.

Read the full article here.

Universities market sustainability to applicants

2008-07-26T17:38:00.000-07:00

From the New York Times today (excerpt):

HIGHER education can’t resist a ranking: best college, best cafeteria, biggest endowment, biggest party school. It says something about what’s important on campus, then, that when the Princeton Review releases its annual guide to colleges this week, it will include a new metric: a “green rating,” giving points for things like “environmentally preferable food,” power from renewable sources and energy-efficient buildings.

Green is good for the planet, but also for a college’s public image. In a Princeton Review survey this year of 10,300 college applicants, 63 percent said that a college’s commitment to the environment could affect their decision to go there.

Grist Magazine, Forbes Magazine, the Princeton Review, and others are now ranking colleges and universities in part at least on "green" criteria. I wonder where UW-Madison will rank? I also wonder, how might libraries in all of these institutions contribute to a strong green score?

(Read the full article here.)

Carbon footprint of Web servers and clients

2008-06-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

An interesting article in the New York Times today talks about the energy and carbon footprint of the nation's six thousand data centers and quarter-billion PCs:

Up to two thirds of the electricity consumed by a PC is wasted, meaning the machine is on but not in use, according to the Department of Energy. The research firm Gartner estimates that 40 percent of the all carbon dioxide emissions resulting from information technology and telecommunications is attributable to PC’s. Data center servers, by contrast, represent 23 percent, though growing rapidly. (The rest is attributable to telecoms and printers.)

The solution? Simple software to put these units in "sleep mode" or power them down when not in use. In other words, turning out the light when the room is empty — for the Internet age.

Earth Day

2008-04-22T08:34:00.000-07:00

Earth Day was founded in 1970 by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, of Wisconsin. At the University of Wisconsin, the Nelson Institute coordinates research and outreach activities designed to provide information and increase our knowledge about issues of sustainability and the environment. See the Nelson Institute's website at http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/index.php for information about today's events.

American Assocation of Public Health Agencies Sees Climate Change as a Threat to Public Health

2008-03-26T14:21:00.000-07:00

This year the American Assocation of Public Health Agencies has chosen to focus on climate change. For National Public Health Week (April 7-13, 2008), APHA has issued a downloadable toolkit and informational brochure, both available at www.nphw.org

Information professionals can help spread awareness of this public health initiative!

Announcement: UW Gaia Project

2008-02-18T11:21:00.001-08:00

The UW-Madison has started a new project of faculty and staff "learning-action communities" around climate change and sustainability issues: the Gaia Project. Here's the description:

The UW Gaia Project is an action-learning community for faculty and academic staff who are concerned about issues related to sustainability and global climate change. The Project offers participants the opportunity to learn about these critical issues and to take action on a personal, professional, campus, and community levels to address them.

Learning/Action groups are planned with a variety of different emphases within the area of sustainability and energy issues. The topics given below received the highest levels of interest in the initial survey. While they have substantial overlap, this range is intended to allow participants to meet with other UW community members with similar interests. Depending on enrollment and scheduling constraints, there may be more than one group in particular areas. In addition, small special-interest groups may spin off from many of these as participant interest dictates

Visit their web site for details on these learning-action groups which are forming now.

Focus the Nation

2008-01-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

A countrywide Focus the Nation event will take place on Jan 30-31. It is described at http://www.focusthenation.org

It is a major effort involving over 1400 universities, colleges, schools and other groups to focus political attention on the overarching problem of industrial society in the 21st century : Global Warming.

You can see Chancellor Wiley's statement at http://news.wisc.edu/14643

Intern with the "Encyclopedia of Earth" project

2007-12-04T08:52:00.000-08:00

LIS students might be interested in this opportunity:

STUDENT INTERNSHIPS IN CLIMATE CHANGE

Dear Students,

Concerned about climate change? Wondering when world oil production will peak and what renewable energies are ready to step in? Want to improve the communication of sound science and policy on these topics to a global audience?

Here's your chance. We are looking for motivated individuals to become student Encyclopedia Interns on a major climate change initiative underway at the Encyclopedia of Earth (http://www.eoearth.org/), a new electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society. The Encyclopedia is a free, fully searchable collection of articles written by scholars, professionals, educators, and experts who collaborate and review each other’s work.

The articles are written in non-technical language and will be useful to students, educators, scholars,
professionals, as well as to the general public.

The goal of this project is to build the Web's largest and most authoritative resource on climate change. Encyclopedia Interns will help harvest public domain content, copyedit articles, and otherwise assist authors and topic editors in producing and publishing articles. Encyclopedia Interns will learn the basics of Mediawiki software, the collaborative content platform that underlies Wikipedia, and work with researchers, educators, professionals, and other experts on climate change and
related topics.

The time commitment is flexible and you can work at home, your school's Food Court, Starbucks, or
wherever you can grab an Internet connection.

You can see the current group of "e-scribe" Interns here: http://www.eoearth.org/article/E-scribes.

Here's your chance to make a difference and gain unique professional experience. Interested? Contact Maggie Surface at eoe@eoearth.org.

With best regards,
Cutler J. Cleveland
Editor-in-Chief
Encyclopedia of Earth

SimCity Societies - gaming goes green?

2007-11-15T14:51:00.000-08:00

SimCity Societies is an interesting new game (Windows only, so far) which purports to teach about the ecological and economic consequences of various forms of energy production, from the folks who brought you "The Sims" and the folks who brought you "British Petroleum":

BP and EA have partnered to create SimCity Societies, the city-building game that deals with the causes and consequences of global warming. The game presents options for city power generation through various high- or low-carbon means, making available solar power, wind power, hydrogen power, natural gas and biofuels — the same alternative, cleaner forms of energy BP is working with leading researchers, scientists and engineers to provide.

Can computer entertainment (sponsored, in part, by the petroleum industry) be an effective tool for raising awareness of energy footprints and climate change? Should libraries purchase this game? And more importantly: anyone around UW-Madison played this game yet? Want to write us a review?

Eco-Librarians: Changing Our Communities One Step at a Time

2007-11-08T12:28:00.000-08:00

Eco-Librarians: Changing Our Communities One Step at a Time is the title of a Continuing Education course offered at UW-Madison SLIS Continuing Education, March 31 - April 21, 2008.

The course description says," There is no doubt our environment is in crisis. Melting polar ice caps and rising sea levels, not to mention the quandary over using one square of toilet paper or two, is enough to overwhelm even the most stalwart eco-warrior. We may not be able to change our environmental woes in giant leaps, however, as a library staff, we can take many small steps to engage, enlighten, and educate our populace. This course will provide a forum for exchanging ideas on how to be effective eco-librarians through simple practices, programming, and some out-of-the-recyclable cardboard box thinking."

Instructor Pamela Bosben has over 26 years experience working in the South Central Library System and has been the Director of the Rosemary Garfoot Public Library in Cross Plains, WI since 1991. In July 2006, the community opened the first newly constructed LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) public library in the state of Wisconsin.

To register, go to http://www.slis.wisc.edu/continueed/eco.html

UW-Madison sustainability grade: B+?

2007-10-26T04:57:00.000-07:00

From the Daily Cardinal today:

UW-Madison ranks among the top-10 public and private universities for maintaining green practices, earning a “B+” grade from the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s 2008 College Sustainability Report Card, released Wednesday.

The report ranked the 200 public and private universities with the largest endowments and graded activities on campus and investment practices.

Only six schools received higher than a “B+,” putting UW-Madison “right up there at the top,” according to Mark Orlowski, executive director of the institute. Improving from last year’s overall “B” grade, UW-Madison ranked higher in food and recycling and made strides in green building design, according to the university’s individual report card.

The university scored an “A” in transportation, a new category this year, for providing alternative modes of transportation for faculty, staff and students who all receive a free bus pass. Other attributes in the report include the university’s biodiesel and electric vehicles, a bicycle sharing program and extensive pedestrian and bicycle paths.

However, UW-Madison did not improve from its “B” grade in the climate change and energy or administration categories, Orlowski said.

UW-Madison senior business lecturer Thomas Eggert said the construction of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified buildings would help continue the university’s sustainability efforts.

He noted the business department would seek LEED building certification for Grainger Hall, including the new addition, starting next semester. Eggert also said student involvement has been and will continue to be successful in “going green.”

“There’s certainly a lot of student interest born out both by the classes that are offered and also by the student groups that have developed,” Eggert said.

Eggert mentioned We Conserve, a UW-Madison campaign devoted to reducing campus energy consumption per square foot by 20 percent by the year 2010. Another positive factor in UW’s report was its high grade in endowment transparency, with investment holdings accessible on the Internet. The UW System Trust Funds consider social responsibility criteria in voting shareholder proxy proposals and seek student and public comment on issues of social concert, the report said. “Overall, the trend has been really positive for the university,” Orlowski said.

Tales from Planet Earth

2007-10-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

The October 17 issue of Wisconsin Week has an article about the upcoming film festival, "Tales from Planet Earth," that Gregg Mitman and the Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE) have organized for November 2-4. Admission is free, and it's a wonderful opportunity to view a fabulous set of environmental films in a large-screen theatrical space. See http://www.news.wisc.edu/14310 for more information.

Recycling IT

2007-10-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

"E-Wasting Away in China," by Terry J. Allen, is a thoughtful and disturbing article on America's practice of shipping unwanted "electronic waste," like computers, to China. It was published yesterday by CommonDreams.org.

Great Government Source of Information

2007-10-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

For some amazing pictures (that you helped pay for!) of global warming at work, see the Scientific Visualization Studio of the Goddard Space Center at
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/search/Instrument/ICESat.html

Disinformation not misinformation

2007-09-13T11:48:00.000-07:00

I was misinformed about the term "misinformation," which originally I misused in my post of September 6th (I have just edited the term out). I meant to use "disinformation," which Wikipedia defines as "the deliberate dissemination of false information" -- clearly a topic of professional interest to librarians and other information professionals.

For examples of disinformation related to climate change and sustainability, see the web site The Heat is Online at
http://www.heatisonline.org/disinformation.cfm

Sustainability and Preservation

2007-09-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

The Kilgarlin Center for Preservation of the Cultural Record of the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, with The Getty Conservation Institute and The University of Texas at Austin Center for Sustainable Development, present From Gray Areas to Green Areas: Developing Sustainable Practices in Preservation Environments

The symposium will be held in Austin, Texas, November 1-3, 2007, on the University of Texas campus. Boasting an exciting line-up of speakers from the fields of conservation, architecture and public relations, the symposium will examine sustainable practices in cultural heritage preservation environments. There will be extensive time for discussion and brainstorming. A highly energetic "Slam Session" will conclude the program on Saturday.

For more information and to register for the symposium, please visit:
http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/kilgarlin/gaga/index.html

Greening of the Campus

2007-09-08T07:46:00.000-07:00

Greening of the Campus is the title of a series of conferences held at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, over the last ten years that "allows people representing diverse areas in university communities to share information on environmental issues." The campus community, say the organizers, "can become a 'green' model for society as a whole by gathering and sharing this information." The seventh and most recent conference in the series took place this week and included presentations in the categories of Education, Research, Service and Operations.

In today's Wisconsin Week . . .

2007-09-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

In today's Wisconsin Week is a story about a UW employee, Jim Winkle, who has made a switch to solar power for his Madison home.

The article quotes him as saying, "I've just become more and more aware over the years of the environmental impact of the way we live. . . . You think of [electricity] as this clean energy, this clean thing coming out of your wall outlet, but in fact it's the largest source of greenhouse gases."

Read more at Wisconsin Week

"Balance" or disinformation?

2007-09-06T08:11:00.000-07:00

According to today's Independent (UK daily newspaper), the BBC has decided to withdraw a major program on global warming titled "Planet Relief," (see the Independent at http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2934318.ece) arguing that it is "not the BBC's job to lead opinion on the global warming issue."

This politicization into "opinion" of what is now overwhelming scientific evidence is very familiar to those of us who live in the United States. Calls for "balance" have resulted in a tiny minority of mostly non-scientists wielding influence in terms of air time or print space disproportionate to their numbers. Their claim to equal time with the scientific community results in a distortion of the truth that amounts to a disinformation campaign, which the BBC has unfortunately decided to join.

Librarians, like journalists, need to critically examine the notion of balance. Adherence to the Library Bill of Rights should not be a pretext for librarians to stand back from this crucial issue. Is it possible that one of the reasons that the library community has so far failed to take a concerted stand on global warming (just as in the past it unfortunately failed to take a major stand on civil rights) is because we are afraid of entering the political fray? If so, then the disinformation campaign has succeeded. The fact of global warming is not a matter of opinion.

Far from "leading opinion" the BBC program would have been reporting on what is already standard knowledge among scientists. Balance requires that information agencies like the mass media and libraries bring this vitally important information to the public as much as possible, not that they give equal time to a minority of nay-sayers who are the modern equivalent of flat-earthers.

Reading information studies: Planetary Management

2007-07-12T06:45:00.000-07:00

Folks following this weblog might want to check out another UW-Madison SLIS effort, "Reading Information Studies," where next Friday July 20 on the Terrace at 3pm we'll be discussing Fernando Elichirigoity's book Planetary Management: Limits to growth, computer simulation, and the emergence of global spaces.

Friday July 20 3pm: Fernando Elichirigoity, Planet Management: Limits to Growth, Computer Simulation, and the Emergence of Global Spaces (Northwestern University Press, 1999). [paper: $28]

Planet Management is a study of, and contribution to, the history of "globality"--the emergence of a complex organization of politics, economics, and culture at a planetary rather than a national level. Drawing on historical archival research as well as recent theoretical work in science studies and critical theory, the book tell the story of the central role of technoscientific discourses and practices in the emergence of globality.

New blog title

2007-07-12T06:43:00.000-07:00

You'll notice I've changed the title of our blog to "Libraries, information, and sustainability." Mostly this was because the earlier title was a mess and and this one is more memorable. But I think this topic has resonance outside of UW-Madison SLIS and I wanted a title that would be more welcoming to faculty, staff, students, and other professionals from the wider UW community (and beyond).

Is Harry Potter green?

2007-07-06T05:44:00.000-07:00

Only two weeks to the release of the last Harry Potter book. (Full disclosure: I'll be buying one and reading it non-stop the day it's released.) But with all those books printed and shipped to all those bookstores around the world, should we be considering the environmental impact as well as the educational and entertainment value of the event? Over at the Britannica Blog, a posting asks How green is this Harry Potter?

In March Scholastic announced its plans for what it called “a historic commitment” to the environment. For its first print run, Scholastic said, 12 million copies of The Deathly Hallows would use paper with “a minimum of 30% post-consumer waste (pcw) fiber.” In addition,

65% of the 16,700 tons of paper used in the U.S. first printing will be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the global standard-setter for responsible forest management.

Scholastic also announced that it would produce 100,000 copies of a “deluxe edition” that would use 100 percent pcw fiber for its 784 pages of text and FSC-certified paper for its jacket.

As a large collective of institutional purchasers, I wonder what leverage libraries might have in convincing publishers to increase the use of recycled material in their products.

Eco-Librarians Continuing Ed Course

2007-07-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

When this sustainability discussion started, I wanted to be proactive about the effort. CES hosted a library design conference in April which featured Wisconsin's first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) library built in nearby Cross Plains. The library's director, Pam Bosben, has expanded on the LEED ideals by providing environmental-based programming for all ages, encouraging staff to reduce consumption, and working with local green organizations to establish the library as a community leader of sustainability. She's fabulous and it makes absolute sense for her to share her philosophies and actions with the broader library world.

I contacted her about developing an online, non-credit course about how to make libraries greener and she enthusiastically accepted. The course is set to be offered during Spring 2008. In my perusing of continuing ed courses, I have not come across anything similar. It's exciting to be able to offer such a unique and undoubtedly important class from SLIS! Spread the news! Publicity about the course will be distributed this Fall.

Public libraries contribute to "freegan" way of life

2007-06-22T05:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's NYT (June 21) has an article ("Not Buying It") about "freegans"--people who try to avoid purchasing anything from food to furniture. Instead they live off items that other people have discarded. Maybe it's more feasible to pursue that kind of way of life in a place where there are large concentrations of the wealthy, like New York City, than in less populated or less affluent areas. Anyway, one woman interviewed for the article has stopped buying books, but instead says she "logs onto bookcrossing.com, where readers share used books, or goes to the public library."

I hadn't thought of public library use as a way of reducing our collective carbon footprint, but clearly it is!

Google goes green?

2007-06-20T06:55:00.000-07:00

From the Environmental News Network today: Google announced this week that it would attempt to go "carbon neutral" through a series of investments, purchased carbon offsets, and equipment installations:

Google Inc. aims to voluntarily cut or offset all of its greenhouse emissions by the end of the year, the Web search leader said Tuesday. Google is one of a number of companies, including News Corp., and Yahoo Inc. that are attempting to cut emissions of gases scientists link to global warming. To make the cuts, Google is investing in energy efficiency, renewable energy like solar, and will purchase carbon offsets for emissions it cannot reduce directly, the company said.

Apparently Google is under scrutiny because one of its most recent expansion plans will rely on a rather dirty power source:

Separately, Google is planning to spend $600 million to build a data center in western Iowa that will receive power from a MidAmerican Energy Co. plant fired by coal, the fuel that emits the most carbon dioxide. A Google spokesman told Reuters all emissions from its Iowa project were accounted for in its carbon neutral plan.

Hmmm ... wouldn't it be interesting to know more about the carbon, energy, water and waste footprints of the various industries -- computer hardware manufacturers, computer software developers, network service providers, book and serial publishers, equipment supply firms -- upon which library service depends?

The energy costs of personal computing

2007-06-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

Today's New York Tmes (June 14) has an article about the amount of energy used by electronic devices, even when they're on stand-by mode:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/technology/14basics.html?em&ex=1181966400&en=3e1939192b5f2028&ei=5087%0A.

The article is called "Putting Energy Hogs in the Home on a Strict Low-Power Diet," but it could apply just as well to people's offices, and to the many computers in libraries. There are ways to cut these energy costs, though, and maybe many libraries have got this figured out though--does anyone know?

Information resources for sustainability in WI

2007-06-13T07:09:00.000-07:00

It might be an interesting project to ask WI librarians what kinds of sustainability information resources they provide to their publics (and what resources their publics actually use). Or perhaps we in SLIS could take the lead in suggesting/compiling a list of such resources. For example, one that I'd promote would be the new map of public transportation options for statewide travel in Wisconsin, Getting Around Wisconsin Without a Car: A Public Transportation Guide, put together by the activist group 1000 Friends of Wisconsin. What others have people found -- and used?

Universities pledge to go carbon neutral

2007-06-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

Inside Higher Ed reports on a new pledge signed by over 280 college presidents (but not, to date, our own):

By adopting the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, campus leaders are agreeing to immediately reduce their greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. Since it’s unrealistic for colleges now to promise ceasing all harmful gas production in the future without knowing what technologies will exist in 10 or 20 years, the short-term goal of the initiative is climate neutrality, which means having no net emissions. In other words, colleges could choose to offset any carbon production by purchasing renewable energy sources or credits.

To decrease energy consumption and work toward carbon neutrality, the commitment says colleges should take at least two of five listed actions:

Adopt green standards for buildings.
Require Energy Star certification for products produced by the university.
Reduce air travel or offset emissions by investing in renewable energy sources (wind power, for example.)
Encourage public transportation.
Purchase energy from renewable sources and support climate shareholder proposals through their endowment.

While the current roster of signatures lists Madison Area Technical College and six of the UW system campuses UW-Madison is still absent.

Resources:

American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment

Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education

Sustainable knowledge creation

2007-06-08T08:53:00.000-07:00

Web 2.0

A challenge for academics and professionals in all fields is how to reduce the carbon footprint of their scholarly and practitioner activities. With ALA annual conference coming up, and 20K-30K librarians descending on Washington, many of them flying, most of them staying in downtown hotels where the energy costs per person (on HVAC, laundry, lighting, elevators, etc) are much higher than they are in their own homes, some librarians are raising the question of how to create a more sustainable form of communication. For the short run some are suggesting that ALA facilitate the buying of carbon offsets, for instance.

In the longer run, however, Web 2.0 technologies could provide at least part of the answer; using a mix of new technologies, LIS could substitute alternative patterns of interaction, thus not only reducing the physical movement of participants, but also opening up “conference” participation to a much wider group of people. If successful, this could be a model for other fields.

Will this happen any time soon? I’m doubtful. Too many people have entrenched interests in maintaining current patterns, even though we know that in the long run, they cannot. A start, though, would be to encourage students in many different classes—not just “technology-oriented” ones--to become comfortable with these forms of communication. They should also become accustomed to communicating on a more open stage, contributing to the blurring, if not the dissolving, of the user-producer dichotomy in knowledge creation and sharing.

Share a car right from Helen C. White

2007-05-31T11:28:00.000-07:00

Here in Madison we are fortunate to have a non-profit community car-sharing service called "Community Car" -- with one of the vehicles parked right in the Helen C. White parking lot, no less. A recent article in the Capital Times, picked up by UW's own Madison Commons citizen journalism site, describes the venture:

Madison's locally owned Community Car service is thriving. Started in October 2003 with 20 charter members and three vehicles, the service has ballooned to 575 members and now boasts 11 vehicles. The company is planning to bring two more cars to the University of Wisconsin campus in the fall, and by the end of the year the total fleet should reach 15, Executive Director Amanda White said.

Driving the company's success has been a patchwork of partnerships with the university, local businesses and nonprofits, as well as a strong sense of environmental consciousness from its members.

ALA Task Force on the Environment

2007-05-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

You can find the objectives of this group (part of the Social Responsibilities Round Table) at http://www.ala.org/ala/srrt/tfoe/taskforceenvironment.htm. This page has useful links to information resources on, for instance, libraries and sustainability, and a link to a page on Climate Change hosted by the University of Buffalo Libraries.

Envrionmentalism in mainstream print culture

2007-05-22T04:56:00.000-07:00

An interesting observation from Grist magazine:

Last year at this time, Vanity Fair and Elle tried a shocking experiment: they published green-themed issues. Could mainstream readers handle eco-news if it came in the shape of Julia Roberts and Evangeline Lilly (and, uh, Chip Giller)? Would green really prove to be the new black ink?

They could, and it would. After the success of last year's spring surge, a new crop of magazines is getting on board with the idea of going green -- if only for one issue. Glamour has just published a 10-page spread with eco-tips and an in-depth online guide. Perhaps more surprising: a recent cover story on climate change in Sports Illustrated. "We've reached critical mass," says SI Senior Editor Richard Demak. "It's time to address this in all venues -- why shouldn't sports be one of them?"

Four more glossies -- Country Home, Outside, Town & Country, and domino -- have put out green issues for April, and Elle is planning a reprise in May. "For the longest time, glossy magazines kind of stayed away from the green concept because they were a little scared of it," says Tom Farley, senior editor at Town & Country. "They thought that to go green meant that people had to wear hemp clothing or live off the grid in a yurt somewhere. As the movement has evolved, the choices have evolved too."

I actually think that mainstream print culture has attended to environmental issues previously in the last two decades, if sporadically ... but the definition of "environmental issues" and the frame in which they were addressed has likely changed. What do other folks think?

Course-related ideas

2007-05-17T07:13:00.000-07:00

We've had several ideas about course related activities.

1. Continuing Education Services could offer a 4-6 week online course about how to reduce energy and resource consumption in a library.

2. Greg's idea (see Brainstorming) about a First Year Interest Group on "information studies and climate change," linking together, say, LIS 450 with an environmental studies course.

3. Storytelling class this summer (power of stories) and in my Youth Services class in the fall (ways to have kids reading, writing, and finding ways to act through libraries and the community).

4. In 571 have students be creating information packets, pathfinders,

5. Students could also volunteer to be part of a Help Group (or something) that offers SLIS help in showing others on campus how to start a blog or wiki, or how to locate information resources

6. A one-credit Environmental Forum (for grads or undergrads) featuring invited speakers and discussion held over the lunch hour on the lines of the Biology Forum held a few years ago on campus.

Information resource: Environmental News Network

2007-05-17T07:03:00.000-07:00

The Environmental News Network (www.enn.com) is a useful resource for both wire service news (eg. AP, Reuters) and press releases from both non-profit and for-profit organizations dealing with environmental issues:

For over twenty years, the Environmental News Network (ENN.com) has published news, commentary, and information about how we live on earth. Our mission is simple: to provide a global perspective on environmental issues, and to promote thought, discussion, and awareness among our readers. We accomplish this by featuring content that is balanced, non-partisan, comprehensive and educational in nature.

ENN's editorial team selects news stories from a variety of sources, including major wire services (Reuters, Associated Press, Knight Ridder/Tribune), and also features content from partner publishers, freelance journalists, and on-going research.

In addition, ENN provides a platform for organizations and companies with environmental interests through our Network News Program, which offers ENN readers diverse views on current environmental issues, public policy developments, sustainable business news, and more.

For those of you who use RSS, they have a feed at:

http://www.enn.com/news/rss/today.rss

The Colbert Report on teaching college students about global warming

2007-05-17T05:28:00.000-07:00

Warning: Satire of university students and the global warming "controversy" ahead. (You also have to view a short advertisement.) Care of the Comedy Central program "The Colbert Report":

http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=87003

Brainstorming

2007-05-17T05:11:00.001-07:00

I absolutely agree that this is something SLIS can and should take a leadership role in ... although I'm a bit annoyed that this campus-wide initiative is only happening now that it's politically safe for UW-Madison to take the "controversial" stand that global warming is (a) happening, (b) largely human-generated, and (c) potentially disastrous and as such worthy of serious political and economic action.

One of the things we're good at here in SLIS is considering how information disparities both mirror and magnify other social/political/economic disparities. So perhaps we could initiate a discussion of both (a) what kind of information resources are important for convincing citizen, corporate, and political actors of the more developed, energy-intensive and militarily dominant nations that global warming deserves action, and (b) what kind of information resources are important for enabling citizen, corporate, and political actors from the less developed, subsistence-stretched but often resource-rich nations to build a higher standard of living and safety under environmental and energy uncertainty.

The links between information studies and environmental science are many. A quick MadCat search yielded the following examples of texts which might fit well in SLIS courses or reading groups:

- Helmut Breitmeier, Oran R. Young, and Michael Zürn, Analyzing international environmental regimes: From case study to database (Cambridge, MA. : MIT Press, 2006).

- Virginia Baldwin, ed., Online ecological and environmental data (Binghamton, NY : Haworth Information Press, 2003).

- Fernando Elichirigoity, Planet management: Limits to growth, computer simulation, and the emergence of global spaces (Evanston, Ill. : Northwestern University Press, 1999).

- Arno Scharl, Environmental online communication (London ; New York : Springer, 2004).

- US Government Accountability Office, Environmental information: Status of federal data programs that support ecological indicators (Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2005).

If we think the univeristy is serious about promoting this discussion, we ought to ask Dean Sandefur for a teaching buyout for one of our faculty so they can put together a "First Year Interest Group" on "information studies and climate change," linking together, say, LIS 450 with an environmental studies course. A graduate course on the same topic, team-taught with an environmental scientist, would be a great opportunity as well -- again, if we could get some extra resources to pull it off.

Finally, I would suggest inviting Paul Edwards from the University of Michigan School of Information to give a talk at SLIS next year (STS might be convinced to co-sponsor). He is completing a book on global computer modeling and remote sensing and how cyberinfrastructure allows holistic environmental understandings of global processes to be scientifically possible and politically viable. (Similar to many arguments that Geoff Bowker made in _Memory practices in the sciences_ but more historical and more accessible, I think.) He's also a great speaker and a very nice fellow.

OK that's a bunch of brainstorming so I'll stop now.

GREG

Call for participation

2007-05-17T05:08:00.000-07:00

Here is Professor Pawley's original call for a SLIS conversation on information studies and global warming:

Dear Colleagues,
Last week the University Committee sent out a questionnaire to faculty and academic staff as a first step towards engaging the university community in the issue of global warming. I know that many of us at SLIS are already very concerned about this, and anxious to think of ways in which we can contribute to sustainable solutions. If you haven't already filled out the questionnaire, I urge you to do so--it only takes a minute or two.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=230223819027

As well as responding as individuals, perhaps we can also think of ways in which we as educators and specialists in the field of information can help the university's sustainability project. I would be happy to help coordinate any effort that we decide to mount.

We have chosen "the global information environment": as one of the key areas of SLIS focus. There can be no more pressing global problem than that of climate change. A 2005 article in the British newspaper The Independent on Sunday described humanity as "Sleeping Walking to the End of the Earth" (also available at http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0206-01.htm) -- still an unfortunately accurate description of many people's state of awareness in 2007. Surely information educators and professionals have an important role to play in the waking up process.

I would like to start a conversation on how we at SLIS can be involved. If you agree, please let's start talking.

Christine
--
*********************

Christine Pawley Ph.D.

Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Studies
http://slisweb.lis.wisc.edu/~cpawley/

Welcome

2007-05-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

This blog is a forum for discussion and action linking library and information studies with issues of global warming and environmental sustainability at UW-Madison. It is sponsored by a working group of faculty, staff, and students in the UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS).

This blog is open to anyone to read. For now, however, only working group members may post new entries to this blog or add comments to existing blog entries. If you would like to become a member of our working group, please email SLIS professor Greg Downey at gdowney [at] wisc.edu