Sustainable Librarianship: Core Competencies and Practices

Start Date:

February 13, 2023, 12:00 am CST

End Date:

March 12, 2023, 12:00 am CST

Climate change and environmental destruction are a code red for humanity and are this generation’s grandest challenge. In 2019, ALA Council added “Sustainability” as a core value of the profession, adopting the triple bottom line definition of sustainability to ensure balanced decision-making that respects environmental stewardship, social equity, and economic feasibility. As community leaders and facilitators, libraries should be modeling sustainable practices among their staff and within their facilities.

In this special eCourse, Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, President of the Sustainable Libraries Initiative, will lead you through the principles and practices of sustainable librarianship along with a group of expert speakers, lecturers and writers. 

Our ability to pull together as neighbors and adapt in the face of what is already happening while lessening the severity of the impacts for future generations will require us to think differently, to adopt a new mindset, and to consider decisions—large and small—through the lens of sustainability. Libraries of all types are perfectly positioned to help with and to lead in this work. We must step up in this moment and find ways to lead by example and inspire those we serve with and for to do the same.