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Report of the ALA Special Task Force on Sustainability
(2018)
  • Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, Mid-Hudson Library System
  • Rene Tanner, Arizona State University
  • Monika Antonelli, Minnesota State University
  • Sara Dallas, Southern Adirondack Library System
  • Adrian K. Ho, University of Kentucky
  • Traci Engel Lesneski, MSR
  • Margaret Woodruff, Charlotte Library
  • Christian Zabriskie, Yonkers Public Library
Abstract
The ALA Special Task Force on Sustainability was formed in 2017 by the ALA Executive Board in response to the ALA Resolution on the Importance of Sustainable Libraries and the need to spark the development of actionable initiatives to further this work. The Special Task Force membership includes individuals with a variety of specialties, academic, public, and rural, as well as library architecture. The task force had an inaugural meeting in October 2017 and began work thereafter with bi-weekly meetings. A draft report was presented to the Executive Board at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in 2018 with the important highlight of the adoption of the “triple bottom line” framework of sustainability to guide our work: To be truly sustainable, an organization or community must embody practices that are threefold: environmentally sound, economically feasible, and socially equitable. In preparation for the final report, the task force reached out to the ALA membership: four online forums were held with a cumulative attendance of 80 individuals and a Perceptions Survey was administered, garnering the participation of more than 600 ALA members who offered more than 190 responses to a request for examples of libraries that provide leadership and serve as a model for sustainability for those they serve. This white paper summarizes the work of the task force, feedback from the membership, and provides direction for future implementation and innovation within our association and the profession all with an eye towards the creation of sustainable libraries.
Keywords
  • American Library Association,
  • Sustainability,
  • Libraries,
  • Triple bottom line framework,
  • Environmentally sound,
  • Economically feasible,
  • Socially equitable
Publication Date
June, 2018
Citation Information
Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, Rene Tanner, Monika Antonelli, Sara Dallas, et al.. "Report of the ALA Special Task Force on Sustainability" (2018)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/akho/57/