The Sustainable Library’s Cookbook

In 2019, the American Library Association added sustainability to its Core Values of Librarianship to foster community awareness and engagement on climate change, resilience, environmental impact, and a sustainable future. The Sustainable Library’s Cookbook collects a series of engaging activities for academic libraries interested in implementing sustainability practices in three different areas:

• Applying Sustainability Thinking and Development. Recipes are focused on applying sustainable thinking processes to library functions and services, including open educational resources, seed libraries, and reusable supplies and resources.
• Teaching, Learning, and Research Services. This section contains lesson plans, learning guides, research activities, and projects that focus on sustainability in disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, from STEM data literacy to campus sustainability projects to Indigenous environmental justice.
• Community Engagement, Outreach, and Partnerships. Recipes emphasize how community partnerships and outreach can be effective ways to inform and foster sustainability practices in the library and beyond, including environmental movie nights, bike-lending programs, and ideas for sustainable fashion.

Many of these recipes include learning outcomes and goals from ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, disciplinary focuses, and the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. This cookbook provides librarians with a series of best and effective practices, case studies, and approaches to support sustainability efforts in the library and collaboratively across campus.