Internet Archive video

It's been quiet around here for a long time, but I thought I would share this short documentary.


Internet Archive from Deepspeed media on Vimeo.


This film, directed by Jonathan Minard, is "focused on the future of long-term digital storage, the history of the Internet and attempts to preserve its contents on a massive scale."

It includes "a tour of the Internet Archive's headquarters in San Francisco, the book scanning center, and the book storage facilities in Richmond, California."
And boy does it ever pose some interesting and big questions about libraries, access, and preservation! Environmental sustainability, too: the headquarters heats itself with energy from the servers! That is awesome.

COMMITTEE WORK - THE 411

While on the Path train the other day it occurred to me that I have served on several library working groups as well as several committees. Some of them I distinctly remember volunteering for but the others your guess is as good as mine. I suspect that Kimberly had something to do with my “Volunteering.” Whether I volunteered or not is moot, the only real point is that I participated in the groups. My role on the committees have been varied, on some I was the leader and for others I was just one of the members playing whatever part/role that made sense. I lead the access services open house working group (some of you might remember that) and I headed the two library art show committees, I do hope that you remember the Art shows. I am one of the founding members of the University sustainability advocates group and also a founding member of the library sustainability committee and still an active member. I am also currently on the quality of life and the rewards and recognition committees.

My thoughts regarding the committee work are all positive: all of the experiences have help me grow as a manager, I have had and continue to meet and work with many wonderful and talented co-workers and colleagues some of whom I otherwise would have probably only known in passing. There is a diversity of talent in this organization which I find absolutely fascinating and I realize that it is because of the committee work that I have gotten exposure to this community. While committee work stretches you a little thinner and adds one more thing to your already packed daily schedule, I cannot help but argue that the benefits outweigh the negatives.

Not everyone has had the opportunity to be a part of or work on a committee or working group but I encourage you to embrace the opportunity when it arises - take the leap because the experience is very rewarding. You will meet great people; learn a lot about what is happening in the library and you will have the opportunity to make your contributions to the growth of this organization. There is no doubt that all of us have something to contribute and there is undoubtedly a place at the committee table for everyone. That includes "YOU."

It's so easy being green!

The Interlibrary Loan department was recently asked to participate in a study about ILL "green" practices. The study, conducted by Dennis Massie, the RLG SHARES coordinator for OCLC and California Environmental Associates, a consulting group, hopes to get a snapshot of what Interlibrary Loan departments across the nation are doing to make their day-to-day business more environmentally-friendly.

The concept of a "green" ILL department is still evolving as an idea, considering how much potential there is to overuse resources. In the past, ILL departments everywhere have been unkind to Mother Earth; there are still departments out there that use paper forms for everything. Yet there is a growing interest in using less, not only to save the earth but also because many ILL departments are feeling the economic pressure to cut down and cut back.

For the study, I was asked to describe our current "green" practices. We've taken the typical measures to "green" the department: re-using scrap paper, saving digital files instead of printing, reusing shipping materials (boxes, bubble wrap, etc.), scanning more and photocopying less. Those conducting the study were very interested to hear what we've done so far. They also raised the issue of our shipping practices, something that did not immediately occur to me as a concern for the environment (other than reusing our shipping materials).

So, the study also concerns itself with the "carbon footprint" of our department, the distance our shipments have to travel and how that impacts the environment. To gather this data, I conducted a little study of my own to see how our shipping stats look.

I looked at data for three months (September - November 2009) and here's what I found:

Of the 3,753 packages we shipped in the three-month span,

• 46% of them were sent to the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut)
• 35% are shipped through METRO Courier (the delivery service administered by the Metropolitan Library Council)
• less than 3% go to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or countries overseas

What does this mean? We borrow and lend locally on a very frequent basis; many of our packages don't have to travel far. Nearly half of the books we obtain from other libraries are coming from the tri-state area, resulting in faster service for our patrons and less impact on the environment.

We're starting to think about our "green" practices as extending beyond our paper consumption. The next step is possibly to look at our individual impact on the environment in conjunction with our departmental impact:

• "How come we always seem to run out of plastic water cups when I want a drink? I should really keep a reusable cup at my desk."
  
• "Do I really need a paper bag for my takeout lunch, or can I just carry the container?"
• "What if I just saved my sturdy plastic plate for my one cookie and reused it at the next meeting instead of getting a new plate?"

I wonder if any of you have ever thought about perhaps seemingly unconventional ways to reduce/reuse/recycle in an office environment? Do any of you see a need for a "green" practice in your departments? Is there a workflow or job task that is particularly not "green" and how do you think it could be made more environmentally friendly without sacrificing the quality of work?