#2 Libraries as “sites of exchange”

Morag Clarkson, Library and Knowledge Services Manager, Croydon Health Services NHS Trust

The Green Libraries conference 2024 at the British Library delivered a refreshing and inspiring message to instil hope for the future as a call to action for climate change and sustainability. 

The excellent speakers included Natalie Bennett, Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle who is also the author of Change Everything: How we can rethink, repair and rebuild society. 

The learning I took home was that libraries are ideally placed as “sites of exchange” to use the arts and science to communicate the climate emergency in a safe and hopeful space whilst supporting the wellbeing of patrons. We are trusted change agents that can work with partner organisations in the fields of nature and art, delivering intergenerational projects to engage and educate. 

I attended workshops on cultivating a sense of sense place and community, which is a particular interest of mine and the power of public library partnerships. 

These workshops reinforced the principles of collaboration and working together to fully understand the climate emergency and offered an approach of hope to engage with patrons and funders to make decisions which support change. 

Children’s author, Piers Torday, discussed his journey into sustainable publishing which was eye opening and showed how every aspect of library provision needs to be looked at through a sustainable lens. 

Rachael Brown, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries, University of Portsmouth showed how using visual arts could help libraries communicate in different ways by re-imagining space and it’s use and design, to support sustainable themes such as reusing materials and having fun with spaces as part of wellbeing. 

I was lucky enough to also have a tour of the British Library and saw the solar panels on the roof of the 5th floor. These panels heat water which is pumped to the lower basement, which we also visited. Here we saw the amazing plumbing and heating systems which were akin to those seen in ships rather than homes or offices. The system is quite incredible. 

My final thoughts are that the event reinforced what I think we all intrinsically know, that, libraries are safe gathering places for events and people that also offer opportunities to share accurate information and resources to reuse. This makes libraries important partners in the climate emergency.