Solving a work problem with wheels

When your office is half a mile from your files, how do you solve the problem?  With a three-wheeled bicycle in a limestone cave.  Your National Archives at work! 

Happy Bike To Work Day!

Friday, May 15 is Bike to Work and School Day.  

  “The perfect day: riding a bike to the library.” - Peter Golkin

Taking bicycles seriously in London

Mitt Romney famously had a house with a car elevator but this is the first time I ever heard of a building with a bicycle elevator. 

Anybody wanna cardboard bicycle?

This guy did.  And he built one. 

Bike to Work and School Day tomorrow!

If you bike (or walk or skateboard or scooter) to Western on Friday be on the lookout for the
Celebration Stations where people will be handing out cookies, coffee, bagels, and assorted bike-related swag to encourage people to find other ways to get to work rather than the dreaded Single Occupancy Vehicle.  This is a great chance to pump up your tires and show your enthusiasm for sustainability!  There will be more than 20 stations around the city, including one in Red Square and one at the Student Recreation Center.

http://www.biketoworkandschoolday.org/

Biking for Libraries

I was looking for a video on unconferences.  Couldn't find the one I remembered but I stumbled on something better.  A hundred librarians from around the world held an unconference on bicycles, pedaling from Denmark to Germany, and conversing about the future of libraries every evening.  Is that cool, or what?  

Invisible bike helmets

Hi, this is Rob, the Green Shelfer who is somewhat bike-obsessed.  Two weeks ago I blogged about US embassy staff in Denmark in their assorted bike helmets.  Now we go back to Scandinavia for an amazing advance in head-safe technology.  My advice: watch the three-minute video all the way through.  It builds up suspense wonderfully until you finally get to see how the magic helmet works.  Clever!

Library on Two Wheels

In Denver (oh, those elevations!) the Public Library has a branch on a bicycle.  How cool is that?  Thanks to Going Green @ Your Library for the tip.

Getting Around in Bellingham

Welcome back, or welcome the first time, to all WWU students.  Here at the Green Shelf we try to show you connections between Western Libraries and the University's sustainability goals.  Sometimes all we have to do to make that happen is read the newspaper. 

Take, for instance, today's Seattle Times.  Danny Westneat reports some surprising figures.  Turns out 10% of people in Seattle walk to work.  It is also one of five major cities in the U.S. where fewer than one half of the working population drives to their jobs alone.  Since the year 2000 bicycling to work has gone up 150%, and working at home has shot up 75%.

The comments are interesting, mostly from people who see no sign of such a trend.  One suggested the figures come from the bicycle clubs.

But apparently they are from the American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.  Now it happens that I am the librarian who helps people find Census information, so this seemed like a great chance to practice my skills.  I went to American Factfinder, which is the Census's webpage for this kind of data, and pulled together some time comparisons for the City of Subdued Excitement. 

 
The bad news is that we Bellingham commuters are much more dependent on cars than are friends in the Emerald City. IN the most recent sample almost 69% were driving alone.  Only 2% biked and 6% took public transportation.  Our walking percentage was almost as high as Seattle's though.

Important: these figures are samples.  The orange column in the middle represents three years of samples (2009-2011) which makes it probably closer to reality than the one-shot sample in 2012.  Notice that the figures are a little more cheerful in orange.  But I guess we have our work cut out for us.

Words of wisdom

"The perfect day: riding a bike to the library.”
― Peter Golkin

(thanks to the Environmental Librarian's Blog.)

Roll with it: Biking in a small university town

A presentation by Jason Cooper , Systems and Emerging Technologies Librarian, University of Montevallo, Carmichael Library, on how his university is moving toward more sustaible practices, including the first bike-share program in Alabama.  Thanks to Greening Your Library for pointing it out.

Ride for Reading

Now here are a couple of causes a sustainable library can get behind.  Delivering books - and messages about exercise - to kids via bicycles.  Just one important tip: don't read and ride at the same time.