Sustainable food and water too

I hope you all know about the Hydration Station in Wilson Library (turn left when you leave Zoe's Bookside Bagels and keep walking until you see it on your right).  Besides a place to fill your water bottles we also have displays of information about sustainability activities on campus (contact Clarissa or Rob if you want to add something).  AND we have a small bookcase there with a themed assortment of books and videos.  Winter quarter the subject was sustainable design (the books on sustainable fashion were very popular).  This quarter: sustainable food.  You can check these books out so take one to lunch!

See you in the spring!

Have a happy, sustainable spring break!  Read something fun, too! 

Extreme Life of the Sea

You think you're having a hard day?  Imagine living next to a boiling hypothermic vent deep under the ocean.  Or having to use a built-in search light on your head to hunt for dinner.

My wife who works at Village Books pointed this out to me.  Stephen and Anthony Palumbi will be speaking at the store this Sunday at 4 PM.  Stephen is a professor of marine science and his son Anthony is a science writer.

Their book Extreme Life of the Sea describes the creatures that live in the most extreme conditions in the ocean.  It includes information on how human beings and climate change are effecting the lifes of these rugged extremists.

Good Gatekeepers

When you hear the word "Gatekeeper" is your reaction positive or negative?  I admit I think of it as negative: an obstacle, somebody blocking the path, or limiting information.  Apparently the first use of it as a metaphor came in an essay about food choices, back in the forties.

The reason I bring it up is that the International Institute for Environment and Development has produced a series of books they call, you guessed it, Gatekeepers.  They are all online and can be found in our OneSearch catalog.

The series aims to highlight key topics in the field of sustainable natural resource management.  Each paper reviews a selected issue of contemporary importance and draws preliminary  conclusions for development that are particularly relevant for policymakers, researchers and planners. 

Here are some titles in the series: 

Biodiversity Planning: Why and how should local opinions matter?

Global Restructuring, Agri-Food Systems and Livelihoods

Towards Food Sovereignty

Tried and tested: learning from farmers on adaptation to climate change

Working Together: Forest-linked small and medium enterprise associations and collective action

Sustainable design on display

Welcome back to the winter quarter!

I hope you all know about the hydration station in the library (turn left as you come in the North Door.  It is near the Tutoring Center).  Besides being an easy place to fill your water bottle, the station features  information about WWU's sustainability projects, and a display of relevant library materials.

This quarter the theme for the display is sustainable design.  This includes books on sustainable packaging, architecture, fashion, parks, and of course, books!

Remember, all the books can be checked out and taken home.

State of the Birds 2014

Some of the country's most important conservation groups have just put out a report on the State of the Birds.  Read it here.

Sustainable Mongolia... at Western!

This week the Seattle Times had an article about President Shepard and others from Western visiting China and Mongolia to improve our ties there.  

One of the group was Dean of Libraries Mark Greenberg, and one reason for that is that Western has the  the largest collection of Mongolian texts in North America.  Really!  You can read all about it - and the amazing gifts and hard work that made it possible - here.

But that got me wondering: do any of our 12,000+ titles about Mongolia talk about sustainability? Yup.  Here are some examples, all in English.

• Account(ing)/(ability) democratising the environmental impact assessment in Mongolian mining
• An economic analysis of the environmental impacts of livestock grazing in Mongolia
• Economics of environment and sustainable development
• The Mongolian Ecosystem Network Environmental Issues Under Climate and Social Changes
• Mongolian traditional foods for sustainable diet.
• Warming up in Mongolia.  (Video)

What's new in e-books?

Glad you asked.  Recent additions to our e-book collection on sustainability...

Beyond Sustainability: A thriving environment:

Challenging Consumption: Pathways to a more sustainable future.

Critiquing Sustainability, Changing Philosophy.

The Greening of Architecture: A Critical History and Survey of Contemporary Sustainable Architecture and Urban Design

A practical guide to sustainable fashion.

Sustainability Principles and Practice

Ecology, Economy, Equity in the library

Here's what I'm reading this week, a brand new arrival at Western Libraries. You can read about the author and her book here.

Top 10 Books on Sustainability

Over at Booklist Online Donna Seaman has compiled what she says are the ten best books on sustainability 2014.

Anticipating Surprises

Did you know that the National Academies Press makes all their books available for free online?  One of the Academies is the National Research Council and you can find their new book Abrupt Impacts of Climate Change: Anticipating Surprises (2013) here.

2014 is just getting started...

...and here are some of the e-books about sustainability published this year that are already available through the library.

Handbook of sustainable travel

Infrastructure planning and finance a smart and sustainable guide

Race for sustainability : energy, economy, environment and ethics

 

Searching for resilience in sustainable development : learning journeys in conservation

Sustainable urban logistics : concepts, methods and information systems

E-books for thee and me

Just checked to see the latest e-books about sustainability in the library catalog.  Here are a few:

Business and the sustainability challenge an integrated perspective

Environmental and human security in the Arctic

Handbook of sustainable travel

Macroeconomics and the Environment Essays on Green Accounting

Organizations' Environmental Performance Indicators Measuring, Monitoring, and Management

Quintessential Cities, Accountable to the Future Sustainability, Innovation and Citizenship

Small Stories, Big Changes Agents of Change on the Frontlines of Sustainability

Sustainability and Well-Being The Middle Path to Environment, Society and the Economy

Sustainability If It's Everything, Is It Nothing?

Treatise on Sustainability Science and Engineering 

The Afterlife of Books

Sometimes a library has to get rid of a book.  Maybe it is worn out.  Maybe there is a newer edition.  Maybe it is a 1988 manual on word processing and no one would look at it on a bet.

What happens to those books afterwards?  It's nice to think they go on to A Better Place.  And sometimes they do.  Sometimes people find a way to reuse them.  See this wonderful article in Colleges and Research Libraries News on the RE:BOOK Contest.  (Okay, this is the 2012 poster.  I couldn't find a copy of the 2013 poster that would load.  But the new one is in the article.)

Green Patriot Posters

poster by Lisa Hultengren

Some of the books in Western Libraries are being rearranged and serendipity strikes again.  I spied a book I have never noticed before:  Green Patriot Posters.  (Wilson 2E - Books - Oversize NC1849.S87 G74 2010)

The Canary Project is behind the book and they have a website as well.  They are encouraging the idea that, just as in World War II, we need to make posters that encourage people to do their part.  Some great art! 

The Green Book Festival

Did you know there was a Green Book Festival?  News to me.  Here are a few of the books honored this year that we own:

Garbology: Our dirty love affair with trash.

The last atoll: exploring Hawai'i's endangered ecosystems (available as e-book)

The big burn : Teddy Roosevelt and the fire that saved America

E-books galore

Are e-books more sustainable than paper books?  Seems logical.  While you ponder that, here are some e-books on related subjects the library has received in the last month.  All available to you, full-text.

Crimes against nature : squatters, poachers,thieves, and the hidden history of American conservation

The Ecopoetry anthology

Green vs. green: the political,legal, and administrative pitfalls facing green energy production 

Human Dependence on Nature : How to Help Solve the Environmental Crisis.

Integrated forest biorefineries:challenges and opportunities

Methods of sustainability research in the social sciences

Soils and food security

The unending frontier: an environmental history of the early modern world 

Early Warming: Book of the Year

If you haven't heard, next year's Book of the Year at Western is Early Warming: Crisis and Response in the Climate-Changed North, by Nancy Lord.   The library has paper and electronic copies.  (To reach the electronic copy click on "Online Access.")