Going Green: Libraries for Sustainable Development

The paper discusses about the various measures for greening the library other than building green library buildings. It also puts forward various suggestions and methods for greening existing libraries and also discuss the need and importance of implementing green library concepts. Introduction Our beautiful nature is continuously degraded by human beings and causing problems like global warming and climate change. Shrinking glaciors, melting ice caps and wide ranges in temperature provide evidence that something is happening with our climate. Libraries don’t come into our mind when we think of problems like global warming and climate change. But Libraries consume a lot of energy for its services and hence contribute to the problem. A healthy natural environment is needed for our survival and quality of life. So it’s high time for us librarians to play a major role for the betterment of environment. We can design a green library by means of choosing appropriate site for constructing library building, use of natural material and biodegradable products for construction, conservation of resources i.e., water, energy, paper etc. and responsible for recycling of waste materials. So the concepts of green libraries are now being popular and through proper designing of green library we can reduce the harmful impact on the environment and it also improve the environment inside the library.