As part of our commitment to become a greener library we’ve recently been thinking of practical ideas to make our library service more sustainable and to help promote sustainability within our Trust.  These are two of our new initiatives, where colleagues, library users and a book supplier have supported us, and we’re already planning more, including permanent displays in our libraries to chart our ‘green’ progress. We’re hoping from little acorns….

Sustainability collection

We decided to investigate starting a “Sustainability” collection within the library.  To start we asked our Trust’s Head of Sustainability Graham Titchener for his suggestions, and he asked two of his colleagues who sent suggestions, or photos of their own bookshelves. We also asked for recommendations on the Future NHS “Sustainability in NHS Knowledge and Library Services” network and received answers from several libraries, as well as a reminder of the 27 e-books that are available in our region through Kortext. These show up if you search “Sustainability” on our catalogue.

 

 We have requested 9 books to start the collection.  We tried to include a range that might appeal to people at different levels of knowledge or involvement.

  1. The Sustainability Puzzle: How System Change, Circularity, Climate Action, and Social Transformation can improve Health, Wealth and Wellbeing for All by Alice Schmidt and Claudia Winkler.
  2. How to reduce your carbon footprint: simple ways to live a planet-friendly life/ by Harriet Dyer
  3. Doughnut Economics: The must-read book that redefines economics for a world in crisis by Kate Raworth
  4. Ravenous: how to get ourselves and our planet into shape by Henry Dimbleby and Jemima Lewis
  5. The climate change garden: down to earth advice for growing a resilient garden by Sally Morgan and Kim Stoddard
  6. It's not that radical: climate action to transform our world by Mikaela Loach
  7. Grow green: tips and advice for gardening with intention by Chillingsworth
  8. How bad are bananas by Mike Berners-Le
  9. Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie

The library manager Hazel requested these titles through one of our book suppliers, Tomlinson’s, who then told us about a "new organic product made from sugarcane fibre, a sustainable plant based and renewable carbon neutral product".  They explained that it is fully recyclable, so Hazel has asked them to use this product to cover all the books we get from them from now on.  Books that are covered that way have a green dot inside the cover in the corner.

These 9 books have arrived and are now catalogued on KOHA.  Five can be found at our York library and four are on their way to our Scarborough branch.  The next step is to do some promotion to let people know we have them.

 

Seed Swap - let’s grow together!

We wanted to support National Green Libraries Week (7th - 13th October) and so decided to hold some Pop-Up library events to help us reach colleagues who might not have time to visit the library in person. As part of our discussions, we thought about how to attract attention to the event and encourage people to take part. A seed swap seemed a good idea, small enough to try as a one-off event and something fun and easy for people to join in. By promoting it ahead of time, we hoped to encourage people to get involved by bringing spare seeds from their gardens or allotments.

                    

 

We made a seed swap box for each site along with a promotional poster and information about harvesting seeds which we posted on social media a couple of weeks prior to the event. Here’s a few photos of our preparations and Pop-ups. Thanks to everyone who brought seeds! We had lots by the time of the event, ranging from flowers, herbs and veg, to cuttings from house plants, for those who didn’t have gardens.

Graham (Trust’s Head of Sustainability) offered to support us at the Pop-Up events and came along to chat to people and answer questions. We had a suggestion sheet for ideas to improve sustainability in the Trust, which he has followed up on after the event. Also, the option to sign up for a monthly ‘Sustainability in Healthcare’ bulletin, as well as books from our health and wellbeing collection. The seed swap was very popular, and we invited everyone coming to look at the display to take some home to plant.

Engagement on the day was great. We had new joiners to the library and people asking if we could let their departments know next time we were holding an event. There’s been continued interest in the seed swap, with more seeds contributed and requests for us to do another, which we plan to do in Spring 2025.

Thanks to everyone who supported us. 😊

The library team at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust