Professional Development

Earlier this year, Solinet hosted a Webinar for the greener library.Broken into 2 sessions, this class was a 4 hour survey of ways to assess and improve the environmental impacts of current and new facilities in libraries.In the long run, a green library is a cheaper library to build and maintain, but its greatest benefit is the improved environment for staff and visitors.Green buildings are well documented to provide cleaner air, better temperature control, improved comfort and health, and increased productivity.

About half of the presentation focused on the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) guidelines for new construction and remodeling.The Solinet presenter did a very good job of illustrating recent improvements in various building systems – water, heating/AC, and lighting – and how they interconnect with one another in terms of operation and costs.These and other cost savings can only be fully realized when they are incorporated at the project’s conceptual design phase.An integrated systems approach ensures that a building is designed as one system rather than a collection of stand-alone systems.Continued advances in environmental design and the rise in fuel prices have combined to drop the average cost of energy-efficient construction to just 2% more than conventional building, while the annual energy costs may drop by as much as 65% compared to an equivalent-sized conventional building.

With this introduction to LEED concepts under our belts, we moved from theoretical to practical examples of green design in libraries.One example actually originated from an unintentional experiment (aka “mistake”) in a Wal-Mart construction project, which demonstrated that customers preferentially collect in areas with natural lighting.The Solinet presenter also mentioned studies that have shown employees are more productive working in natural light.Reynolds Library is very familiar with the appeal of natural lighting and this design feature is being incorporated into many new library buildings as well as in retrofitting projects.

For many libraries, external entities make the final decisions about incorporating green materials and designs into library construction and library personnel may have only limited influence regarding specific changes.Many of the green building options discussed in this workshop have been initiated on the Wake Forest campus by James Alty, Assistant Vice President for Facilities Management.

The final, briefest, portion of this Webinar focused on small-scale greening efforts that can be accomplished by libraries without major structural changes to a building.Once again, this is an area where Reynolds Library leads.As the workshop participants volunteered green tips and solutions from their own libraries, only one idea was really novel – a waste stream audit.That is a smelly and tedious endeavor that requires a strong stomach, but produces a clear picture of what is, or is not, being recycled. Happily, that may well be a project for the new Sustainability Director for the Wake Forest campus.In the meantime Reynolds Library has a number of other green initiatives that it can enhance, to the benefit of visitors and staff.