Today, Oct. 15, is Blog Action Day. Focus = The Environment
Monday, October 15th, 2007
Image: Blog Action Day
Today, October 15, is Blog Action Day. According to their Web site,
On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.
Learn more by watching this YouTube video.
I’ve been thinking about how we can make media centers more earth-friendly, from small to larger things. Here are some things we do in our school library media center:
- Recycle paper, cardboard, and outdated magazines.
- Take discarded books to the county recycling center.
- Collect used batteries and take them to the county recycling center.
- Buy more packages of rechargeable batteries each year, in the hopes that we will eventually get to stop buying the throw-away kinds.
- Use our new printers, which double-side, let us print at reduced ink quality, and print multiple pages per side.
- Collect used printer cartridges from school printers and from family donations (raises money, too).
- Turn off computer lab, production room, media office, and head end room lights when the rooms are not being used.
- Have overhead media center lights that turn off after a selected period of time in which the lights sense no movement in the room.
- Turn off data projectors after initial demonstration in the computer lab has been completed.
- Keep the blinds closed on the top tier of media center windows (about 10′ up in the air) in warm months to reduce the amount of heat entering the room, which reduces the need for air-conditioning.
- Post many reference documents (school calendars, bus route maps, instructions, etc.) online instead of printing a copy for every family.
School library media centers are, of course, a natural part of the “reduce/reuse/recycle” equation. When we buy a book, we anticipate that it will be used over and over. A school’s newspaper subscription may be read multiple times in a single day, then recycled into an art project. An outdated magazine finds new purpose when its pages are cut up for a class project.
Join the Conversation
What do you do to make the media center more earth-friendly?
Are there earth-friendly initiatives that you have begun in your library media center that have been both cost-effective and good for the environment?
Do you have special days to encourage students to walk or ride their bikes to school? How do you motivate them?
Image: Blog Action Day
Today, October 15, is Blog Action Day. According to their Web site,
On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.
Learn more by watching this YouTube video.
I’ve been thinking about how we can make media centers more earth-friendly, from small to larger things. Here are some things we do in our school library media center:
- Recycle paper, cardboard, and outdated magazines.
- Take discarded books to the county recycling center.
- Collect used batteries and take them to the county recycling center.
- Buy more packages of rechargeable batteries each year, in the hopes that we will eventually get to stop buying the throw-away kinds.
- Use our new printers, which double-side, let us print at reduced ink quality, and print multiple pages per side.
- Collect used printer cartridges from school printers and from family donations (raises money, too).
- Turn off computer lab, production room, media office, and head end room lights when the rooms are not being used.
- Have overhead media center lights that turn off after a selected period of time in which the lights sense no movement in the room.
- Turn off data projectors after initial demonstration in the computer lab has been completed.
- Keep the blinds closed on the top tier of media center windows (about 10′ up in the air) in warm months to reduce the amount of heat entering the room, which reduces the need for air-conditioning.
- Post many reference documents (school calendars, bus route maps, instructions, etc.) online instead of printing a copy for every family.
School library media centers are, of course, a natural part of the “reduce/reuse/recycle” equation. When we buy a book, we anticipate that it will be used over and over. A school’s newspaper subscription may be read multiple times in a single day, then recycled into an art project. An outdated magazine finds new purpose when its pages are cut up for a class project.
Join the Conversation
What do you do to make the media center more earth-friendly?
Are there earth-friendly initiatives that you have begun in your library media center that have been both cost-effective and good for the environment?
Do you have special days to encourage students to walk or ride their bikes to school? How do you motivate them?