Libraries Build Sustainable Communities

As the 21st Century dawns, the world can be characterized not only as one of persistent poverty, widening disparity and inequity, depleting resources, a degrading environment, and all-too-frequent recourse to violence, but also as one of expanding democratization and accelerating integration of a global economy. In the face of these challenges and opportunities, the concept of "sustainable development" as defined in Our Common Future is a global attempt to forge a common vision of a more just, humane and ecologically benign future.  This concept has given birth to a dynamic global movement for “sustainable communities.”  This movement has been fostered to a great extent by the impact of the Earth Summit and its Agenda 21 on both national and local public officials, as well as on grassroots community activists. Thus the concern for sustainable development—sustainable communities embodies almost perfectly USAID’s priority on global-local linkages.

Project Resources

This two-year partnership links the American Library Association and Global Learning, Inc. for a second time, with support from the Development Education Program of USAID, and builds on ALA President Sarah Long’s presidential theme, Libraries Build Community.

Goal

To educate the membership of the American Library Association, and subsequently the library-going American public, about the linkages between sustainability issues in local communities and in the global community, as well as about options for creatively engaging these issues.

Objectives

1. State trainers and participants in the Sustainable Communities Workshop-in-a-Box will gain an increased understanding of the interrelated concepts of sustainable development and sustainable communities.

2. There will be increased dissemination of sustainable development educational materials to ALA members and their constituencies.

3. There will be increased motivation among ALA members to acquire and use sustainable development materials in their own library settings.

Major activities

1. Develop a replicable Sustainable Communities Workshop-in-a-Box.

2. Train 100 members of ALA, two per state, to facilitate this workshop.

3. These State Trainers will conduct 50 workshops – one per state.

4. Create a national interactive sustainable development—sustainable communities discussion among librarians who participate in these workshops via a listserv.

5. Conduct four dissemination workshops at four different national library conferences.

6. Create and disseminate a Libraries Build Sustainable Communities Guide to all 60,000 ALA members and subscribers as an insert in the magazine American Libraries and to the American public through posting on ALA's website; 

7. Publicize this project’s resources through at least three articles in ALA publications and four press releases to the general media.

Global Learning, Inc., 22 Mary Ann Drive, Brick, NJ 08723
globallearningnj@comcast.net
tel: (732) 281-8929

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