Sustainable Development in Danish Public Libraries

Abstract

In 2015, the United Nations adopted a program of principles, Agenda 2030, to create a more sustainable world and better the living conditions for people. In this ambition, culture plays a crucial role. As such, the world goals seem to be an obvious topic for Danish public libraries, but this has not been the case until recently. This study is based on a mixed-method approach including document studies, semi-structured interviews, and participation in a practitioners’ conference. It finds that Danish librarians strive to make the world goals comprehensible and articulate the parent institution as local communicators. Libraries are shown to be correctives to current commercial structures, but apart from this display great variation in how far the various libraries are advanced in their sustainable transformation. The study concludes that public libraries inform citizens about the ambition of the world goals as a starting point for adjustments in the citizens’ actions. Public libraries have ventured into unknown territory, where previous practices do not hold much status. Many library professionals lack this awareness, which is necessary for our understanding of the United Nations world goals as a library policy task.

Sustainable library services with open-source library automation and digitisation software: A literature review

“…(Chowdhury, 2018; Moruf et al, 2020) argues that OSS can be difficult to implement and maintain, and that libraries may lack the technical expertise to manage it effectively. Similarly, (Skøtt, 2023) suggests that OSS can be complex and requires a significant investment of time and resources. Some other authors emphasize the need for libraries to adopt sustainable practices more broadly, beyond just their use of technology.…”

“…The relationship between libraries and sustainability is examined by various authors from different perspectives. (Skøtt, 2023) takes a Nordic approach to highlight the role of libraries in promoting sustainable development and how library services can be adapted to promote sustainability. Byrd (2020) focuses on sustainable design and construction practices for libraries to reduce their carbon footprint.…”