INFO 282-15
Seminar in Library Management:
Topic: Libraries Take The Lead On Sustainability (2-Units)
Fall 2021 Syllabus

Kimberli Buckley, MA, MLIS
Email 
Office: Virtual, Can meet on Google Chat, Zoom, or Teams if needed

Canvas Information: Courses will be available beginning on August 19th at 6 am PT, unless you are taking an intensive or a one-unit or two-unit class that starts on a different day. In that case, the class will open on the first day that the class meets.

This 2-unit course runs from September 8th - November 3rd. It will open on Canvas on September 8th.

You will be enrolled in the Canvas site automatically.

Course Description

We have an opportunity to change the story of our culture from one of blind consumption to one of conscious ecological living. As we move into this new era, libraries have the opportunity to promote awareness of sustainability including economic stability, equitable social justice, ecological resource depletion, climate adaptation, and creating food and agricultural resilience. In this course, students will learn how libraries can seize the moment to take the lead by working to strive toward green operations and environmental-friendly practices. This course will provide a lens through which students can critically examine the paradigms that currently shape sustainability in libraries. Using resources provided by the instructor, students will be tasked with developing their own sustainable solutions for the 21st-century library.

Course Requirements

There will be a total of 10 discussions. 2 assignments, and a team project that will have a midway assessment and a final project and final discussion. Students will also be required to watch 3 to 4 short videos each week, and several readings will also be assigned each week. 

Discussions - This course requires weekly reflective discussions based on various topics related to sustainability practices and eco-friendly libraries and will be supported by course materials, lectures, and readings. Each discussion entails watching the instructor's lecture and the videos or movies assigned as well as reading all the posts in the discussion, answering the topic question.

Assignments - There are 2 assignments for this course. Assignment 1 (5 points) is a Green Library review. Students will choose a green library from a list on greenlibraries.org and write a one-page assessment of the library and its unique sustainable features and submit it to the instructor on Canvas. Assignment 2 (10 points) Students will choose books for a green book display. Students will choose 10 books and write a short overview for each of the books and include why they chose the book and how it will benefit the community and promote sustainability awareness. This assignment will also be submitted to the instructor via Canvas.

Late Work - The instructor will accept late work, however, it will be marked down half a point for each day late. If you have extenuating circumstances and need additional time, please email me to discuss options.

Grading

Course Calendar with Topics, Activities & Assignments:

Readings

There are no required textbooks for this course. Instead, there will be several readings assigned each week that are related to libraries and sustainability along with several short videos.

Green Team Projects

5 points for midway assessment - 5 points for Discussion - 25 points for the Final Project:

Students will work in teams to investigate and reflect on the multifaceted challenges associated with the issues that affect the sustainability of a library. Think of this as if you are working in a library and you have been chosen to be on a committee to help your workplace become more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Students will research green libraries, look at environmental-friendly practices, assess library programs that focus on sustainability, investigate tools for promoting sustainability awareness or identify what disrupts sustainability.

Each Green Team will choose a topic that they will focus on for the 8 weeks of the course. Think of these topics as issues that affect your library and your community and find ways to improve and become more sustainable.

Green Team Project Topics:

• Climate Change
• Slashing Trash
• Clean Air
• Energy Efficiency
• Food Waste
• Recycling 
• Gardening 

These topics have been chosen because for change to take root it is important that we understand our ecosystems, climate change, and the repercussions of waste, and how this affects the health and wellness of our libraries and our communities.

Week 1
Green Teams will be formed and topics will be chosen. Green Team members will work together and collaborate on a topic for the 8 weeks of the course. At the beginning of the course, extra planning will be needed to help keep the team running smoothly as the course gets underway. The goal for the Green Team is to be an advocate for the Library, inspire sustainability, and raise awareness on the topic that has been chosen.

Week 2
Each Green Team will establish a meeting time and meet virtually (the group has the option to choose their platform to meet virtually) to discuss how they will follow through on the green library project..

Week 3
Students will meet on Zoom or their choice of platform. At this virtual meeting, students will lay the groundwork on who will be doing what. Think of a name for your green team. Choose a name that reflects the project you are working on and what it will communicate to the community what your group is all about. Brainstorm different roles needed to run your team smoothly and establish leadership roles. The Green Team will research their topic on EPA.gov, NASA.gov, UN.org, sdg.data.gov.or any other sites that are relevant to sustainability and/or the topic chosen.

Week 4
Students will turn in a midway report on what they have been working on for the last few weeks in their Green Teams. The report should list the name the group chose, the leadership roles established with the names of the students in the roles, and the research they have found so far on their topic. This report should be at least one page with double spacing.

Week 6
Students will meet on Zoom or their choice of platform to check in with each other to see how the progress is going. At this point, the team should have come up with statistics and have action ideas in place. Green Teams should be discussing what needs to come into place to facilitate a change and make a difference at the Library? Also, students should be thinking about a plan to raise awareness within the community.

Green Team Ideas for Action:

• Social Media Campaign
• Green Fair or Recycling Fair
• Zero Waste Pledge
• Reuse Event (GrowNYC’s Stop N’ Swap program) grownnyc.org/swap or Terracycle terracycle.com)
• Sustainability Events
• Survey the Community

Week 8

Final Green Team Assessment or Presentation- Each Green Team will have collected and analyzed the data on their topic and came up with a plan for action. Each group will turn in a final assessment of the information they have collected and a detailed action plan for the Library (no less than 5 pages). This will also include a reflection section on how this will impact the Library and the community. Each Green Team will assess if their team has achieved a level of sustainability and how difficult or easy it was to come up with ideas and put the action plan in place. This report should be at least five pages, double spacing. Alternative option: Green Teams can create a slideshow presentation with the findings on their topic that includes the research they found and their plan of action instead of writing the paper. The slideshow should be no less than 10 slides. Text, voice, photos, and/or music are recommended for this option.

Final Discussion Post: One student from each Green Team will submit a discussion post on week 8 which should be an overview from their final report and share with the class on the discussion board. Further details will be given.

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Course Workload Expectations

Success in this course is based on the expectation that students will spend, for each unit of credit, a minimum of forty-five hours over the length of the course (normally 3 hours per unit per week with 1 of the hours used for lecture) for instruction or preparation/studying or course related activities including but not limited to internships, labs, clinical practica. Other course structures will have equivalent workload expectations as described in the syllabus.

Instructional time may include but is not limited to:
Working on posted modules or lessons prepared by the instructor; discussion forum interactions with the instructor and/or other students; making presentations and getting feedback from the instructor; attending office hours or other synchronous sessions with the instructor.

Student time outside of class:
In any seven-day period, a student is expected to be academically engaged through submitting an academic assignment; taking an exam or an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction; building websites, blogs, databases, social media presentations; attending a study group;contributing to an academic online discussion; writing papers; reading articles; conducting research; engaging in small group work.

Course Prerequisites

INFO 282 has no prequisite requirements.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Recognize patterns, structures, and paradigms that shape sustainability in libraries.
2. Identify and explain the interrelationship between sustainability and social responsibility.
3. Identify and practice applying sustainable solutions for libraries.
4. Critically evaluate library green operations and environmentally positive practices.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

INFO 282 supports the following core competencies:

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Textbooks

Recommended Textbooks:

• Aldrich, R. (2018). Sustainable thinking: Ensuring your library's future in an uncertain world. ALA Editions. Available through Amazon: 0838916880

• Kellogg, K. (2019). 101 Ways to go zero waste. The Countryman Press. Available through Amazon: B07H1L8FXV

• Klein, N. (2019). The (burning) case for a green new deal. Simon & Schuster. Available through Amazon: 1982129913

• Little, A. (2019). The fate of food: What we'll eat in a bigger, hotter, smarter world. Harmony Books. Available through Amazon: B07H722YDQ

• Rich, N. (2019). Losing earth: A recent history. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Available through Amazon: B07HF21NRN

• Wallace-Wells, D. (2019). The uninhabitable earth: Life after warming. Tim Duggan Books. Available through Amazon: B07GVPFH5V

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Grading Scale

The standard SJSU School of Information Grading Scale is utilized for all iSchool courses:

In order to provide consistent guidelines for assessment for graduate level work in the School, these terms are applied to letter grades:

• C represents Adequate work; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course;
• B represents Good work; a grade of "B" clearly meets the standards for graduate level work or undergraduate (for BS-ISDA);
  For core courses in the MLIS program (not MARA, Informatics, BS-ISDA) — INFO 200, INFO 202, INFO 204 — the iSchool requires that students earn a B in the course. If the grade is less than B (B- or lower) after the first attempt you will be placed on administrative probation. You must repeat the class if you wish to stay in the program. If - on the second attempt - you do not pass the class with a grade of B or better (not B- but B) you will be disqualified.
  
• A represents Exceptional work; a grade of "A" will be assigned for outstanding work only.

Graduate Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA). Undergraduates must maintain a 2.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

University Policies

Per University Policy S16-9, university-wide policy information relevant to all courses, such as academic integrity, accommodations, etc. will be available on Office of Graduate and Undergraduate Programs' Syllabus Information web page at: https://www.sjsu.edu/curriculum/courses/syllabus-info.php. Make sure to visit this page, review and be familiar with these university policies and resources.

In order to request an accommodation in a class please contact the Accessible Education Center and register via the MyAEC portal.

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