Go Green at the Library!

Everything seems to be green. Green this and green that. I remember that first "Earth Day" thirty years ago. I remember it well, because I lost my father on that same day.

As a twelve-year-old, the concept of taking care of Mother Earth was one that I was vaguely aware of in the back of my mind. I do remember seeing commercials on televisions with an old Indian chief looking around at garbage with a tear in his eye. I remember Hooty Owl -- "Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute". I remember an anti-littering campaign, "Don't be a Litter Bug". At that young age, I remember being a bit ticked if I saw someone throw a bag of trash out the window of their car. I remember carrying litter bags in our car, the kind that hung from the radio knob.

Now, as a librarian, I must confess that I am not totally convinced that the globe is "warming". I believe that temperature change on the planet is cyclical. But you make up your own mind. The library is a great place to research this topic and others.

Anyway, back to "going green". I may not believe in the concept of global warming, but I do believe in keeping our rivers, oceans and air clean. I believe in recycling and conservation.

I must digress and share one quick story. I use to live in California. The State issued a water conservation order. One way to conserve, was to put a brick in the toilet. I was so confused and had a major "blonde moment". Ewwwww... wouldn't the brick get poop and stuff all over it??? Never realizing, until my "aha" moment, that the brick went in the tank to displace water, not the bowl.

Okay, back to "going green". The public library is the ultimate recycler. Our books are borrowed over and over again. A title by popular author Nora Roberts has circulated over 100 times. Many popular titles "circ" more then that in their lifetime. If each of these readers had purchased the books, I wonder how many trees would have been used for the publication.

Over 150,000 books were borrowed from the Paulding County Carnegie Library system in 2009. Over 38,000 movies were borrowed and almost 5,000 CDs were loaned. A total of over 205,000 items of all types were borrowed. Now, I don't know about you, but that sounds like a lot of recycling to me.

So, be part of "going green" and "go green" at the library! Happy Reading!