Michael Schwartz Library
Michael Schwartz Library
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The 2017-2018 academic year was a productive one for the MSL Sustainability Interest Group. Below are some of the projects we accomplished.
The MSL Sustainability Interest Group was founded in the summer of 2017. The group started with some small projects, including:
Campus Sustainability Month Email Campaign
During the month of October 2017 the MSL Sustainability Interest Group sent weekly emails to library staff, reminding them of small actions they could take to decrease their environmental footprint. The email campaign was meant to help the library celebrate Campus Sustainability Month. During that month the library homepage image carousel also marketed the library's recycling bins, increasing awareness of sustainability on campus.
Compostable Dinnerware at Library Parties
The library's holiday celebration is among the largest of our annual parties. The MSL Sustainability Interest Group worked with the CSU Sustainability Office to reduce the amount of waste at this event. Jenn provided a compostable garbage bag, as well as some compostable plates, cups, and silverware. The library was able to supplement those purchases with additional compostable dinnerware. Sustainability IG members took care of helping staff use the compost bin and taking the compost down to the compost collection site on campus. This project was so successful that we were able to implement it again at the Staff Awards Ceremony using donated compostable dinnerware.
Earth Month Library Display
In celebration of Earth Month in April, the MSL Sustainability Interest Group worked with multiple groups to create a large Earth Month display in the library. The student group SEM (Student Environmental Movement) was invited to contribute material to the display and help arrange it (which they enjoyed doing quite a bit). Jenn McMillin provided material from the Sustainability Office. The librarians pulled relevant books to include in the display and made some new orders as it became clear that important sustainability texts were missing from our collection. Finally, our marketing and program planning staff created signage, set up a TV with sustainability-related films, and helped to bring the display together. The display came together in time for the campus Earth Fest celebration, so MSL Sustainability Interest Group members who volunteered to help with that event were able to encourage participants to also see the library's display. The display received a lot of positive feedback and was able to remain up throughout the summer.
The MSL Sustainability Interest Group completed several projects for the 2018-2019 academic year. See below for descriptions:
Faculty Sustainability Speaker Series
Our main project this year was organizing a speaker series, called Celebrating the Ecological Resources and Culture of Cuyahoga County, to feature faculty research about sustainability. The purpose of the speaker series was to enhance collaboration across campus and in the greater community, raise awareness of current CSU faculty research, and provide campus community members with concrete steps to take in reducing their own environmental footprint.
This collaboration between the Michael Schwartz Library and the CSU Office of Sustainability brought researchers and local practitioners together to talk about sustainability efforts and innovations. The speaker series was presented in support of the 2019 Sustainable Cleveland initiative, a ten-year effort to engage the Cleveland community in building a resilient, forward-thinking city. 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the year the Cuyahoga River caught fire which subsequently sparked the modern environmental movement.
All speaker presentations were open to the public and took place in the library (except one offered in Engineering). Light snacks and beverages were provided.
Academic Year 2018-19 Schedule:
Sustainability in Business: Measuring Progress and Changing Culture
Speakers: Vickie Gallagher, Associate Professor, College of Business and Tracy Porter, Assistant Professor, College of Business
October 25th, 2018, 11:30 - 12:30pm
The Value of Water: Water Resources in Cuyahoga County
Speakers: Wendy Kellogg, Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Studies and Bryan Stubbs, Cleveland Water Alliance
November 13th, 2018, 11:30 - 12:30pm
Invasive Plants and Ecological Restoration
Speakers: Emily Rauschert, Assistant Professor, Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences Department and Jenn Hillmer, Invasive Plant Coordinator, Cleveland Metroparks
February 26, 2019, 11:30 - 12:30pm
Sustainability in Action at NASA: Policy, Science and Engineering at Work
Speaker: Walt Kocher, Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department
April 23, 2019, 11:30 - 12:30pm
Other Projects
The Sustainability Interest Group also celebrated Campus Sustainability Month again by sending out weekly emails to library staff with sustainability tips. We also helped the Sustainability Office and Student Environmental Movement with the campus Earthfest celebration in April by volunteering during the event.
While the work of the MSL Sustainability Interest Group was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic--like so many others--we still were able to accomplish several projects this academic year.
Crooked River Contrasts Photo Display
In Fall 2019, Jenn McMillan, CSU's Sustainability Officer, coordinated with Mary Grodek from the West Creek Conservancy to provide the MSL with the opportunity to host a beautiful image display on our first floor. The display was a part of the Cuyahoga 50 program, a celebration of how far the Cuyahoga River and our other local waterways have come since 1969, when Cleveland became famous for our burning river. The display consisted of historical photographs of the river at its lowest point, 50 years ago, paired with vibrant photographs of the river as it is currently enjoyed by Cuyahoga County residents. The contemporary photos were taken by local Cleveland photographers, and provide a beautiful glimpse into the power of healthy waterways in sustaining and improving our communities. In collaboration with the exhibit, we hosted an informational presentation by Bill Barrow, our Special Collection Librarian, who spoke about the history of environmentalism in the Cleveland area. The exhibit remained in the library through January 2020.
The MSL did have a sustainability research guide expertly created by Urban Studies librarian, Diane Kolosionek, but she gave the MSL Sustainability Interest Group the go-ahead to create a new sustainability guide that targeted more departments and included general sustainability information for consumers. The guide is a work in progress, but creating it was a useful way of evaluating our own sustainability resource selection and the sustainability offerings of our various departments.
Online Earth Month Library Exhibit
In Spring 2020, Ben Richards created an online exhibit in our institutional repository, EngagedScholarship, to celebrate Northeast Ohio's historical contributions to environmentalism. The exhibit was released in time for Earth Month 2020, which marked the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day. Images for the exhibit come from the MSL Special Collections' digitized image collection, and they fall into four categories: river and lake pollution, awareness and advocacy, local action, and celebration/Earth Day.
Earth Month Staff Emails
The group also created several emails for MSL staff to help them celebrate Earth Month. The emails had suggestions for actions to be more sustainable while stuck at home during the pandemic. Ideas included conducting a home energy audit, cooking plant-based meals, reducing the use of single-use plastic, and following CSU's Office of Sustainability on Facebook.
In the Fall of 2020, the MSL Sustainability Team sent out emails to colleagues to help them celebrate Campus Sustainability Month by increasing their sustainable actions. The Team also provided feedback to CSU's Sustainability Officer on her Sustainability Plan for the campus.
In Spring 2021, one of the Team's members offered a webinar about climate change in Northeast Ohio for the CSU community. See the library blog for more details.
Campus Sustainability Month Emails
In Fall 2021, the MSL Sustainability Team provided another round of emails to library staff during Campus Sustainability Month, helping them learn about ways to be more sustainable.
Earth Month 2022 Events
In Spring 2022, members of the Team helped to organize an Earth Month display in the library. The display focused on how the research and work of various disciplines interacts with climate change. One member of the Team also helped to organize a Plant-Based Eating Demo in collaboration with the Sustainability Office and Aramark, the company that provides food services at CSU. See the library blog for more details about Earth Month activities.
Sustainabil-Tea Swap Event
In the summer of 2022, the Team worked together to facilitate a sustainability swap event that also included Law Library staff. More details about the event can be found here: https://researchguides.csuohio.edu/SustainabiliTeaSwap. The event, which involved tea, crumpets, t-shirt bag making, and sustainable swag giveaways, was a great success!
Sustainability Email Challenge
In Fall 2022, the MSL Sustainability Team partnered with the library's Luminaries Resident, Campbell Pratt, to offer a week long email "challenge" about sustainability. Those who signed up were sent an email each day to remind them of ways they could be more sustainable. All of the daily challenge content can be found on Campbell's research guide.
Open Access Week: Open for Climate Justice
The theme for Open Access Week in Fall 2022 was "Open for Climate Justice". In addition to the other activities planned for the week, the library also created and shared a Climate Justice research guide.
SustainRT Webinar
The MSL Sustainability Team also gave a webinar presentation about their Sustainability Swap event for the American Library Association's Sustainability Roundtable in Fall 2022.
This academic year, we had some sustainability-related, fun projects, both from students and our team.
In Fall 2023, our OhioLINK Luminaries student, Michael Angelo, worked with Mandi to create a project called Talking Environmental Sustainability. The idea was to bring together students and student groups who are interested in sustainability to allow them to better communicate and coordinate. We created the research guide below and had one meeting to get student feedback. We also created a survey to get student feedback. Hopefully we can pick up this project in the future!
In Spring 2024, the Sustainability Team coordinated another Sustainability Swap for staff and student employees to exchange items in good shape. The event was well attended and very fun, as usual! Some photos are below.
Our final project for Spring 2024 was to collect eclipse glasses for recycling after the big day in April. The Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District was collecting eclipse glasses on behalf of Astronomers Without Borders so they could be distributed to other countries as they experience eclipses and be reused. We put out a box and collected hundreds of eclipse glasses, saving them from being thrown away! This was a fairly easy, very rewarding project that the team took on.