Public Libraries Going Green: Environmental Sustainability and Green Information Literacy Kim Ashley Albertyn (3366422) Master’s thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Library and Information Studies Department of Library & Information Science University of the Western Cape Bellville, South Africa Supervisor: Professor Sandy Zinn (PhD) DECEMBER 1, 2020 http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ DECLARATION I, Kim Ashley Albertyn, declare that: i The research reported in this thesis, except where otherwise indicated, is my original work. ii This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university. iii This thesis does not contain other persons’ data, pictures, graphs or other information, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other persons. iv This thesis does not contain other persons’ writings, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other written sources have been quoted, then: (a) their words have been re-written, but the general information attributed to them has been referenced; (b) where their exact words have been used, their writing has been placed inside quotation marks and referenced. v Where I have reproduced a publication of which I am an author, co-author or editor, I have indicated in detail which part of the publication was actually written by myself alone and have fully referenced such publications. vi This thesis does not contain text, graphics or tables copied and pasted from the internet, unless specifically acknowledged, and the sources being detailed in the dissertation and in the references sections. Signed: Date: 01 December 2020 Supervisor: Professor Sandy Zinn (PhD) Signed: Date: 26 February 2021 ii http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ ABSTRACT There is a great demand for human beings all over the world to live in a more green way, due to the earth’s natural resource scarcity and other environmental issues such as climate change, pollution, emission of greenhouse gases, global warming and depletion of the ozone layer. Librarians, especially public librarians, are seen as the facilitators of access to information. Public librarians are thus in a position to create awareness of the importance of green living and to educate the general public on how to live green. The study made use of Werner’s (2013) sustainable buildings, equipment and management checklist as well as Segarra’s (2015) rating system for green libraries, environmental literacy, and environmental education. The aim of the study was to investigate current green practices of libraries and what public libraries can do to educate their users about environmental sustainability and green living, while making them more environmentally literate. The researcher made use of a mixed methods approach. Selected public librarians were interviewed and a checklist tested if the library is truly green. The software package ATLAS TI 7.5.7 was used to analyse the qualitative data, and themes were drawn from the interviews. The researcher made use of Microsoft Excel to tabulate and create graphs for the quantitative analysis (checklists). The findings were triangulated. The findings revealed that library staff was familiar with the majority of the terms. It was found that none of the four City of Cape Town public libraries is green. Only one participant from Meadowridge Library and two participants from Claremont Library had a strategy to make their users green information literate. Adding green information literacy, green living and environmental sustainability programmes to library business plans and Service Delivery Budget Implementation Plan (SDBIP) and partnering with good sustainable partners were suggested to create awareness about green living, environmental sustainability and to make users green information literate. Five out of eight criteria on the checklist were practiced by City of Cape Town public libraries. Library staff are not actually educating users how to live green affordably and staff lack awareness of the subject matter. Keywords: Green living, green information literacy, environmental education, environmental sustainability, public libraries, ecological literacy, environmental literacy, green libraries. iii http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank a few individuals who played a role in my journey towards my thesis. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge and thank my God, Lord Jesus Christ for giving me the strength to complete my thesis for without him none of this would have been possible. I would also like to thank my Supervisor, Professor Sandy Zinn for her guidance and help throughout the process, for always pointing me in the right direction, and assisting me if I got stuck or providing me with information that I could use for my thesis. I would like to express my appreciation for my family, my father, Ralph Albertyn, and my mother, Mary-Ann Albertyn, who always supported me, motivated me, believed in me and for all the prayers that went out to help me to complete my thesis. I would like to thank the City of Cape Town that allowed me to conduct my research in the libraries. A special thanks to all the librarians and librarians-in-charge who took the time out of their busy schedules to participate in this study as well as the pilot study, for without their participation, there would be no research study. Lastly, I would like to thank my friends, colleagues and all those who supported me and encouraged me along the way in completing this journey. iv http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ......................................................................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................ v List of tables ................................................................................................................................................. x List of figures............................................................................................................................................... xi List of abbreviations and acronyms ......................................................................................................... xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ...................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction and motivation ................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Research problem ……………………………………………………………………………………. 4 1.2.1 Research objectives and questions of the study .................................................................................... 4 1.3 Significance of the research .................................................................................................................. 5 1.4 Delimitations and limitations of the study ........................................................................................... 5 1.5 Definitions of terms ................................................................................................................................6 1.6 Research methodology and design …………………………………………………………………... 7 1.6.1 Population and sampling …………………………………………………………………………….. 7 1.6.2 Data analysis ………………………………………………………………………………………… 8 1.6.3 Quality criteria ………………………………………………………………………………………. 8 1.7 Organisation of the chapters ………………………………………………………………………… 8 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………………………………… 10 2.1 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Conceptual framework ……………………………………………………………………………... 10 2.2.1 Environmental and green concepts ………………………………………………………………… 11 2.2.2 Segarra's rating system and Werner's checklist ……………………………………………………. 15 2.2.3 Discarded green library frameworks and checklists ……………………………………………….. 18 2.3 Green libraries: A lacuna in Africa’s library literature .................................................................. 20 2.4 Environmental education/literacy and green information literacy................................................. 23 2.4.1 Environmental education/literacy .......................................................................................................23 v http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ 2.4.2 Green information literacy ..................................................................................................................28 2.5 Librarians’ promotion of sustainable development and green living ............................................. 30 2.6 Green living practices ..........................................................................................................................36 2.6.1 American and Canadian Libraries ...................................................................................................... 36 2.6.2 Portuguese libraries ............................................................................................................................ 39 2.6.3 Space: Print versus digital materials ..................................................................................................