Libraries and positive climate action: read, learn, act

The British Library is hosting a series of webinars focused on libraries and the climate crisis. The aim of the series is to bring together international library leaders to share their different responses to the climate emergency.

In this session, we will explore how libraries are getting involved with citizen science and the lessons learnt in the process.

Many libraries are increasingly participating in citizen science initiatives, enabling them to become active participants in improving our knowledge about our local environments and climate impact on our lives. With a growing range of projects – from collecting data about biodiversity, water pollution, or coastal erosion, to helping with analysis and dissemination of scientific results – citizen science is helping scientists and engaging the public more deeply with emerging issues.

This event will be live captioned.

Speakers will be announced shortly.

The session will be chaired by Maja Maricevic, Director of Science and Innovation at the British Library and responsible for the Library’s strategy, policy and partnership development across higher education and science. Maja is particularly interested in the big challenges of our time, such as the continuing digital transformation and climate change. Maja chairs the UK Green Libraries Campaign, a partnership of UK libraries working towards a better future for planet and people. Maja is an Advisory Board Member for the UK Research and Innovation programme Building a Greener Future. She is also a Board member of London’s Knowledge Quarter. She has previously worked in universities, government departments and as a professional consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Libraries and positive climate action

By their nature, libraries are both places of information and places enabling the birth of new ideas and activities. This means that libraries are ideal hubs to help us address the complex challenges of our time. In this series of events, organised by the British Library, we explore how libraries across the globe are deploying their expertise and resources to tackle the climate crisis. Libraries’ action is focused on the diverse communities on their doorstep and their experiences of climate change in their local environment. However, libraries worldwide are also collaborating and learning from each other to enable positive climate action.

In this series, we are looking at three crucial climate-focused themes, relevant both for libraries that are already active in climate initiatives, and those that are just starting to explore this area of activity. Firstly, we are looking at how libraries can build their capacity to provide information about climate change and to facilitate practical climate action. In the second webinar, we are looking at how citizen science can enable users to participate in building up our collective knowledge of climate issues. And thirdly, we are exploring how libraries can support our consumer-focused societies to adopt circular economies to use our resource more efficiently.

Our expert panellists, from different libraries across the world, will help us discover new perspectives and share practical tips and real-life experiences to broaden our knowledge and inform our future practice.

Image: from the British Library archive