Librarians, as a whole, tend to be politically and socially progressive, so it’s no surprise that a group of librarians—the Task Force on the Environment of the Social Responsibilities Round Table—is encouraging their colleagues at the midwinter conference of the American Library Association to be environmentally responsible and use mugs or re-usable water bottles in place of paper or Styrofoam cups. The goal is to reduce waste.
The task force is calling its campaign “Cup by Cup for a Greener ALA.” If every person attending the conference uses coffee cups, the group says, “more than 10,000 paper or Styrofoam cups would not enter already overflowing landfills.”
The campaign doesn’t appear to have caught on, though. This conference-goer has seen lots of people drinking coffee from paper and Styrofoam cups during the past three days, and only a handful of people drinking the beverage from a mug. —Andrea L. Foster
Developing online and blended learning programs requires research and collaboration. Learn how top technology companies are partnering with campuses across the country to advance online learning as it becomes an increasingly important aspect of higher education.