The Libraries Sustainability Committee formed after the teaching & learning Librarian Nicole Doro chatted with her supervisor about ways to explore sustainability within McMaster Libraries. Around the same time, a couple of staff were starting a Repair Café in the Makerspace. The Committee was officially formed in early 2020 with the Repair Café as one of the first projects. Unfortunately, the start of COVID meant that all initiatives were done online; but we expanded our programming when we were allowed back in person (including the seed library!).
This past year, the seed library loaned out about 3000 seed packets and received a handful of returns from patrons’ successful harvests. We are also happy to assist any student groups or courses that are interested in environmental sustainability - providing seeds to ZeroWaste McMaster and the McMaster Community Garden to support their activities.
McMaster serves a diverse community beyond students, faculty, and staff–all in the Hamilton community are welcome to participate!
We focus our energy on six areas of concern in our endeavour to affect change, and to inspire, in our McMaster community, and in the broader community outside McMaster:
Inform and Advise McMaster University Libraries’ leadership regarding climate action and environmental sustainability matters.
Reduce our environmental impact: Identify opportunities to reduce energy consumption, minimize waste, and reduce our carbon footprint through innovative and sustainable practices.
Promote sustainability through education: develop and implement programs that promote sustainability education and awareness among library staff, faculty, students, and the broader campus community.
Foster community engagement and Networking: with the broader campus community and work collaboratively to promote sustainable practices and reduce our environmental impact. Collaborate with other departments, student organizations, and community groups to achieve shared sustainability goals.
Advocate for sustainability: at the university level, raise awareness of sustainability issues, and promote sustainable policies and practices that support the university's sustainability goals.
Monitor and report progress: towards achieving our sustainability goals. We also share our successes and challenges with the broader community to inspire and inform others.
The overarching purpose of the Seed Library at McMaster University is to promote sustainable food systems, increase biodiversity, and build community resilience. We break it down into four parts:
Encouraging the use of locally adapted seed varieties: Offering a collection of seeds that are adapted to the local climate and soil conditions, the Seed Library promotes the use of plants that are well-suited to the local environment.
Supporting seed saving and preservation: Borrowing seeds and then returning seeds from their own harvests, community members learn about the importance of seed saving and preservation. This helps to promote biodiversity and ensure that rare and heirloom varieties are not lost.
Building community resilience: Providing community members with access to a wide variety of seeds that can be grown in their own gardens; promoting food security and while helping to build strong, self-sufficient and resilient communities.
Promoting sustainable food systems: Encouraging the use of locally adapted seed varieties and supporting seed saving and preservation, the Seed Library helps to promote sustainable food systems that are resilient, diverse, and environmentally friendly.
We try to provide accessible and relevant resources to help people with their gardens/seed projects and try to get users active in practicing the principles of sustainability. The committee is hoping to expand programming around the seed library and host workshops on seed starting and seed saving. In the past, we’ve hosted virtual readings, repair cafes, movie screenings, climate action themed art displays–trying to highlight not just the resources available in the library but also the meaningful work being done by the McMaster community to support and address climate action.
We have a LibGuide, topical in-house websites containing relevant information about the subject, in this case: Sustainability. A common practice for academic libraries to have Guides posted on their website: https://libguides.mcmaster.ca/sustainability
As a committee, we are not directly associated, nor attached to any social media.