ALT Blue Marble Library Blog Post Earth Day Programs Across the Library Landscape by Gabrielle Griffis

ALT On Tuesday, April 30th, 6:30—7:30 PM Norwell's Become a Climate Champion! will address the urgency of climate change impacts and Mass Audubon's Climate Champions Program. With the Climate Champions program, Mass Audubon is building a network of new and experienced changemakers. Participants in the Champions program will gain the knowledge, skills, inspiration, and connections needed to make change, together.

ALT Celebrate Earth Month with Barnstable Land Trust and Sturgis Library with special events and programs all month long! Start by visiting the library and add your Earth Month wish to BLT's Wish Tree. Handcrafted by Kelly Barber, BLT’s Director of Land Stewardship, this natural sculpture represents 10 different types of woods from 5 different BLT properties. Then pick up an Earth Month Bingo Card featuring recommended books and hiking trails to check off to be eligible for special prizes. Stay tuned for special hikes, lectures, and activities for the full calendar of events.

ALT on Saturday, April 27th Tree Sapling distribution in collaboration with Neighborhood Forest - The Ashland Public Library is collaborating once again with Neighborhood Forest, this spring, in celebration of Earth Day, to inspire youth environmentalism. Families who register to receive a free tree sapling to plant with their child(ren) can come by the library to collect it.

ALT Nearly a dozen public libraries in western Massachusetts are collaborating on a regional approach to climate-change programming. They are leveraging a key community partnership and tapping local resources in a shared effort to focus closely on climate challenges and opportunities in the cities and towns they serve.

ALT Last year, they assembled a resource list of local experts available for local programming. Each entry on the list contains the topic, descriptions of the presenter and subject matter, contact information, fee (if there is one), and the name of the library that added that resource to the list. There are more than 30 entries in all, with separate sections for adults, families, teens and kids. Topics include beekeeping, climate justice, upcycling, eating local, heat pumps, environmentally friendly lawns, and climate 101.

ALT “Every job is easier with an ally by your side,” she said. “Besides, it made no sense for each library to individually come up with their own programs when we could save everybody time and effort by working as a team. This is one case where many hands really did make light work.”

ALT Blue Marble Library Blog Post Winter Coats at Oak Bluffs Library By Allyson Malik, Oak Bluffs Library Director & Andrea Figaratto, Whelden Memorial Library Director Image of a coat

ALT Image of coat rack with text that says. In Massachusetts, where winters can often be harsh and unforgiving, staying warm is a life-and-death priority for many of our residents. Unfortunately, not everyone has the means to buy a warm coat, gloves or hat. That's why the Oak Bluffs Public Library continues to maintain a free winter coat rack for our community.

ALT The initiative started with a simple complaint: our custodian remarked that he was tired of replacing the paper towels in the public bathroom. The library staff then began to notice that some of our regular patrons were stuffing those paper towels – along with discarded newspapers and magazines from our recycling bin – into their clothing to keep warm. Images of cartoon coats.

ALT Soon thereafter, Andrea Figaratto – then Head of Circulation of the Oak Bluffs Public Library, now Director at the Whelden Memorial Library – was cleaning out one of our storage closets when she was struck with an aha! moment. She asked me whether she could set up an unused coat rack so she could hang the several discarded sweaters and jackets we had stored for years. I said yes, so she put the coat rack and free winter items, partially supplied by a generous donation from the MVCS thrift store, Chicken Alley, in a strategic place near the library entrance where people could easily browse and take items without being in full public view. Image of snow covered trees.

ALT This year’s theme was The Planet’s Health and Yours: Facing the Invisible Impacts of Climate Change. Many libraries focused on an array of interpretations on this theme, encompassing everything from mental health, the risks of dehydration, heating/cooling concerns, and the effects climate change has on our native flora and fauna. Picture of a sign that says: What do you LOVE about our EARTH and that you don't want to lose to climate chaos? www.climateribbon.org

ALT Fourteen libraries in the CLAMS network on Cape Cod and the Islands partnered with the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative to offer a webinar on this year’s theme with the Climate Change Collaborative’s executive director Richard Delaney and vice president, Fran Schofield. Delaney covered local, national, and international aspects of the impacts of climate change. The talk included solutions to the climate crisis as well as an interactive question and answer session at the end.

ALT Concord Public Library hosted more than one program. Wildfires in Massachusetts: A Hot Topic and Propagate Local, Native Pollinator Plants Across Concord! They also did the Climate Ribbon Project and had a week long interactive Tick Awareness Display . Some other events they hosted were : Fowler Afoot focused on climate, Planting Pollinators, Seed Saving with Codman Farms, and they had a Climate Ribbon Project as well.

ALT May be an image of text that says 'Blue Marble Library Blog Post 米 Week 2022: Climate Prep Resources ET Program Ideas By: Gabrielle Griffis, Assistant Youth Services Librarian, Brewster Ladies' Library CREW Communities Responding to Extreme Weather BLUE MARBLE LIBRARIANS Massachusetts LIBRARY SYSTEM'

ALT May be an image of 4 people and text that says 'CLIMATE PREPAREDNESS WEEK Organized by Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW) He This year's Climate Prep Week theme is The Planet's Health and Yours: Facing the Invisible Impacts of Climate Change. As CREW notes on their website, the purpose of this year's theme is to focus on "the many ways that extreme weather and climate change manifest outside of the most noticeable disasters and disruptions. From the toll climate anxiety E grief can take on mental health to how the invisible threat of extreme heat most powerfully felt in historically redlined and disenfranchised communities."

ALT May be an image of 1 person and text that says 'The Blue Marble Librarians have put together a few program ideas on this year's theme to help libraries plan their events, including a specially curated book list you can print out and share with your patrons. how Ribbon tog Write library. In addition to book discussions, here are few other program ideas: Aguided nature tour that to alleviate dimate burnout educational program on tidk-borne ilnesses Cimate Ribbon Project screening and discussion of films such as: 2040, The Magnitude Things, Cooked Survivalby Zp Code, Future World Cafe Discussion •APreparedness 101 Event'

ALT If you are unable to host a program of your own, you can always sign on to promote, support, or show one of CREW’s Central Events for the year. Visit CREW’s Climate Prep Week 2022 page to find out what central events are available this year (they are still in the process of finalizing these events, so there are more to come!). Among the central events for 2022 are: Extreme Weather Impacts on Brockton: A Workshop from CREW and the Authentic Caribbean Foundation Sustainable Living Programs for Libraries with Ellyssa Kroski sponsored by the Massachusetts Library System Image of flyer for Sustainable Living Programs for Libraries with Ellyssa Kroski with cove of book 25 Ready to use sustainable living library programs

ALT An image of flower, outdoors and text that says 'Blue Marble Library Blog Post Guided Nature Therapy: More than a Walk in the Park By: Madeleine Charney, Research Services Librarian, UMass Amherst Mass LIBRARY SYSTEM BLUE MARBLE LIBRARIANS' .

ALT an image of trees, outdoors and text that says As a librarian with a background in sustainable landscape design, the term “forest bathing” caught my attention. I ordered a couple of books for our collection at UMass Amherst and brought one home called The Joy of Forest Bathing: Reconnect with Wild Places and Rejuvenate Your Life by Melanie Choukas-Bradley. The title alone gave me a lift. The author offers a simple antidote to our nature-starved and distracted lives, a practice called Shinrin-yoku, in Japanese or “forest bathing” in English.

ALT An image of forest with water with text that says: As I got deeper into the book, I came upon a podcast episode on the topic. The interviewee explained that he was a “nature and forest therapy guide.” A bell went off in my mind. Then my inner voice chimed in, “I want to do that.” About a year later when my schedule opened up, I enrolled in a six-month training with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy (ANFT). Founded by M. Amos Clifford, the framework has become the most-widely used in the world with more than 2000 trained guides in over 60 countries.

ALT An image of white aster with text that says: While hiking is an enjoyable and healthy activity, forest therapy is more than a walk in the park. A forest or nature therapy experience involves a sequence of open-ended invitations that provides structure to the experience, while embracing opportunities for creativity and serendipity offered by the forest and individual inspiration of the guide. There is no prescription for what a person "should'' experience, or what benefits they "should" receive. My teachers impressed upon us time and again, that “the forest is the therapist; the guide opens the door.”

ALT Blue Marble Library Blog Post Evaluating Energy Use of Library Buildings by Andrea Bono-Bunker, MLIS Library Building Specialist, MBLC link to blog Image of lightbulb with plant in middle. Logos for Blue Marble Librarians and Massachusetts library System

ALT Image of building and electrical cord. Text: Most libraries will be tackling incremental changes to increase energy efficiency and meet the Commonwealth’s aggressive climate goals by 2050. So, how do you begin to build a case for funding weatherization work to tighten the building’s exterior walls/windows/doors/roof, otherwise known as the building envelope, and implement efficiency upgrades to systems, such as HVAC, lighting, plumbing, etc.?

ALT Image of two arrows in circular rotation and a footprint. Text: Tracking energy and water usage is the first step. There are traditional means, such as a spreadsheet that can be utilized to document each utility, the amount used, the cost per unit, and the total monthly cost. Then there are more sophisticated methods, such as MassEnergyInsight, a free, online tool provided to municipalities in Massachusetts by the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) through the Green Communities Program. For login credentials, contact your designated Green Communities coordinator.

ALT Image of earth with a plant on top. A circular arrow with water droplets. Incentives through MassSave and the DOER grant programs can assist boards of trustees and municipalities with targeted funding, which also may influence prioritization of projects. Likewise, some municipalities choose to procure upgraded equipment through energy management systems (EMS), which require less upfront capital expenditure.

ALT Picture of MLA Banner with headline "Turn the Tide" May 23-24 2022 Hyannis, MA with pictures of Michelle Eberle Consultant for Mass Library System, Gabrielle Griffis Youth services librarian for Brewster Ladies' Library, Reni Cunningham Reference Librarian for Concord free library, and Corey Farrenkopf Librarian at Eastham Library