Introduction

[Christine Siegel <jts@sdcity.sannet.gov>]

I am representing the City of San Diego Environmental Services(ESD) and Library departments.  Three years ago ESD partnered with the public library system (Central Library and 34 branches) to open a "special library" branch entirely devoted to environmental issues.  The purpose was to get environmental information to the public as well as to support professionals working in the environmental field.  The environmental library collection is cataloged in the public library database and materials are checked out with a public library card.  The partnership has been highly successful with users representing the full gamut from environmental professionals to students to teachers to the general public.  Now that our library is fully established we are embarking on expanding our efforts in environmental education.  All age levels from preschool through graduate school have participated in our eduational programs.  We also host community forums with leading environmentalists.

The City of San Environmental Services Department is responsible for refuse collection for the City of SD, operating the landfill, recycling programs, hazardous waste, stormwater, and environemntal protection. We are internationally recoginzed in the field of sustainable and green building and are headquartered in the Ridgehaven Green Building demonstration project, first building to earn the Energy Star designation. We are active participants and mentors in the EPA/DOE Climate Wise program. Another area of interest is in the mining of landfill gas and converting our trash trucks to LNG (liquified natural gas) thus completing the reduce/reduse/recycle loop. We are also in the process of achieving ISO 14000 certification.

Because I've been involved for the past 3 years in developing the library for the purposes of getting environmental information to the public and serving as an educational venue, I am interested in hearing what others are doing in their communities. The Ridgehaven Green Buidling is a highly visited, highly toured, building. As such, I have been able to talk to people literally from all over the world. There truly is a strong desire on the part of the public, as well as those working in the field, to be able to access environmental information. People are comfortable using libraries for their information needs and there really is an expectation that libraries be able to deliver this information. I am looking forward to participating in this forum to foster this goal and to ensure that we as information specialists be poised to support each other meet this need.