Green library as a subject of research – a quantitative and qualitative perspective
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-08-2021-0156 |
| Published date | 07 December 2021 |
| Date | 07 December 2021 |
| Pages | 912-932 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Małgorzata Fedorowicz-Kruszewska |
Green library as a subject of
research –a quantitative and
qualitative perspective
Małgorzata Fedorowicz-Kruszewska
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toru
n, Toru
n, Poland
Abstract
Purpose –The objective of the article is to determine the numerical increase in publications on green libraries
and the dynamics of its development as well as to determine the thematicstructure of the scientific literature in
the field of green libraries and its changes as a representation of research in this area.
Design/methodology/approach –The research material consisted of publications on green libraries
published between 1991 and 2020, indexed in the Web of Science database. The bibliometric method was used
to determine the numerical increase in publications on green libraries and the dynamics of its development. In
order to characterize the thematic structure of publications representing research in this area, content analysis
was performed.
Findings –Quantitative analysis of the literature on green libraries has shown that this is a new area of
research not explored with constant intensity. The time of publishing materials on green libraries can be
divided into two periods: the so-called period of first publications between 1991 and 2006, and the period
between 2007 and 2020, when the number of publications increased relatively systematically. The content
analysis confirmed the hypothesis that the most frequent theme is the issue of a green building and its
management. It showed that the period after 2010 is the time of building a theoretical framework for a new
research field, i.e. green libraries.
Originality/value–The main value of the article is the performance of a quantitative and qualitative analysis
of the scientific literature indexed in the Web of Science devoted to green libraries, from the moment of the first
publications to the present day. The codebook developed for the needs of content analysis can constitute the
basis for the development of criteria for the evaluation of green libraries and guidelines for their organization.
KeywordsGreen library, Sustainable library, Library science, Librarianship, Libraries, Bibliometrics, Content
analysis
Paper type Research paper
Introduction and the state of research
Human activity has significantly changed three-quarters of the Earth’s surface and two-
thirds of the oceans. Changes in land use favouring a reduction in the distance between
wildlife, humans and livestock, the destruction and modification of natural ecosystems,
illegal and uncontrolled trade in wild animals, unsanitary conditions of trade in animals,
speed and frequency of movement are causing the spread of diseases, including new viruses
and bacteria (Barney, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic, although perceive d in mass
communication as a sudden and unpredictable phenomenon, is not so, as researchers have
been emphasizing for many years. Most pandemics, such as HIV/AIDS, SARS and avian
influenza, are caused by zoonotic pathogens, are viral diseases, and originate from wildlife.
This is one of the consequences of the loss of biodiversity, which has been caused by human
domination over the Earth’s ecosystem (Daszak et al., 2000, p. 447; Keesing et al., 2010, p. 647;
Morse et al., 2012, p. 1956). Becoming aware of the causes of the COVID-19 pandemic and
taking preventive measures in the form of caring for natural systems, as well as rebuilding
those that have been destroyed, may prevent further pandemics, which is to be achieved by
the establishment of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration for the years 2021–2030 by the
United Nations (UN) (Barney, 2020;UNEP and FAO, 2020).
JD
78,4
912
The author would like to thank Joanna Michalak for her support on the matter of statistical calculations.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 11 August 2021
Revised 2 November 2021
Accepted 4 November 2021
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 78 No. 4, 2022
pp. 912-932
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-08-2021-0156
Nowadays, it is necessary to conduct ongoing environmental education, the main goal and
result of which is environmental literacy (Abiolu and Okere, 2012). Following Charles E. Roth, the
author understands environmental literacy as “the capacity to perceive and interpret the relative
health of environmental systems and take appropriate action to maintain, restore, or improve the
health of those systems”(1992, p. 10). The conviction about the need to educate people about
behaviours beneficial for the natural environment, raise environmental awareness, disseminate
knowledge about the natural environment, develop environmental sensitivity, is also shared by
the librarianship community. For many years, libraries have been undertaking various activities
aimed at, on the one hand, minimizing the negative impact of libraries on the natural environment
by their proper management, and, on the other hand, building a service offer that favours raising
the environmental awareness of users, which translates into a change in behaviours. Both
international library organizations, such as the International Federation of Library Associations
and Institutions (IFLA) and national ones, such as the American Library Associations (ALA),
Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), and the Croatian Library Association,
are very active in this respect. One of the last signals that environmental issues in relation to the
activities of libraries, but also scientific research in this area are gaining significance, is the
transformation of the Environment, Sustainability and Libraries (ENSULIB) Special Interest
Group into a section (Qutab, 2020) at the beginning of 2021.
Since the 1990s, there has been an increasing quantity of scie ntific literature dealing with the
issues of sustainable development, including environmental sustainability, in relation to the
activities of libraries. Concepts such as green libraries, green librarianship and sustainable
libraries have already entered the conceptual apparatus of library science and librarianship.
Alongwith the increasein publications,attempts have beenmade to synthesizeand analyse itin
orderto develop a theoreticalframeworkfor the phenomena inquestion and to createa typology
of thematic areas, define terminology and describe the evolution of the issue of green and
sustainablelibraries(Antonelli, 2008;Aulisio,2013;Chowdhury,2012;Fedorowicz-Kruszewska,
2020b;Fourie, 2012;Ghorbani et al.,2016;Jankowska and Marcum, 2010;Kurbano
glu and
Boustany, 2014;Meschede and Henkel, 2019;Sahavirta 2017,2019). This article extends the
chronological scope of the research conducted so far, analyses publications on greenlibraries
from abibliometric perspective,and at the sametime, it tries to indicatethe threads raisedand –
as far as possible –to capture the evolution of the research undertaken inthis field.
As written by Emanuela Riviera, “Communication in science is realized through
publications. Thus, scientific explanations, and in general scientific knowledge, are contained
in written documents constituting scientific literature”(2013, p. 1446). The scientific literature
on green libraries, reflecting knowledge on this subject, became the subject of the research
presented in this article. The objective of the article is to: (1) Determine the numerical increase
in publications on green libraries and the dynamics of its development, (2) Determine the
thematic structure of the scientific literature in the field of green libraries and its changes as a
representation of research in this area.
Methods
To achieve the goals set for the article, the mixed methods strategy was applied, which is
defined as “the class of research where the researcher mixes or combines quantitative and
qualitative research techniques, methods, approaches, concepts, or language into a single
study”(Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004, p. 17). This approach guarantees the collection of
both quantitative and qualitative data (Maruyama and Ryan, 2014, p. 438), which is necessary
to solve the formulated research problem. Therefore, in order to answer the question about
the numerical increase in publications dealing with the issues of green libraries and the
dynamics of its development, the bibliometric method, as one of quantitative methods, was
used. In turn, to define the thematic structure of publications representing research in this
Green library
as a subject of
research
913
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