Sustainable library services for all
| Pages | 317-325 |
| Date | 08 August 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LM-04-2016-0030 |
| Published date | 08 August 2016 |
| Author | J.J. Pionke |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,HR in libraries,Library strategy,Library promotion |
Sustainable library
services for all
J.J. Pionke
Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore the need to create greater accessibility in libraries
through the lens of sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach –Exploration of various types of theories including disability
theory and sustainability as applied to business structure.
Findings –Using a two tiered approach, that of disability theory and sustainability, can create a
useful framework for addressing issues of sustainable accessibility.
Originality/value –Accessibility is a major concern in libraries and creating a sustainable approach
rather than utilizing a one size fits all angle will create better library buildings, spaces, and services.
This paper focuses on discussing these issues in a way that allows for readers to come away with ideas
about how to start shifting attitudes and programs toward a greater degree of sustainable accessibility.
Keywords Universal design, Sustainability, Accessibility, Disability, Library services, Library culture
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
Iconic are the images of “whites only”signs during the civil rights movement in the
USA. Just as iconic is the image of a person in a wheelchair having to go to the back of a
library building by the dumpster in order to enter. While older buildings are often
retrofitted to make them compliant with the law and newer buildings are designed with
compliance in mind, true accessibility is typically ignored in favor of a one size fits all
disabilities approach. To create accessibility in libraries, we will need to change how we
think about disability and accessibility. To create lasting changes, the accessibility that
we create needs to be sustainable.
Sustainability
While the term sustainability has been around for quite some time in a variety of fields
including urban planning, especially as it pertains to transportation (Vega, 2012; Curtis,
2008) and to a new generation of citiescalled “Smart Cities”(Chaves-Diéguez et al.,2015),
it gained a greater levelof cachet, and environmental importance,when, in a 1987 United
Nations report, Gro Harlem Brundtland stated that sustainable development was
“meeting the needsof the present without compromisingthe ability of future generations
to meet their own needs.”It is not just that he is advocating for a balanced ecosystem,
environmental or otherwise, he also is stating that sustainability does not mean perfect
balance and infact means that balance is never a foregoneconclusion. The challengeis to
try to find balance within change itself. In libraries, this ideal has been an ever moving
target and one that the profession has struggled with. We have no further to look than
the ongoing resistance to weeding out booksfrom our collections. The fact that anarticle
titled “In favor of weeding”(Ferguson, 2015) even exists in 2015 is a testament to the, at
times, hardline stance against not just weeding, but change in general in libraries.
However, change does happen, even in the most traditional of libraries.
One of those changes taking place is how we view accessibility. In the USA, we have
often viewed compliance with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 as
Library Management
Vol. 37 No. 6/7, 2016
pp. 317-325
©Emerald Group Publis hing Limited
0143-5124
DOI 10.1108/LM-04-2016-0030
Received 18 April 2016
Revised 8 June 2016
Accepted 10 June 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0143-5124.htm
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Sustainable
library
services for all
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