A study on green moments in selected libraries in Western Province, Sri Lanka. [Paper presentation]. National Conference on Library and Information Science, Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Sri Lanka.

Abstract

A global interest on green concept has taken into consideration in today's world, as the environment has been drastically threatened by irresponsible human activities and modern technology for some decades. Therefore, going green has become a necessity in Sri Lanka at present as a country in which the number of environmental issues is dramatically increasing day by day. As a result of this, green implementations can be evident in some of private and government bodies in Sri Lanka. As community centers and knowledge hubs, the libraries also have a great part to play in this regard. In view of that, going green has become a goal of libraries in other countries, but very primitive in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to examine the green movements in university libraries in Western Province, Sri Lanka. The population was the university libraries in Western Province. Therefore, Survey method was used to gather data from randomly selected 13 university libraries in western Province. Both state and private university libraries were included in the sample as 50% from each category. Conducting interviews with selected academic staff and self-observation were main tools used in data collection. The study was conducted based on the research framework which consists of five areas namely, library building, operations and practices, programmes and services, information systems and library collection. Those five areas were covered by 23 indicators. Basically, 14 green indicators could be identified in surveyed libraries. According to the data analysis, waste segmentation was the most popular green practice which functioned in 84% of libraries. Use of e-resources and gardening were practiced by 54% of the surveyed libraries. 23% of libraries produce bio gas and some libraries had a separate resource center for those activities. Composting, construction of solar panels and water purification systems, sharing