Cobram Library co-ordinator Jess Anderson has concluded a prestigious scholarship program. But for the visionary librarian, it’s only the beginning of the next chapter.
Photo by
Owen Sinclair
Cobram Library co-ordinator Jess Anderson is more than a friendly face and helping hand.
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This month, Jess marked the end of her Barrett Reid Scholarship, a coveted program run across one year through Public Libraries Victoria.
“Libraries are, I guess, one of the places that invented ‘re-use’,” said Jess, who shared her scholarship with Brimbank librarian Rachel D’Arcy.
“A book doesn’t get used just once. So think there’s a good correlation there, of ‘stop thinking about it as a single use thing’.”
The metaphor is apt, considering a focus of Jess and Rachel’s work, afforded by the scholarship, was on developing guidelines on how Victorian libraries could become more environmentally sustainable.
Over one year, the pair researched and wrote a report on how libraries could implement practices better aligned with a suite of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
They produced quality standards on areas such as First Nations engagement, waste reduction and reducing libraries’ carbon footprints.
“Maybe I’m a hippy at heart,” Jess said with a laugh.
Humour aside, an urgent message lay at the heart of their work.
“We’ve only got one planet. There’s only this,” Jess said.
“We’ve got to do things better so that it doesn’t have to be wasteful.”
Jess with the e-waste bin that was used as a case study in the report she co-authored.
Photo by
Owen Sinclair
The pair’s research took them all the way to an international conference in Bangkok, Thailand.
Jess also had the chance to interview other librarians from places such as Denmark, to learn how they had made their libraries more environmentally sustainable.
Closer to home, the pair used the electronic waste bin at the Cobram Library as a case study of how a library could recycle items such as broken DVDs and mobile phones.
But while the scholarship might be over, it’s only the beginning of a new chapter for Jess, who sees the skills and knowledge she gained from the scholarship as a further call to action.
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