Environmentally friendly practice in New Zealand libraries

Abstract

Libraries are often viewed as a window of the society in which they are situated. By examining library buildings and the operations of libraries, this study aimed to explore the demonstration of the New Zealand government's commitment to sustainability. The data of this research included two categories: current literature and libraries' documentation. Content analysis was chosen as the research method in this study. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to interpret the data. Although this research did not found out any direct impact on libraries from the government's commitment to sustainability, it discovered that there is an increasing trend for New Zealand libraries to apply sustainable design to their buildings and to emphasise their environmentally friendly features when they introduce their libraries to the public. The findings of this study also pointed out that many New Zealand libraries do not play an active role to fulfill their environmental responsibility; however, most of them follow their councils' environmental policies to make their libraries more environmentally friendly. Thus, this study concluded that, in New Zealand, the major cause of libraries' environmentally friendly practice was from their councils significantly, rather than from the central government's policies or legislation.