Is Digital a Problem or a Solution? | Libraries and Positive Climate Action

This event, originally titled 'Libraries and Positive Climate Action Webinar Series 2024-25: Is Digital a Problem or a Solution?', took place on 13 February 2025. The information below is correct as of the publication date.

This webinar asks the question of how libraries can embrace the positive of digital technologies while minimising our impact on the planet.

The British Library is hosting a series of webinars focused on libraries and the climate crisis. The aim of the series is to bring together international library leaders to share their different responses to the climate emergency.

Libraries deploy a wide range of digital technologies, and the range keeps expanding as many libraries start to think about potential of artificial intelligence and its deployment in different library processes. In the face of climate crisis, digital technologies are often an essential tool – for example, enabling us to preserve materials vulnerable to effects of extreme weather. At the same time, we know that large data centres and computation power are large contributors to climate change, and that our increased digital activities add pressure on the planet’s resources. What does this mean for the future digital strategies of libraries? How do we adjust to both embrace the positive aspects of digital technologies and minimise our impact on the planet?

Discover more of our climate webinar series at our playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcM3hEgp2RYA

To understand more about the British Library's work on sustainability and climate change, visit our website: https://www.bl.uk/about/sustainability

The speakers for this event include:

Emmanuel Fremau is Marketing Manager at Arkhênum, a MEMORIST division and international service provider dedicated to the preservation and promotion of all kinds of Heritage assets. Emmanuel will present Arkhênum’s vision about positive climate action in a digital world.

Abhijit Gupta is professor of English at Jadavpur University and director, Jadavpur University Press and the School of Cultural Texts and Records. He was co-editor, along with Swapan Chakravorty, of the Book History in India series, of which four volumes have been published: Print Areas (2004), Moveable Types (2008), New Word Order (2011) and Founts of Knowledge (2015). A fifth volume is under preparation. He was associate editor for South Asia for the Oxford Companion to the Book (2010). His latest book, The Spread of Print in Colonial India: into the Hinterland came out in 2021 from Cambridge University Press.

Christopher Ohge is Senior Lecturer in Digital Approaches to Literature at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. He is the author of the book Publishing Scholarly Editions: Archives, Computing, and Experience (2021). Other published works have appeared in Textual Cultures, Essays in Criticism, American Literary History, Scholarly Editing, Leviathan, NN&Q, & several edited collections on Herman Melville, textual editing, & digital research methods. Since 2022, he has also coordinated the Tool-kit group for the Digital Humanities Climate Coalition.

The session is chaired by Maja Maricevic, Director of Science and Innovation at the British Library and responsible for the Library’s strategy, policy and partnership development across higher education and science. Maja is particularly interested in the big challenges of our time, such as the continuing digital transformation and climate change. Maja chairs the UK Green Libraries Campaign, a partnership of UK libraries working towards a better future for planet and people. Maja is an Advisory Board Member for the UK Research and Innovation programme Building a Greener Future. She is also a Board member of London’s Knowledge Quarter. She has previously worked in universities, government departments and as a professional consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers.