Preserving Collections | Libraries and and Positive Climate Action

This event, originally titled 'Libraries and Positive Climate Action: Preserving Collections', took place on 11 December 2023. The information below is correct as of the publication date.

International library leaders discuss their experiences of creating more sustainable buildings in an effort to address climate challenges.

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.

This webinar focuses on the work libraries are doing to preserve their collections as they become more vulnerable to climate change. As they face the rising risks of fires and floods, increased temperatures and other adverse weather events, the libraries are adapting their practices to safeguard their collections. This session will explore strategies and practice that libraries around the world are deploying to adapt to the changing climate.

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

Understand more about the British Library's work on sustainability and climate change by visiting our website: https://www.bl.uk/about/sustainability

The speakers for this event include:

Nimalka Passanha is the coordinator of CER’s Emergency Projects Pillar. She specialises in in streamlining support to local partners working in complex situations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. At CER her core responsibility includes the continuous development of its emergency mechanism. Nimalka has been working closely with CER since 2018.

Tania Riviere is the Director of Collection Care at the National Library of Australia. Tania has worked as a paper conservation professional since 1992. In this time, she has managed the preservation function and preserved a variety of objects and formats across the collections of the National Archives of Australia, National Museum of Australia, and the Australian War Memorial before joining the National Library of Australia as the Director of Collection Care in 2019. Since moving into a conservation management role, Tania has, amongst other things, been responsible for physical collection disaster preparation and response and managing a team of conservation specialists working with facilities, security, capital works and building contractors responding to extreme weather events including the 2019-2020 Australian Black Summer bushfires, the January 2020 Canberra hailstorm and the ‘rare’ 2020 – 2022 triple La Nina climate pattern. This work has taken place during a period of significant infrastructure work on the Library’s heritage building.

Jody Butterworth is the Endangered Archives Programme Curator at British Library, joining the team in 2012. The Programme facilitates the digitisation of archives around the world that are in danger of destruction, neglect or physical deterioration while making them available to as wide an audience as possible. EAP is supported by Arcadia and administered by the British Library. As part of her role, Jody co-authored Remote Capture: Digitising Cultural Heritage in Challenging Locations. She applied to the Barakat Trust to have the book translated into Arabic as part of outreach within the Middle East and North Africa regions. Jody has MAs in the History of Art and Archaeology (SOAS) and in Museum Studies (Leicester). Prior to returning to her hometown of London, she spent seven years working and studying in Asia (Japan, China and Mongolia).

The session is chaired by Maja Maricevic, Chair of the UK Green Libraries Partnership. Maja Maricevic is Director of Science and Innovation at the British Library. 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 and a Board member of London’s Knowledge Quarter.