Visit the University Libraries and you'll hear the low hum of scanning stations as students scan papers and research materials and then save their documents to their 2 GB iLocker digital storage space. Our visitors are encouraged to help reduce waste and slash disposal costs by saving documents to PDFs (portable document files) on their computers and thumb drives instead of printing them. This initiative has been successful as more people become comfortable with both reading and writing on screen. Additionally, students are asked to limit their printing to 30 pages per day and to place any waste paper into recycling containers that are conveniently located in 25 locations throughout Bracken.
“For quite some time, we have been in the habit of recycling paper. Staff's discarded pages are turned into notepads and many staff use the back side of pages for printing,” said Susan G. Akers, Marketing Communications Manager.
Another recycling effort by the University Libraries in encouraging people to drop off their magazines in Bracken’s lower level for the enjoyment of others. Other conservation-minded measures include using equipment that features the Energy Star or other power management functionality to conserve electricity and by asking employees to turn-off their desktop computers and office lights when they leave for the day to conserve energy by thinking green.
