Getting Started with Climate Action Planning in Public Libraries

***BEFORE YOU REGISTER FOR THIS WEBINAR PLEASE REVIEW IMPORTANT REGISTRATION INFORMATION BELOW***

Climate action requires a focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions combined with increasing community resilience, all through a lens of climate justice. Join this webinar to find out where your time and energy can be best spent in the face of the overwhelming nature of climate action. Learn from library practitioners who have been early adopters of climate action through the award-winning Sustainable Library Certification Program to help organize your own thinking on how to implement a climate action plan at your library that will have the biggest impact locally and globally.

If you're an ALA member, you may also like An Introduction to the National Climate Action Strategy for Libraries, a free webinar exclusively available to ALA members, on April 22, 2025.

Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Explain the difference among the terms climate change mitigation, climate adaptation, and climate justice;
• Translate current services and programs into a sustainability framework to better brand their library as a climate action leader; and
• Identify new programs, services, messaging, and potential partnerships to better position their library as a climate action leader.

Who Should Attend

This webinar is intended for all public library stakeholders: directors, library workers, and library trustees. 

Panelists

Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, MLS, LEED AP, is executive director of Mid-Hudson (NY) Library System, co-founder and president of Sustainable Libraries Initiative, and principal author of the National Climate Action Strategy for Libraries. She is author of the books Sustainable Thinking: Ensuring Your Library’s Future in an Uncertain World and Resilience (both ALA Editions, 2018) and co-editor of Libraries and Sustainability: Programs and Practices for Community Impact (ALA Editions, 2021).

Julianna Robbins is a library programs consultant at the California State Library, where she focuses on library services and programs for adults. She has twenty years of experience in education, public libraries, and statewide program coordination. Julianna is the project lead for the Sustainable California Libraries initiative and has also worked on continuing education, peer review, workforce, digital navigation, and social services initiatives and grant programs since she started with the State Library in January 2022. Connect with Julianna on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliannarobbins/.

Margaret Woodruff is the director of the Charlotte Library in Charlotte, VT, a rural community of about 3,800 people located outside of Burlington. She has worked at the library since 2003 and served as its director since 2011. Since 2019, she has served as chair of the Vermont Library Association Government Relations Committee and, in 2022, she started the Vermont Sustainable Libraries Working Group. She currently serves on the Sustainable Libraries Initiative Advisory Board. During her tenure as director, the Charlotte Library completed a renovation project that resulted in a net-zero building as well as a model site for storm water mitigation. Margaret sees all work at the library, from improving technology facilities to planting pollinator gardens, as confirmation of the library’s commitment to Sustainable Library Certification and to creating a welcome and accessible environment for all.

Lisa Kropp is the director of the Lindenhurst (NY) Memorial Library, which was the third library in the country to achieve Sustainable Library Certification. She currently serves as secretary on the Sustainable Libraries Initiative Advisory Board, and was the coordinator of the Sustainability Round Table (SustainRT) for ALA. Lisa has co-authored chapters on sustainable practices in public libraries and is a frequent presenter on the topic. She is currently serving on ALA's Core Values Task Force on Sustainability, and is leading her library through its strategic plan that is aligned with the National Climate Action Strategy and the UN sustainable development goals. Lisa is also the immediate past-president of the New York Library Association.

Important Registration Information

Log into or create your ALA eLearning account

An ALA eLearning account is required to register. Don’t have an account? Create one for free by going to the “Log in” menu located at the top right corner of your screen. No membership is required to create the account. If you encounter any issues registering for this webinar, then please email ce@ala.org for assistance.

Redeem your signup code to complete your registration

Once you’ve registered for this webinar, a signup code will be added to your ALA eLearning account and emailed to you. Find the signup code on your signup code page, then redeem it on your account’s dashboard to complete your enrollment in this live webinar.

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Accommodations

This live webinar will be captioned in English (United States). Zoom desktop client or mobile app is required to access captions.

Attendees using screen readers are advised to turn off speech prior to joining the Zoom event because PLA webinars make extensive use of chat functionality. Attendees who find chat distracting may wish to disable it in the Zoom event, as PLA moderators will verbally highlight important topics raised in chat and chat transcripts will be provided post-webinar.

If you have a physical or communication need that may affect your participation in this webinar, please contact us at plawebinars@ala.org or 800-545-2433 ext. 5PLA (5752) at least two weeks prior to the webinar. Without prior notification of need, we may not be able to provide appropriate accommodations for the live event.

Archived Recording

If you're unable to attend this live webinar, an archived recording will be available to all registrants typically within 1–3 business of the live event. Access to closed captions will be provided in the webinar recording.

Tech Requirements

This webinar will be presented using the Zoom platform. Please review Zoom technical requirements and support information, and test your connection.

Once you've joined the webinar, there are two ways to connect your audio: via computer (VoIP) or via telephone. No microphone is required. PLA works with its webinar platform provider to assure the highest quality audio is being delivered to attendees. However, variables over which PLA has no control—such as the speed of your Internet connection or traffic on your local network—can affect the end quality of the webinar audio delivered by your computer. Each webinar’s audio is also available by telephone via a toll number, so we recommend you have access to a long-distance enabled phone as a backup in case you experience audio issues with VoIP. If you do encounter any problems during the webinar, you will receive a link to its archived recording within a week of the live event and can review anything you missed.

Contact

This webinar is presented by the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).

Questions about this webinar? Please contact us at plawebinars@ala.org or 800-545-2433 ext. 5PLA (5752).