Introduction

Libraries are social institutions; they aim to provide their members and others in society with easy and equitable access to knowledge. For many years, libraries have collected, organized and managed information resources so users can discover and access information as and when they need it. However, of late ICTs, and especially the internet, web and social networking technologies, have revolutionized the information industry, the information marketplace and consequently the information services sector. Conventional publishers are not the only channels now through which authors and institutions can create information sources, and similarly conventional library and information services are not the only gateways for people to gain access to information. There are various new players in the information services sector, ranging from a myriad of web search engine services to numerous specialized web-based information services, digital libraries and repositories. Side by side the new technologies have also brought a number of changes to typical library and information services. For example, many printed information resources have been replaced by their digital counterparts, and sometimes print and digital formats exist side by side; many analogue information resources have been converted to digital formats through massive digitization programmes; full texts of many books and journals are now searchable through a variety of search services that are outside the conventional library and information services sector; a variety of options is now available for creation and management of user-generated information in different forms; and so on. These changes are taking place very rapidly and have implications for the long-term sustainability of library and information services in general, and scholarly information systems and services in particular.

This chapter looks at the environmental costs of print-based library and information services. Other related issues, such as legal issues and open access policies and their implications for the sustainability of information systems and services are examined in Chapters 7 to 10.

Estimating the carbon footprint of printed content

Many researchers have attempted to estimate the carbon footprint of printed books (Borggren, Moberg and Finnveden, 2011; Enroth, 2009; Kozac, 2003) and journals (Lukovitz, 2009; Reed Elsevier, n.d.). Some of these studies were undertaken mainly to compare the GHG emissions from printed books and digital books or web-based content or teaching materials (Enroth, 2009; Moberg, Borggren and Finnveden, 2011; Ritch, 2009), while others compared the carbon footprint of books sold through traditional bookstores and online bookstores (Williams and Tagami, 2003).