| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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The action plan for offering green education services through the Eco-Library began to take shape in October 2010 after the Kasetsart University Main Library expressed how it envisioned the Eco-Library and its services to the Faculty of Architecture’s Scrap Lab, who then pitched design ideas based on green services. The library staff and the Faculty of Architecture collaborated closely together to develop the project, with constant inputs and feedbacks from people who actually worked on the project, until the Eco-Library officially opened on January 27, 2012.
The Kasetsart University Main Library decided to maximize space utilization by transforming the room formerly reserved for storing theses and vintage prints into the Eco-Library’s service area for public. The Scrap Lab then began the design process of developing the allocated space, which lasted from January to December, 2011, into an eco-reading space and power saving library within: Eco-Reading Space, Canyon of Discovery, Trees of Knowledge, Lifestyle Reading Space, Kids’ Reading Space, Secondhand Book Corner and Eco-Activities Space (detailed in implementation plan as attached).
Eco-Library operations require cooperation, engagement, contribution and participation from four different groups of people: administrators, sponsors and supporters, library service providers and library users. University administrators play the vital role of overseeing policies and budget allocation while administrators of the Kasetsart University Main Library manage and oversee library operations. Sponsors and supporters contribute by helping design the library and providing materials for recycling, most of which are donated by operators of manufacturing plants. The library staff are engaged in tailoring suitable services, optimizing service areas for operations and fostering a green service mind that is always environmentally conscious and prioritizes energy saving. Meanwhile, library users contribute to the Eco-Library’s operations by being aware of and sensitive to environmental issues, environment protection, and sustainable use of resources whilst being a public-spirited person ready to self-service and also to help others, showing active interest in the good of the community.
The Kasetsart University Main Library is committed to publicizing environment protection and raising public awareness about environmental problems, which most people think do not concern them while some just have the notion that their contribution is insignificant and has negligible effect on global conditions. Such attitudes stem primarily from ignorance or feelings of inadequacy; therefore, more efforts must be spent on broadening public awareness of environmental problems and promoting pro-environment attitudes. The University Library Office started by raising environmental awareness within the library office first before launching a university-wide campaign to increase environmental awareness among students, faculty, and professional affiliates while the Eco-Library was still under constructions. The efforts were later broadened by using the media to help publicize environmental awareness among a larger crowd after the constructions of the Eco-Library had completed.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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With environmental issues being a recognized global concern and affecting all mankind, everyone is a stakeholder and has a social responsibility to protect the Earth. The Eco-Library was established with the main goal of being a resource center for learning about environment protection, and the project was a result of combined efforts and contributions by individuals, public bodies, institutions and private entities from various sectors. The Kasetsart University Main Library’s director began working with Professor Dr. Singh intrachooto from Kasetsart University’s Faculty of Architecture, who is also a talented architect armed with skills and expertise in designing structures made from recycled materials. The two joined forces to create Thailand’s first-ever Eco-Library project. Over 15 factory operators helped supply the materials used for making the furniture by donating material offcuts and recyclables such as bits of broken glass, scrap wood and textile waste whereas Siam Commercial Bank donated its old employee uniforms. A team of Researchers from Para Rubber Research Lab in Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus which is located in the southern part 1,000 Km. away from Bangkok sent stools recycle from old tires to participate in Eco-Cocept. The furniture pieces were made by three furniture manufacturers based on the professor’s designs using the waste and recycled materials provided.
Further assistance and contributions came from Kasetsart University’s personnel, students, faculties and alumni, nearby residents, environmental organizations and several publishing houses after learning that the Eco-Library project was to become a learning center providing information resources about the environment and offering underprivileged children and the general public access to a library. After the news spread, book donations and suggestions began to pour in. Engineers from the University’s Energy Engineering Institute helped design the energy-efficient power and lighting systems. Professors from the Department of Home Economics, who possess advanced sewing skills, helped design and make decorative items and book stands from leftover cloth and a stock overrun of thread for curtains and made star fruit-shaped cushions from extraneous cloth for children to use in the Kids’ Reading Space. Their contributions helped lower the costs of the project tremendously.
When the Eco-Library opened, library users including students, university personnel, kids living near the University and the general public all tried their best to help save energy and maintain the facility’s good conditions because everyone wanted to contribute to the Eco-Library. After learning the University Library was short of staff and only one librarian was available to provide services, students who received scholarships from the University volunteered to help catalog the books and organize special activities to promote learning. Students from Kasetsart University Laboratory School volunteered their time to help organize children’s books and publicize the Eco-Library’s upcoming activities and the Kid’s Reading Space through Facebook.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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Due to the University Library’s limited budget and its official role as a learning and research facility that supports the formal education provided by the University, community services like providing learning opportunity to underprivileged children and promoting the love of reading are regarded as second priority. Initial funding for this project came from whatever was left from other projects’ budgets and eventually about 5,000 USD was collected and available for developing and operating the Eco-Library project. The Eco-Library still depends largely on upon charitable donations and donated resources from non-profit organizations for its continued viability. Efforts were made in order generate income for the Eco-Library, including selling items made from leftover and recycled materials such as notebooks made from reuse greeting cards, book marks made from reuse drinking straw, tiny dolls made from old socks, artificial flowers made from fish scale and selling secondhand books.
As the Eco-Library project was not part of the University’s official annual development plan and was initially funded with money left over from budgets allocated to other projects, resource constraints were a major issue. Personnel from different departments of the University Main Library had to volunteer their time to help catalog the archives and input data into the automated library system, which is based on free, open-source software and was installed by a team of IT staff tasked with studying open-source library management software to be used at the Eco-Library. The team also repaired and upgraded old computers so they can be used as online public access catalog (OPAC) databases and loaning/returning processing machines. The company contracted to install the RFID system for the University Library helped repair broken or outdated RFID tools and self-check machines free of charge so they can be used by the Eco-Library.
The president of Kasetsart University, after learning that the University Library Office had been working with the Faculty of Architecture’s Scrap Lab to build the Eco-Library without any funding, signed off on allocating 50,000 USD from the University’s Green Campus program’s budget in support of the development of the Eco-Library.
Furthermore, the Kasetsart University Main Library also received cooperation and support from various private entities and public agencies from within and outside the University. The support and contributions came in various forms including materials for producing furniture for and decorating the Eco-Library supplied by companies, learning media given by various government agencies and private entities, free equipment repair and upgrade services provided by an RFID tool manufacturer, cooperation from patrons who agree to self-servicing, assistance and support from individuals in providing a variety of services, cooperation from publishing houses and knowledgeable companies in organizing workshops and activities to promote learning, and time and efforts of students who volunteered to help the Eco-Library and assist in organizing activities.
The challenges learning to associate with limited budget management are creating a partnership network and efforts to reduce costs such as making sure that at least 55Kw of electricity is saved every day, which equals 7 USD saved per day or about 2,500 USD per year. The costs associated with labor are reduced by accepting help from personnel from other section instead of hiring more people. The Eco-Library only has one full-time officer. As much as 5,600 USD is saved each year in hiring expenses. Old and outdated durable goods and materials were modified so they could be used again, which helped lower the costs of building the Eco-Library by as much as 67,000 USD. By choosing to use open-source software for the automated library system instead of proprietary software, the Eco-Library is able to save as much as 20,000 USD in library system purchase and maintenance expenses. And lastly, forming a partnership network enables the Eco-Library to save as much as 10,000 USD each year in book purchases.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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The Eco-Library now plays an important role in raising environmental awareness and inspiring ideas about environment protection. It is also fulfilling its goal of being an initiative that contributes to fostering the love of reading among some 200,000 underprivileged children living in communities near Kasetsart University every year. According to a survey of library users, the services provided by the Eco-Library helped inspire patrons to have ideas about environment protection and encourage them to learn through real experiences such as using the furniture made from recycled materials and using the Eco-Services. The survey shows high levels of satisfaction (with average satisfaction scores of 4.33, 4.39 and 4.19, respectively, out of the total of 5). The most common response during the survey interviews with library users and project observers was that the Eco-Library has made them “understand that protecting the environment can be practiced by individuals and is not at all unachievable, and that environment preservation can start with recycling and waste materials can be used to make amazing decorative or practical items.” One library user was very impressed with the services of the Eco-Library that she was inspired to write a collection of short stories titled “Khongkwan Jak Sainam” (Gifts from the Water), which tells stories about the 2010 floods in Thailand and was based on the environment knowledge she gained from visiting the Eco-Library. Her stories were a highly discussed topic on Facebook.
Another major achievement of the Eco-Library initiative is broadening learning opportunities for underprivileged children living in communities near Kasetsart University and providing them with access to a library and opportunity to participate in various learning acidities at no costs. The non-threatening environment at the Eco-Library and its various activities have had positive effects on the children’s reading behaviors, leading to a significant increase in reading books in both environment-related topics and other topics. The library’s Eco-Collection has many titles that have become some of the Office of the University Library’s most borrowed books. Some titles that had never been borrowed before became highly in demand among borrowers after being included as part of the Eco-Collection books, which statistics show are five times more likely to be borrowed and circulated compared to when they were not included. Statistics show a title being borrowed 5,333 times throughout the entire year of 2011 and after it was included in the Eco-Collection, it was borrowed 27,948 times within a year. Based on the statistics, the average frequency of book loaning has more than tripled from 0.8 to 3.5 times.
To solve problems requires knowledge, and reading is one of the ways to gain knowledge. Encouraging underprivileged youths and the general public to read more books and learn about environmental issues is one great way to help improve the society and the environment, and is also a sustainable solution to problems.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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In order to effectively monitor and evaluate progress of the Eco-Library initiative’s operations, monitoring and evaluation efforts were primarily focused on three activities: promoting knowledge about the environment, encouraging patrons to read and library services. Both quantitative and qualitative progresses were monitored and evaluated using three monitoring mechanisms: surveys, standardized interviews and observation.
The progress of efforts to promote learning about environment protection was assessed by using a survey on opinions about the environment and an evaluation of improvements of patrons and project observers’ environmental knowledge after using the services provided by the Eco-Library. The results of the evaluation show that their environmental knowledge had increased significantly, especially in subjects like reusing and recycling waste, designing and making furniture from leftover materials and using material offcuts to make decorative items. The results of the evaluation also show that the library users were inspired by to create items from waste materials after learning how to make them. Patron participation in various workshops and DIY activities organized by the Eco-Library was also evaluated, and it was found that participants were likely to take part in one activity after another. The surveys of their satisfaction with the workshops and activities offered show that their satisfaction levels were at very high. In evaluating results of the environmental education services, the use of open-source library search engine to find information resources about the environment within the library was monitored, and a contest was held to test library users’ proficiency in using the tool to search for media related to environmental subjects.
The progress of efforts to broaden public awareness of environmental issues was evaluated by counting the number of journalists and members of the press who came to do features and stories about the Eco-Library. In total, over 30 journalists and famed personalities from newspaper, magazines, TV and radio programs had published or broadcast stories about the Eco-Library. Furthermore around 25 schools and libraries had contacted the Eco-Library in order to get permission to allow their students and personnel to observe its operations. Over 2,000 people came to observe the Eco-Library’s operations last year, not including observers who visited the library unofficially every day.
In evaluating the progress of the efforts to promote reading, statistical analyses were conducted. Statistics show the number of library users coming to use the services provided in a space spanning around 300 square meters had increased by 200,000 year-on-year, and the book borrowing had increased five folds. The numbers of book purchases and book suggestions had risen by ten times. The evaluation on the progress of the efforts to promote reading show satisfactory results while the service satisfaction survey, conducted via social network sites and the Eco-Library’s official website, shows high levels of service satisfaction among patrons.
In addition to monitoring and evaluating the progresses using technical practices, the Eco-Library’s progress and achievements can also be seen from the many awards and prizes recognizing the library has won including the University’s Good Practice Award 2012, the Thailand Public Service Awards 2013 in the Best Service Management category and the special award given to the architect who designed the Eco-Library by the Thai Library Association in recognition for his tremendous support and patronage for library development in 2012.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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Resource constraints presented significant barriers in pursuing this initiative. However, in the initial phase, a lack of funding was not a major obstacle as the project administrators and coordinators were convinced they could ask for non-financial contributions and assistance from agencies and partners within the main library’s network. On the other hand, the worrisome issues that could pose a serious challenge to the initiative were the issues concerning attitudes towards the environment. When confronted with environmental issues, lots of people shrug them off as none of their concern or think they cannot do anything to help solve them. Many think only their government should be enforcing policies and taking actions to remedy environmental damages. Such prevalent attitudes stem primarily from ignorance or feelings of inadequacy. To make matters worse, very few people bother to learn more about the environmental issues, and the majority of Thais lack the love of reading.
The task of changing such prevalent attitude and changing the cultural perspective of an oral-oriented society, especially in the case where there is an additional burden of limited funding, can be an extremely difficult undertaking. Furthermore, libraries at universities exist only to serve certain groups of people and supports the formal education provided the universities, completely forgetting about the true purpose of a library, which is to be an information resource center that helps people who want to broaden their knowledge. Also, university libraries are not designed to serve children under 15 years of age as libraries are supposed to have a quiet academic environment. The Eco-Library was able to undertake this challenging task of encouraging people to read more only because it received concerted efforts and cooperation from various agencies and sectors who have similar views and want to help foster the love of reading.
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