Projects
Ongoing projects
· Workshops in environmental knowledge (WEK) for upper secondary schools. Beginning in 1993, we have carried out a number of WEK for upper secondary classes from all over Scania. Our goal is to teach students how to find the answers to questions concerning the environment. Pupils and teachers have evaluated WEK through an evaluation. The result was very positive, and a total of about 200 WEK have been carried out to date. The project is coordinated by a working team where committed teachers and school librarians take an active part. Economic support has been received from places such as the Swedish Cultural Council, the National Swedish Environmental Protection Board, the Ministry of the Environment, the Public Heritage Foundation and the Crafoord Foundation.
· Internet workshop for common people. Since May 1994 we have been showing practically how computer communication can be used for sending e-mail messages and searching databases for information. Our visitors are beginners as well as more advanced data users. Grants from the Swedish Cultural Council and the Crafoord Foundation have made this work possible.
· The Green Library Newsletter. The Green Library issues a newsletter two or three times per year (and in English once or twice per year) that includes environmental information, reviews, environmental discourses and information of the activities of the library.
· Local environmental plans in the Green Library’s unique archive and data bank. The Green Library made contact with every Swedish local authority and county administrative board as early as 1992 and asked them to send their environmental plans to us. The purpose was to collect this valuable material in an archive which we have now entered into a data bank in order to make advanced searches possible.
Swedish and international projects
Ongoing projects 2005
Project “EU concerns us all”
Aseries of two seminars and four debates starting 1 September and continuing until 4 October 2005
Ongoing projects 2001-2004
· Further education for environment informers, and information on environmental protection in central and eastern Europe. An information project supported by Studiefrämjandet (The Study Support).
· Environmental issues in central and eastern Europe. Seminars and workshops 2001 – 2002. Information project SIDA.
· Knowledge-increasing contribution in International and Comparative Environmental Law. A joint project with the Vilnius Nature Protection Society and Youth Club. Aid project SIDA 2001 – 2002.
· From a local Agenda 21 to a persistent development in Belarus 2001 – 2004. A joint project with ECOLINE of Minsk. Aid project SIDA.
· Formation and organization of young peoples’ local environmental aid in the Brest province of Belarus in cooperation with BUY, Minsk. Aid project SIDA 2001 – 2004.
· Participation of Latvian NGOs in preparation work for UN conference RIO+10 in 2002. Joint project with Zala Biblioteka Riga. Aid project SIDA 2001-2002.
· Directory of Environmental NGOs in Europe (Second edition 2001-2002). An update of the first edition. Also, a register will be put out on the Green Library home page, so the information will be available to the general public/organizations/institutions throughout the world. With support from the Ministry of the Environment and the National Swedish Environmental Protection Board.
The finished projects of the Green Library 1999-2000:
· Systems for spreading environmental information and debates through various media.
Joint project with Zala Biblioteka Riga. Aid project SIDA 2000-2001.
· The Green Library exhibition at the UNEP ministers’ meeting in Malmö, May 2000.
· Directory of Environmental NGOs in Europe (First edition, May 2000). The catalogue was produced in order to create a European catalogue of postal, e-mail and internet addresses etc. to approx 600 environmental organizations in Europe. With support from the Ministry of the Environment and the National Swedish Environmental Protection Board.
· Environmental information. In cooperation with Lithuanian fund for Nature. Aid project SIDA 2000.
· Environmental cooperation North-South. ”Durable development – a vision for the many or just the chosen few”, a SIDA project with guests invited from COAMA of Colombia (Right Livelihood Award 1999), IPES of Guatemala, FORAM of Bangladesh and LIVALINGO of Mozambique (Löderup, September 2000).
· A local Agenda 21 in a Belarussian city – first stage. Aid project SIDA 1999-2000. In cooperation with ECOLINE of Minsk and with the City of Ystad and the Unit for Environmental Strategy of the City of Lund.
· The globalisation of economy and its effects on the environment, three seminars took place in Riga, Vilnius and Lund during August and September 1999. As part of this project the Green Library of Riga has the responsibility for building a joint function, ”Ask the Green Libraries”, on their home page, where the documentation from these seminars is available.
The finished projects of the Green Library 1993-1998:
· Environmental cooperation North-South (March 1998). A seminar where we discussed with Swedish environmental organizations concerning how to distribute information on environmental issues and how to cooperate in a dialogue with the third world.
· Training Course on Environmental Information in Riga and Lund (June and August 1998). A course on human and environmental rights, democracy and equality. Participants from green libraries in Latvia, Lithuania, Czechia and Poland.
· Green Libraries’ Seminar & Network (1993). As part of the Swedish support of the democratisation and the building of popular movements in the Baltic republics, Eastern Europe and Russia we have frequent contact with their newly founded environmental organizations that have an enormous need for facts and information on solutions to environmental problems and organizational work. The first initiative to gather together green libraries from Helsinki, St.Petersburg, Riga, Poznan, Kraków and Zakopane was taken before a first seminar May 23-25, 1993, with a subsidy from SIDA.