Press Release

Over five million pages printed in the libraries in one year!
Please help us conserve paper.

In case you have trouble visualizing five million sheets of paper, let us offer a comparison. Laid end-to-end, five million sheets would stretch from Nashville to Key West, Florida.

January 31, 2005.
Whatever happened to the much-touted "paperless society" that pundits once predicted would accompany the increasing use of e-mail and online resources? At Vanderbilt’s Heard Library system, at least, it has never materialized. Instead, the growth of the Internet and online access to course materials and full-text sources have contributed to the printing of more and more pages.

During September alone, users of the Vanderbilt Libraries printed 430,000 pages. ”We cannot continue to print excessively without considering the effect that such actions have on our environment,” said Paul Gherman, University Librarian. “If we stacked the paper from just one month of printing at the Library, these reams and reams of paper would reach over 15 stories high.”

“Printing in Central, our largest library, increased by 69% in the last year alone,” notes John Haar, Central Library Director and Associate University librarian. “We don’t want to stop anyone from printing what they need for school, but something has got to be done to reduce this trend.”

What does it take to produce five million sheets of paper? That's equal to 640 trees. Not to mention the environmental impacts of paper manufacturing and disposal in landfills -- energy use, air and water pollution, solid waste, and greenhouse gas emissions.

The Vanderbilt Libraries ask for your help in conserving our natural resources -- and conserving dollars that could more productively be spent on books, subscriptions to journals and electronic resources, and upgraded equipment and facilities. Those dollars come directly from the libraries' budgets.

"Planning is underway for a future campus pay-for-print system," says Paul Gherman. "Unfortunately, free printing has meant more waste. Money spent on printing could instead be spent for books." The Heard Libraries have assumed the costs of printing within the libraries for the past several years. This volume has grown to a level such that the Libraries can no longer absorb this expense.

Library users have an opportunity now, before the pay-for-print system is implemented, to learn more efficient ways of printing and to take advantage of alternatives to printing, such as e-mailing web pages or online articles to oneself or downloading to USB thumb drives. Everyone will benefit: students, the Libraries...and the planet!

A campaign to educate library users about the alarming increase in paper consumption is underway at the libraries. Posters and table tents placed at printers and workstations graphically demonstrate the dramatic growth in printing.

So think before you print. Print only those pages you really need. When possible, use alternatives to printing. Instructions for reducing paper usage are available on the Libraries' web page at http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/printconservation. Please contact us if you have other suggestions for getting the conservation message to library users. Here's your chance: Think Globally - Act Locally.