GreenTech

In TechSoup's Unpower Yourself! contest in November, we shared our Five Things You Can Do in Five Minutes to Reduce Your Power Use and asked you to take a survey sharing how you've reduced your IT energy use. We had 137 entries! We're happy to announce our three randomly-selected contest winners:

Have you ever been at a meeting where everyone takes out their calendars and PDAs and tries to figure out when on earth they could possibly meet again? You watch them one-up each other with all the reasons they are SO busy they can’t possibly meet on this day, at that time, and so the process starts all over again.

We have all been involved in committees or groups who need to create or edit a document. It begins with one person starting the document, and then suggestions and edits are made and passed back and forth in emails or maybe even hard copies.

For those of us who work in small libraries and choose to get involved in the larger library community (whether that’s within the county, state, or beyond), instant messaging has become an essential tool. I use some form of instant messaging (IM) on a daily basis, depending on who I need to talk with and why.

Jean Montgomery, the Network Administrator at the Superiorland Library Cooperative in Michigan created a nifty flash video that chronicles how her cooperative supports libraries distributed over the Upper Peninsula. Jean covers many topics, sharing how her organization uses a range of tools to keep in contact and offer services without breaking the bank or spending time behind the wheel.

TechSoup's GreenTech Initiative is hosting a month-long event on reducing travel without breaking the bank. The focus this week is on online training, and since the MaintainIT Project has spent a lot of time on this topic, I thought I'd take this opportunity to gather some choice resources, webinar archives, and articles in one place.

Thanks to everyone who participated in today's webinar. As expected, many useful tips and techiques were part of the lively discussion.

What if we held a conference and everybody came? That was the premise of our first Iowa Small Libraries Online Conference (ISLOC): a conference that librarians and trustees from even the smallest libraries could attend.

TechSoup's GreenTech Initiative promotes tips and resources from the library and nonprofit community to help your organization reduce your impact on the environment. The GreenTech folks do amazing work--check out the GreenTech page to see all of the resources they provide. From small steps to big ones, free tools, and resources that require a minimal investment, you'll find what you need to be kinder to the Earth without breaking the bank.

Many librarians have shared with us the immense efforts they undertake to support geographically distributed branches. Jim Lynch, the Computer Recycling & Reuse Director forTechSoup’s GreenTech Program recently posted about saving money on travel, and I thought his throughts were worth a re-post.