With generous sponsorship from De Gruyter Publishing (Boston/Berlin), ENSULIB circulated a Call for Submissions for the IFLA Green Library Award for the ninth year in a row. Any type of green library, or outstanding green library project, initiative or idea was invited to apply for the Award. Libraries with a small budget but a great impact were explicitly invited to participate in the competition. The deadline for submissions was extended to 14 March 2024.

All 44 applications received by ENSULIB were initially checked for alignment with the submission guidelines. These applications were selected for the longlist, which totaled 23 submissions.

The quality and relevance of the project, initiative or idea was then evaluated by the independent international ENSULIB Award Reviewing Committee, following the IFLA Green Library Award Criteria, for:

  • Applicability to the goals and the scope of ENSULIB
  • Contribution of libraries to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • Quality of the overall presentation, public visualization via website etc.
  • Relevance to IFLA’s goals and values (IFLA Strategy 2019-2024)

The full IFLA Green Library Award 2024 nominated shortlist in two categories is listed alphabetically by country below.

The winners of the IFLA Green Library Award 2024 in the categories “Green Library” and “Green Library Project” will be announced in October, 2024.

Shortlist “Green Library”

  • Germany, Paderborn: Stadtbibliothek Paderborn, “Eden – a sustainable library” 
  • Spain, Salamanca: Biology Library of the University of Salamanca, “Small, but working together it works!”
  • US, Missoula: Missoula Public Library, “Missoula Public Library”

Shortlist “Green Library Project”

  • China, Foshan City: Foshan Library, “Reading in Green: the intelligent book stacks project”
  • Ireland, Dublin: UCD Library, James Joyce Building, “Beyond the Lifecycle: Libraries Supporting the Circular Economy”
  • Slovenia, Nova Gorica: France Bevk Public Library Nova Gorica, “Guardians of Seeds: Preserving Our Heritage”
  • Turkey, Ankara: Uşak Banaz Public Library, “Agro Library: From a Consuming Society to a Producing Society”
  • Ukraine, Kyiv: Library at Priorka for children, “Ecological space “Green Library”: in search of ecoheroes and a way out of the ecological crisis”

ENSULIB, May 2024