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October 31, 2003. Whatever happened to the
much-touted "paperless society" that pundits once predicted would accompany
the increasing use of e-mail and online resources?
At UT, 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 UT Libraries printed
1,067,000 pages. Dean of Libraries
Barbara Dewey was appalled: "One million pages in one month!
It's a record we must reduce.
In case you have trouble visualizing one million sheets of paper, let us offer some comparisons.
Laid end-to-end, one million sheets would stretch from Knoxville to Nashville.
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| Stacked, these reams and reams of paper would be about as tall as a 35-story building. |
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"The waste is shocking," says library staff member LouAnn Blocker. "Many sheets are left
sitting on the printer, unclaimed, at the end of each day. Think of the irreplaceable
natural resources used to produce that paper." |
| To produce one million sheets of paper? That's 128 trees. |
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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 UT Libraries asks 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' budget. Printing costs within the libraries
are not underwritten by the Technology Fee.
"Planning is underway for a future campus pay-for-print system," says librarian Jill Keally.
"Free printing has meant more waste." The UT Libraries has absorbed the costs of public
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 disk. 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. Printing during the 2002-2003
academic year exploded to 279% of the number of pages printed in 2000-2001 -- from 2,639,629
pages to 7,361,979 pages.
"We challenge users to make a difference," says Barbara Dewey. "Each action has an impact.
Incrementally, those actions accounted for one million sheets of paper last month."
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
www.lib.utk.edu/printalternatives/.
Please contact us if you have other suggestions for getting the conservation message to
library users. Here's your chance: THINK GLOBALLY / ACT LOCALLY.
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