On Oct. 27 the Austin City Library Commission conducted its monthly meeting at the Austin City Library location of Terrazas Branch.
Mindy Reed, founder of Recycled Reads, spoke to the commission about the “Sprouting Green Weeding Practices in Libraries: Web Based Training Grant.” The grant was made possible due to the 2013 “Sparks! Ignition Grant,” given to the Austin City Library. The Sprouting Green Weeding Grant was submitted for review in July, where it was given the green light just a few weeks later. No pun intended.
Reed wrote this grant to get funding to build electronic training modules on how to create sustainable bookstores like Recycled Reads, with the prerogative of spreading this concept nation wide. Aside from the online modules, which are composed of Reed explaining her concept, Reed has engaged in a nationwide speaking tour, promoting the idea. Reed’s main goal is to have every public library system in the nation implement her idea of a recycled bookstore. Recycled Reads is the first store of this kind, and has been used as a model for the grant’s movement.
Beginning in 2009, Recycled Reads opened its doors as an Austin Public Library bookstore dedicated to reselling donated books and media, as well as books and media taken out of circulation from the 23 Austin public libraries. Recycled Reads resells these books and media back to the community in support of the Austin City Library. The store has kept 900 tons of material out of landfills. Due to this extreme success, it seemed only logical to Reed that this concept should spread throughout the country.
Before the birth of Recycled Reads however, Reed, a prior librarian, noticed that an excess of perfectly good reading material went to waste each year, as well as unnecessarily occupied landfill space. She believed that there needed to be a more sustainable way of dealing with weeded materials from the city library. Weeded materials, according to Reed, are “books that are out of date, not being checked out very frequently, or have one too many battle scars.” So, birthed Reed’s idea of Recycled Reads.
In order to turn Recycled Reads into a reality however, Reed realized that, “if we didn’t have a process for how we were going to handle the books we couldn’t sell, then we wouldn’t be able to sustain the operation.”
Partnering with Goodwill Industries of Central Texas has taken care of that issue, though. Goodwill brings supplies to Recycled Reads once a week. The supplies are used to hold the materials that can be resold. For the materials that can’t be resold, Goodwill picks them up regularly and either uses or recycles them elsewhere.
“Goodwill is a great partner for us because they have a very good mission within central Texas. They share our commitment to the city’s zero-waste initiative,” said Reed.
When Reed realized what a success Recycled Reads had become, she then created the Sprouting Green Weeding Practices in Libraries: Web Based Training Grant. Reed wrote the grant with the intention of creating a platform to spread the Recycled Reads model throughout the country, hoping to ignite a movement of recycling library material in an efficient and useful way.
“No one else in country was doing what we were doing,” said Reed.
“The training modules invite other libraries to do the same type of thing as we do. The grant funded the creation of the modules, as well as a speaking tour to promote the concept of the grant. It’s about raising the consciousness of being a green librarian,” Green said.
Volunteer Coordinator for the Austin Public Library, Debbie Scharven, said that Recycled Reads is the most requested location by library volunteers.
“Recycled Reads is the hidden gem of Austin. It is in high demand by volunteers because of its creative atmosphere and unique opportunity. It is truly doing a huge service for the community between its bits and pieces of green and its extensive library. It is incredible.”
Reed reported to the Austin City Library Commission that the grant has helped Recycled Reads implement numerous initiatives to advertise its concept. Also, despite the grant being in its early stages, it has made an impact on other cities. Reed says that she expects many other library commissions to adopt this process within the coming months, for many cities are beginning the early stages of this program.
Recycled Reads Photos
Click on the title to view images of Recycled Reads.
