Help create a sustainable future by preserving climate stories during Preservation Week, April 24-30

CHICAGO — We can learn how to create a sustainable future by preserving the past. As our nation’s libraries celebrate Preservation Week, April 24 – 30, it is more important than ever to nurture the stories of those on the front lines fighting to save our planet.

This year’s Preservation Week theme is “Preservation in the Face of Climate Change.” Celebrating the concept of climate resiliency, Preservation Week 2022 will highlight the effects of climate change on our shared cultural heritage materials.

The papers, photographs, ephemera and other materials held by both institutions and individuals can be integral to telling the story of the human impact on the environment. During Preservation Week, libraries, museums, institutions and communities will be urged to examine the effects on collections and their keepers, as well as resiliency strategies.

Sponsored by Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures, a division of the American Library Association, and held annually during the last week in April, Preservation Week highlights the importance of preserving personal, family and community collections.

The event will also call attention to the need to preserve the billions of items held in library, museum and archive collections.

This year’s honorary chair is Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of the Brooklyn-based Latinx community organization UPROSE. An internationally recognized Puerto Rican attorney and environmental and climate justice leader of African and Indigenous ancestry, she is a fierce advocate and trailblazer for community organizing around just, sustainable development, environmental justice, and community-led climate adaptation.

“Preserving the legacy of our history of engaging in collective care and resiliency in the face of generational threats to our existence is a tribute to our ancestors and important lessons that must be preserved for future generations that are additionally threatened by climate change,” Yeampierre said. “We need to be aware of which climate stories get preserved—not just the mainstream stories of despair told by the elite, but also the resiliency and community solutions from the frontlines. It is an honor to be part of this year’s Preservation Week and shed light on the history of strength and the solutions shared by those in our community most susceptible to the impacts of climate change.”

Sustainability will be a major theme of this year’s Preservation Week. Highlights of this year’s event include two webinars, “How to Implement Sustainability in Your Facility,” from 1- 2 p.m. CT on Tuesday, April 26, and “Digital Preservation’s Impact on the Environment” From 1-2 p.m. CT on Thursday, April 28.

For media inquiries, please contact Steve Zalusky, communications specialist, at (312) 280-1546 or [email protected].

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