Green Libraries Week: CILIPS celebrate Grant Fund collaboration with Better World Books
Category: #CILIPSGoGreen, Blog, News
As libraries across the nation mark Green Libraries Week, showcasing the positive impact of library-led environmental action on our communities, CILIPS are celebrating their pioneering partnership with Better World Books.
Longtime signatories to the Green Libraries Manifesto, Better World Books are committed to innovation that increases sustainability at every stage of the library book lifecycle and contributes to a circular economy. Their interest in and enthusiasm for Green Libraries in Scotland made them the perfect partners for our Green Libraries Grant Fund, with their generous sponsorship allowing us to support three exciting new projects for 2025-26:
- Engaging Migrant and Refugee Communities with NLS ‘Rain’ Collections, National Library of Scotland
- Gàrradh Seulachd/The Story Garden, Leabharlainn nan Eilean siar/Western Isles Libraries
- One Small Thing, South Ayrshire Libraries
Martin Mullin, Senior Director, Global Sales, at Better World Books, who sat on Scotland’s Green Libraries Grant Fund judging panel, told us:
Better World Books is delighted to be collaborating with CILIPS and sponsoring Scotland’s Green Libraries Grant Fund for 2025. The quality of applications for these awards was truly exceptional. Each of the projects demonstrates exemplary commitment to libraries and communities in Scotland. We look forward to the positive sustainability and literacy impact these innovative projects will have this year and beyond.
We were particularly thrilled to welcome this year’s project leads and previous grant fund recipients to Scotland’s first in-person Green Libraries Gathering, which took place at the epic Better World Books warehouse in Dunfermline: home to well over one million books! After a fascinating tour and delicious lunch, we enjoyed an afternoon of conversation and connection in the brand new Better World Books library space, planting seeds for future collaboration between grant fund project leads past and present.
Kirsten MacQuarrie, Sector Development Manager at CILIP Scotland, said:
Our first year in partnership with Better World Books has generated inspiring library-led environmental action in Scotland, enabling three innovative Green Libraries projects to flourish across diverse library sectors and locations. From launching the fund at the 2025 CILIPS Annual Conference, where Better World Books once again joined us in the exhibition hall, to celebrating this year’s successful bids at our first ever in-person Green Libraries Gathering, courtesy of Better World Books and the hospitality of the team at their Dunfermline warehouse, it has been a pleasure to watch this collaboration blossom. Long may it grow!
Learn more about Better World Books at www.betterworldbooks.com
