Get Green? - Part Two

Do magazines seem to magically pile up on your coffee table?

The environmental impact of this pile may surprise you:

• The production of Discover Magazine alone releases the equivalent of “170 tons of CO2” into the atmosphere.
  

• U.S. magazine publishing results in more than 35 million trees being cut down each year. Even those magazines that dedicate themselves to nature preservation, like National Geographic, make little use of recycled paper.
  

• 60-70%, of the magazines on newsstands in the U.S. doesn’t actually get read by anyone and become waste.
  

Want a more eco-friendly option? Visit Birmingham Public Library (BPL) and get green.

The library subscribes to a multitude of print magazines, but unlike the typical magazine, periodicals at BPL are repeatedly reused. This reuse significantly lessens the environmental impact per read.

BPL also offers electronic versions of magazines which are even more environmentally friendly.

Our electronic resources consist of books, journals, newspapers, reports and magazines, including the aforementioned National Geographic and Discover magazine.

Most of BPL's electronic magazine content is available concurrently with the print editions. You can access these paperless publications at any Birmingham Public Library location or via our website, www.bplonline.org, for reading on your home computer, mobile device, or e-book reader.

Many library magazine databases include PDF files that reproduce the pages exactly like the print version. You can read, download and email articles you find on these databases for free.

As for me, I rarely ever buy a magazine anymore. Yet over the course of a month I'm probably accessing 20 or more different magazines in electronic format.

And for my favorite magazines, I use RSS feeds to obtain magazine content. It is easy to set up and is almost like having an electronic subscription to the magazine.

Keep an eye out for the next and final post in the Get Green @ Your Library series in early July.