no persuading on the value of this project as they share G@BH’s concerns; and so our Collections Librarian Catherine O’Connell has acquired books suggested by G@BH members, our Library Assistant Sharon Hamidi has spread the word on Instagram, and our AD has insisted that I work on the site on-the-clock as it is beneficial for the Trust.
The G@BH site, and KLS’s involvement with our green group has been mutually beneficial though, with the webpages serv- ing as an advert for – and link to – the library, and increasing our outreach with a large swathe of staff that may otherwise have not been in contact with us. It is relatively early days for the website specifically and the G@BH project more generally – while the short term goal of a living and sustainable website has been realised, and its launch was greeted with positive feedback and buzz on social media. It’s still a “work in progress” with some “coming soon…” placeholders (de- creasing in number but still present, such as the All About Waste page). I am aiming now to add content regularly with help from members in a countdown to COP26 in October, (when I also hope all our placeholders will be long gone), and fur- ther optimise the site for SEO by adding tags in page description fields etc. Visits to the website are still low so promotion via KLS channels is also on the agenda. One problem I am still addressing with the site is the ungainly URL; https://bart-
shealth-nhs.libguides.com/GreenatBartsHealth, and I am working to get a much more punchy domain that was purchased by G@BH’s Joint Vice Chair to redirect to the website. Another issue I faced imme- diately after launching the website was the Trust Comms department requesting the removal of links to organisations they considered “political”: Doctors for Extinction Rebellion and Stop the Silver- town Tunnel (several G@BH members are involved in these groups). My KLS colleagues quickly did this, and rightfully pointed out to me in my reactive belliger- ence that there’s a line we need to walk, as our webpages of course bear the Trust’s logo… While it was encouraging in a way to know the launch had reached people and the site wasn’t “beneath suspicion”, it was infuriating to have to remove these.
National leader
G@BH aims to keep growing within our organisation and reaching out to collab- orate and influence beyond it. As stated on the website’s homepage, longer term we want Barts Health to be “The National leader on NHS sustainability”, and for our Trust to declare a climate emergency. The website’s a platform for recruitment and organisation that we hope will encourage more and more staff to join us and share innovations that will get us to that point.
22 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Green at Barts health website.
Already, one of our members has left the Trust for a senior position at Greener NHS, and we hope our links there will continue to strengthen. G@BH members also influenced decisions made during the tendering and design process that now sees the Trust aiming to build the first net zero hospital, and to mark Clean Air Day on 17 June we welcomed the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to RLH, where he learned about the impact of air pollution on our patients.
Providing access to trusted evidence is obviously a key part of Information Professionals’ role, and Barts KLS sees a wider role for the information profession in helping to raise awareness of climate change, environmental impact and solu- tions that can help users make changes. Next for me, I’m making “plans and inno- vations re: the climate crisis” a standing item at the quarterly London Searching and Training Forum (LSTF – formerly CLIST –
https://bit.ly/3fKj8Qe) meetings that I Chair, while Barts Health KLS’ AD is introducing climate change as a driver in our departmental strategy documents. At the time of writing the Gulf Stream’s showing signs of slowing and the IPCC are reportedly ready to announce that the target of keeping global warming to below 1.5 degrees is no longer possible. In the face of all this, 2000 words on a mere website seems comically absurd… but it feels good to be doing something constructive and using my professional skills to at least try
and address the single issue that will define our time and all our lives. Being involved with my Trust’s green group is proving to be one of the most rewarding things I’ve done profession- ally, has been instructive and educa- tional, and mildly mitigates the extreme climate anxiety I feel (though perhaps only as effectively as carbon offsetting mitigates climate change https://friendsoft-
heearth.uk/climate/does-carbon-offsetting-work). Initially, I’d committed to G@BH that I’d update the site on a weekly basis out-of-hours “while I had an eye on the football or something”, but in practice I’ve enjoyed keeping the site maintained much more regularly.
None of the work I’ve reported above is particularly ground-breaking but I wanted to share it with as many people as possible in the hope it might inspire people to do better. When I started working with G@BH I enquired on national mailing lists to see if anyone else was working with theirs, and I didn’t get many affirmative replies. I would advise all colleagues to get in touch with your local green group – or start one! – and if you would like to collaborate (especially within the healthcare sphere) then please get in touch.
If you’re already collaborating then please let me know, I’d like to learn more.
The G@BH website: https://bartshealth-nhs.
libguides.com/GreenatBartsHealth IP
September 2021
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