The United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a call to address the current environmental, political and economic challenges facing our planet. They recognise that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
Libraries are uniquely positioned to address all 17 of the SDGs which is why ALIA partnered with other peak bodies for libraries in 2021 to launch stretch targets for the sector to achieve by 2030 in alignment with the UN’s SDGs.
This year marks an exciting new step in this commitment with the development of the School Libraries Support the Sustainable Development Goals document, prepared by teacher librarian Natasha Lee as part of a final remote work placement for the Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) with ALIA. You can read Natasha’s fantastic overview of the document in the latest edition of INCITE.
This resource – which is downloadable as a PDF and can be interactively navigated online - is a first for Australian school libraries. It is an essential and practical guide, providing information, suggestions and resources on how Australian school libraries can support each of the SDGs now and into the future. We also hope that is will be a useful resource for curriculum planning in 2024.
The document is designed for all partners in education – school library and information professionals, the school community, and educational leaders at local, state and national level – as well as those with simply an interest in how school libraries can contribute meaningfully to the goals. It was put together in consultation from primary and secondary teacher librarians and library staff across Australia.
We urge you to read, share widely and start thinking about how to put some of these invaluable ideas into practice in your library. School Libraries Support the Sustainable Development Goals is a living document and we would love to hear from anyone with more resources, initiatives and ideas to add.