As you are aware, the Cleveland Law Library is facing some changes next year with the passage of HB 420. For more details on the impact of this Bill, please read the article on the front page of our Spring 2009 Newsletter. Although we are not sure exactly what those changes will be yet, we know that the County is planning to charge almost $336,000.00 in rent for the space the law library currently occupies on the 4th floor of the Cuyahoga County Courthouse. Since the law library never historically paid rent, and such a large sum constitutes 64% of our current public revenue, we are taking proactive steps to reorganize and condense our collection into a smaller space that includes our lobby, the Arthur Fiske Reading Room, and our staff offices. By doing so, we hope to be able to save money on rent that we can spend to maintain our collection and retain staff to assist you with your legal reference and research needs. Although this is a large-scale effort, we are doing everything we can to minimize the disruption to you. Click here if you are interested in seeing a diagram of our proposed new floor plan, which is color-coded to show the proposed new areas in green and the areas the law library plans to abandon in red. Our current library map can also be located by clicking here.

• we re-use non-confidential copy paper for patron request forms, statistics sheets, sign-in sheets, forms, and scrap paper;
• we recycle all possible non-confidential copy paper in blue recycling bins provided by Cuyahoga County;
• the County collects our old phone books for recycling;
• beginning with the first newsletter we issued in the Spring of 2003, we have gradually converted all but about 115 of our 2,300 plus members to receiving our newsletters, postcards, and other communications by email;
• when the Library created a new logo in 2003, we initiated desktop publishing that has enabled us to print letters and business cards on demand, i.e., only when they are needed;
• in February of 2006, we converted the Library to online banking and investing and elected not to receive any more canceled checks;
• we predominantly communicate with Library Board members by email;
• we send all traditional employee memoranda and communications by email, or post the information to our intranet;
• we give our superceded books to the County for recycling, instead of disposing of them in the trash;
• we encourage printing all non-essential documents in "draft" mode;
• we are converting our patrons' overdue notices from print to email;
• our new fax machine prints on both sides of the paper;
• we scan most of the attachments we email without copying them first;
• our Director takes all the paper recycling that the County does not accept to the bins at her children's schools; and
• coinciding with Earth Day in 2009, we redesigned our daily time and statistics sheets to save a lot of paper.

• we recycle our pop cans and take them home; and
• we encourage all employees to take their own plastic and glass bottles home to recycle.

• for at least ten (10) years, we have participated in Hewlett Packard's Cartridge Recycle Program for our networked printer;
• we properly recycle our computer equipment, including old CPU's, servers, monitors, keyboards and printers; and
• we recycle the cartridges for our new fax machine.

• for over eleven (11) years, the Library has participated in RTA's employer subsidy program for several of our staff members;
• for at least the last ten (10) years, we have also been turning off all of our office lights, copiers and computer terminals at the end of each day;
• we now buy only Energy Star machines;
• we have programmed our new fax machine to power-down to sleep mode when not in use; and
• we unplug everything we can at night, including our letter folder, postal meter, postal scale, coffee machine, automatic stapler, electric pencil sharpener, shredder, adding machine, fan, space heaters, microwave, clock radio, and TV.

Although we have made great strides to reduce the Library's carbon footprint, there is always room for improvement. In addition to other efforts, the Library plans to reduce office energy use by ten percent (10%). Specifically, as our Library's future commitments to the CMBA's Green Initiative, we will:

• consider purchasing recycled paper;
• turn off the lights in our Audio-Visual room at night;
• research the energy consumption of other pieces of equipment to identify other items that Library staff members can unplug at the end of each day;
• ask the County to turn off all non-essential lights throughout the Library before and after business hours;
• recycle bottles and cans from refreshments we serve at future library functions; and
• conduct periodic "green" audits to determine where else we might be able to conserve and save.