In case you’ve forgotten – or indeed if you never knew– may I remind you that 2008 is the national year of reading? Writes Peter Williams.

This is a celebration of the cognitive process of understanding a written linguistic message (source www.wordwebonline.com) as opposed to a celebration of Reading in Berkshire, which according to wikipedia is the largest town in England.

The word of the week on the national year of reading web site (www.yearofreading.org.uk) is shenanigans (suspicious going on or mischievous fun so the site says) which seems apposite given the fuss that has been generated in The Times letters page over books and libraries in the last few days.

Peter Kinsley, a correspondent to the editor of The Times, alerted me to the national year of reading in his letter. However, the main point of the missive was to protest at the alleged dumping of books in a landfill site which is claimed to have happened recently both in Wiltshire and Waltham Forest. The crime was compounded by the allegation that many of the books had plenty of useful life in them.

This letter prompted a response from Roy Clare, CBE, the chief executive of Museums, Libraries & Archives Council. As the body responsible for promoting best practice in the 3,500 public libraries in England, Clare informed the readers of The Times that it did not condone disposal of books in landfill sites. Indeed Clare suggested that ‘the electorate should hold councils accountable for lapses in quality, cost-efficiency and propriety’. However the MLA is available to offer advice on innovation and improvement to library stocks, and presumably does not hold the number of too many skip hire businesses.

The exchange of letters provoked both reactions expressing horror at the vandalism and the waste that is represented by casting away books. Many of us find it difficult to dispose of even the most ill-regarded trashiest airport-purchase novel. Equally there was a lot of information about what could be done to recycle and reuse unwanted books as an alternative to throwing them away.

The question information professionals, in whatever sector they work, must be able to answer is this: how can they dispose of material which the organisation no longer requires in a way which does the least damage to the environment and which may do maximum good to other potential information users? The answer may not be easy to ascertain and disposing of unwanted material in a sensitive way may come at a price in terms of time and money. But surely information professionals don’t think the best disposal option is a skip and landfill.

By the way the Library Information Show (www.lishow.co.uk) run by IWR’s publisher is on at the end of April where I’m sure the issue of environmentally-sound libraries for the 21st century will be firmly on the agenda.