Leading by Example. Initiatives in Austrian Public Libraries to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

As cultural and educational institutions with a broad impact, public libraries contribute to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Their core mission of ensuring and providing the population with free access to information is closely linked to the 2030 Agenda goals. This paper highlights the diverse activities of public libraries in Austria that aim to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda. The focus of the paper lies on best practice examples that show that small, rural public libraries can be models of sustainability. The projects are diverse and address a variety of sustainability goals. The commitment of small libraries to sustainability and to activate the respective community will be shown.