The Margaret Marchi Environmental Library

What, exactly, is conservation design? What is in those sprays for mosquitoes? Which native plants would work in my yard? What are some realistic energy alternatives? What can I do to protect water quality? What are the county's policies on environmental issues? What is the State of the World?

These types of questions can be answered by using the Defenders' library, created by founding member, Margaret Marchi, and maintained by our dedicated volunteers. Our library is a great resource, and the best environmental library in Northern Illinois. The library is open to our members as well as the public during normal office hours. This service encourages research and greater understanding of environmental issues.

Our library resources include books, which are catalogued by title, subject and author, newsletters from various conservation, volunteer, and citizen organizations, and videos and audio tapes on many issues, from local to global, also catalogued by title, subject and author.

New resources are added and catalogued on an ongoing basis. Next time you have a question about an environmental issue, start your search for information at our library. Click the link below for the catalogue.

Teachers! Don't forget about the many helpful resources for your classroom, including videos, slide shows and displays.

Click HERE to tour the Defenders' library

A sampling of the films available:

Many of the films shown in our environmental documentary series are available to be checked out from the library. Recent additions include:

Bag It follows “everyman” Jeb Berrier as he tries to make sense of our dependence on plastic bags. Although his quest starts out small, Jeb soon learns that the problem extends past landfills to oceans, rivers and ultimately human health.  

The average American uses about 500 plastic bags each year, for about twelve minutes each. This single-use mentality has led to the formation of a floating island of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean more than twice the size of Texas. 

The film explores these issues and identifies how our daily reliance on plastic threatens not only waterways and marine life, but human health, too. Two of the most common plastic additives are endocrine disruptors, which have been shown to link to cancer, diabetes, autism, attention deficit disorder, obesity and infertility.

Watch the trailer:

Bag It Intro from Suzan Beraza on Vimeo.

Green Living: The E Magazine Handbook for Living Lightly on the Earth

Nearly half of American homes buy organic, yet a large majority have only a limited knowledge of how to actually make informed, green choices. Green Living, from the editors of E/The Environmental Magazine, offers a step-by-step plan for every aspect of your life, from the laundry room to the kitchen. With advice on everything from planet-friendly cosmetics to home-based renewable energy, and straight talk on hemp, hybrids and hair coloring, Green Living is an ideal reference. You can find it at 570 EEM on the shelves.
Eastern Wildflowers: A Photographic Celebration from New England to the Heartland

The beauty of wildflowers, their colors, fragrances, and shapes, the surprises they offer, invite us to slow down and appreciate nature. Each two-page spread in this hardcover book offers a stunning photograph and well-written general description. More a browse-at-home volume than a field guide, this book is labeled 582.13 HOU.

Blue Planet Run: The Race to Provide Safe Drinking Water to the World

Not only do you learn about water, its characteristics and challenges to people all over the world, including one billion having little access to clean water, but the photography is magnificent. The images portray real life, yet with a sense of compassion. You’ll read insightful original essays from noted writers, as well. This table-top book offers reachable solutions to the world’s fresh water crisis. Find it on display in Defenders’ library at 628.1 SMO.

The World Without Us

In this book read aloud on 10 CDs, Alan Weisman shows how our massive infrastructure would collapse and vanish without human presence. Which everyday items would become fossils? How could plastic, bronze sculpture, and manmade molecules be our most lasting gifts to the universe? Weisman draws on the expertise of engineers, atmospheric scientists, art conservators, zoologists, religious leaders, and others to show what the planet might be like without us. Weisman's enthralling tour of the world of tomorrow explores what little will remain of ancient times while anticipating, often poetically, what a planet without us would be like. Check it out in the media section of the library at 304.2 WEI.

Green Infrastructure: Linking Landscapes and Communities by Mark Benedict.

Product Description from Amazon.com: