La Grange Library wants to hear from the public about equity, diversity and inclusion

By Catey Sullivan

For La Grange Public Library Board President Joyce Hagen-McIntosh, the intersection between library services and social justice rarely has been clearer.

“I’ve been reflecting on intellectual freedom and social justice for a while, but especially since last summer. Both are now at the heart of what libraries do,” Hagen-McIntosh said.

They also are issues threaded through the library’s work with RGW Consulting, an Oak Park-based consultancy that’s been schooling a host of area libraries – Glen Ellyn, Downers Grove, Skokie and Oak Park among them – on equity, diversity and inclusion issues. The training covers a wealth of material, from implicit bias to programming to recruiting a more diverse board.

The public is invited to join a process that began weeks ago when RGW’s Benjamin Henning began hosting individual listening sessions with the library staff and board members. A public listening session was held Thursday and another session is set for 9:30 a.m. Feb. 13. Feedback from the sessions will be used to help create the library’s next strategic plan.

“We’ve been trying to make sure those core EDI values are incorporated in everything we do, from how we recruit, hire and train our staff to what materials we own to the policies the board enacts and the pronouns we use. We want to make sure the library is a place where everyone is treated equally,” Executive Director Charity Gallardo said. “We did a lot of work internally. Now it’s time to bring in professional consultants to help us figure out the next steps.”

The library’s initial steps have not been insignificant. In September 2019, the board did away with late fines. It decided to issue library cards without requiring patrons to provide two proof-of-address documents, and revisited the requirement that anyone under 18 have a parent co-sign for a library card.

“We didn’t want to penalize people for returning things, put up an economic barrier to accessing our services,” Gallardo said. “Fines are an economic barrier to access, and they aren’t necessary.

“With the address and the parent requirement, we had to ask ourselves whether we were excluding students who don’t necessarily have a parent who can come with them to co-sign, or two forms of ID with their current address,” she said.

Gallardo also points to new materials in the youth department.

“It’s important to me that we carry materials that all children see themselves reflected in. I look at how we’ve expanded what we offer youth, and although there’s still work to do, I’m excited about what we’ve accomplished so far,” Gallardo said.

During his sessions with staff and board members, Henning said, the board’s homogeneous racial makeup came up repeatedly, as did the majority white demographic of both library staff and patrons.

“We need to prioritize reaching out to underserved populations,” Gallardo said. “That’s a part of what these sessions are about.”

Also a priority is recruiting a new board member to fill a two-year term opening up in a few months when one of the board members moves, she said.

Henning said the process so far has been “joyful.” The public sessions are the final component of the “discovery protocol” that Henning uses to draft a summary of the library’s strengths and weaknesses in EDI issues, along with recommendations for next steps.

Henning isn’t new to community organizing. He was on President Barack Obama’s national fundraising staff in both 2008 and 2012. His résumé also includes stints managing Toronto’s public bike-sharing program and years in the corporate world, including as head of retail for Under Armour.

“I am mixed race, adopted by two white parents and raised on an Iowa goat farm,” Henning said. “I was one of two Black kids in my high school. Diversity work has always been important to me.”

Henning sometimes begins library listening sessions with an example of his own implicit bias.

“When someone says ‘librarian,’ I used to automatically think, like, older white woman.”

The listening sessions are designed to consider a series of questions. What is the current state of EDI at the library? What policies or procedures are in place that support EDI? What are the roadblocks toward creating that support?

“I approach each session asking questions instead of trying to convince people of anything,” Henning said.

“These sessions are incredibly important because those that attend are genuinely curious, they want to learn more and be part of the solution. By reaching people who want to listen and experience the sessions, they are then able to use their personal relationships and credibility to extend an invitation to those they know to become involved,” he said.

EDI put the library in an unwanted spotlight after a staffer was fired after being accused of making a racist comment to a patron. In October, former clerk Joyce Slabich filed a lawsuit against the library and Gallardo for “defamation,” among other things.

Gallardo and Hagen-McIntosh stressed their work in EDI predates the lawsuit and the firing.

“This has always been important to us. We terminated fines in 2019, for example,” Hagen-McIntosh said. “But I do feel that since George Floyd’s death, the Black Lives Matter protests and all the unrest this past summer helped raise awareness. It raised mine. I think, like a lot of people now, we’re just working harder to stay in front of this and provide everyone in our community with what they need.”