2024-26 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Plan [Download PDF Version]
Background
In 2018 Evanston Public Library (EPL) contracted with DeEtta Jones and Associates to conduct an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Needs Assessment. The Assessment included reviewing Evanston's history of racism, community conversations, recommendations for improving community access, engagement, spaces, and places, and the organizational culture and health viewed through an equity lens.
EDI Needs Assessment Recommendations and Where We Are Today
| 1. | Issue a statement that explicitly recognizes historic racism in Evanston and commits the Library to social justice. | Evanston Public Library's Commitment to Racial Equity was issued in 2020. |
| 2. | Invest in cultural competence development for EPL leadership and staff. | Staff EDI Training began in 2019 and continues annually on an ongoing basis. |
| 3. | Develop a talent management plan that identifies goals for hiring, developing, and promoting people of color. | Ongoing |
| 4. | Create a group focused on equity and race composed of Library staff and community members. | The Racial Equity Task Force was created in 2018. |
| 5. | Create and use metrics to assess and adjust efforts in support of the Library's EDI values. | The EPL Data Dashboard was created in 2021 but does not specifically track EDI. |
| 6. | Create an innovative approach to space and services in Fifth Ward. | Ongoing |
| 7. | Expand book collections that reflect the needs and interests of the Black and Latinx communities. | EPL utilizes Collection HQ to analyze its collections, and two diversity audits have been completed around adult fiction and science fiction. Ongoing work continues to upgrade system data accuracy and create a written plan for allocating resource funding. |
| 8. | Continue supporting culture-specific engagement specialists. | The Library added two Family Engagement Coordinator positions specific to the Crown branch in October/November 2020. A Teen Engagement Librarian was added at the Main Library. |
| 9. | Shift the focus of communications from the multitude of programs and services to engagement. | EPL created a series of videos promoting services to the Black and Latinx communities in 2020. |
| 10. | Embed EDI into the Library's ongoing communication strategy. | Strategic messaging continues to focus on equitable access to literacy and resources available to all through partnerships with EvanSTEM and District 65 |
| 11. | Work with other City agencies to advance Library and City EDI goals. | Ongoing |
The formation of the Racial Equity Task Force aimed to reconcile varying perspectives on implementing equity within library operations and align solutions with community aspirations. While progress was made over the past five years, multiple factors, including the global pandemic, contributed to the slow development of a plan. In the years since the DeEtta Jones report was completed, Evanston has experienced changes in its racial equity conversations to account for health inequities during the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2019 establishment of the Evanston Reparations Fund, the 2020 Black Lives Matters protests marching down Central Street and Sheridan Road, and the beginning of the Stop Asian Hate movement.
This Action Plan was created to outline specific actions to achieve over the next three years, fostering ongoing institutional change in equity and inclusion.
The Action Plan guides the development of the library's forthcoming Strategic Plan, structured around three focal areas: exploration and access, space and place, and organizational culture and health. Under the guidance of the Racial Equity Task Force, composed of community members and overseen by the Library Board of Trustees, the Action Plan remains flexible as a living document, open to evolution and updates as needed and endeavors to create an environment where all residents feel represented and welcome within the library's spaces.
The Robert Crown Branch, co-located in the Robert Crown Community Center offers Evanston's west side residents access to programs and materials in walking distance.
