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Dear Library Champion,
The televised death of George Floyd created global awareness of systemic racism. Protests, including in our own province, have demanded change. It takes courage to look at ourselves in the board room, and beyond, to examine the conscious and unconscious/implicit biases that create barriers for those in our community to access resources and participate in creating the environment where all can thrive.
“Systemic Racism includes the policies and practices entrenched in established institutions, which result in the exclusion or promotion of designated groups. It differs from overt discrimination in that no individual intent is necessary. (Toronto Mayor's Committee on Community and Race Relations. Race Relations: Myths and Facts).
Systemic racism at the board level can exist through recruitment practices for new board members. Unconsciously, people tend to prefer to interact with other people similar to themselves. Rather than relying upon board/administration selected citizen representation on the library board, municipalities can issue calls to the broader community for applications to sit on the library board. Consider issuing calls in ethnic community newspapers to reach individuals that may speak non-official languages. Take interest in the ethnic background and languages identified in the Census as indicators of potential sectors of your community that need to be reflected in your library board composition, collection development, and signage. If ethnic communities are not reflected in the patron database, consider ways to connect informally with other community organizations and individuals with connections. Begin to build the relationships with a sincere extension of a willingness to listen and learn about the community’s needs. Cultivate authentic relationships with Indigenous people, and people of color.
Board work includes policy making, which is an area that can unintentionally create systemic racism. Consider consulting with a variety of stakeholders to uncover barriers when creating policy. Areas that may create barriers may be requiring identification to obtain a library membership, fines and fees, dress codes for staff/patrons, and the Dewey Decimal Classification system. When making policy, identify the groups that are burdened by the rules and think of ways to make the burden more equitably distributed. Consider the criteria used to make the decision regarding a policy and explore whether there could be another criteria/world view that could be used. Explore ways to better address community issues of equity and disparity in the policies that are created by connecting to your community.
Through strategic goal setting, library boards can prioritize equity and diversity by focusing on time, people, and resources necessary to build relevant community relationships, collections, and programming. Then measure the extent that these actions have reduced systemic racism in the organization. Some internal measurements might include whether the work force composition, staff turnover rate, retention rate, and hiring practices reflect the demographics of your community. Externally, interviews, focus groups, surveys, and stories from the public on how they have experienced equity changes in the library’s policy changes are ways to measure the library’s impact in the community.
Undoing systemic racism is work that must be done individually and collectively. It involves recognition that race impacts socio-economic outcomes, personally, and collectively. Board members might consider beginning personal education by reading literature such as White Fragility, taking the Harvard’s Implicit Bias Test, and White Ally Toolkit’s Quiz: Which kind of White Ally Are You?, and viewing TED Talks on racism. Discuss as a group the impact of your research, and think deeply about aligning leadership with a mission that reflects those you serve.
Additional Resources
Remembering the Howard University Librarian Who Decolonized the Way Books Were Catalogued
Genrefication
BISAC method of classification by bookstores
Metis
Dismantling White Supremacy in Public Libraries
An Open dialogue on change in corporate Canada: diversity and anti-Black racism in the Boardroom and C-Suite
Call it out: racism, racial discrimination and human rights
Link to the ethnic newspapers
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