An equity, diversity and inclusion report commissioned by the Evanston Public Library found a need for cooperation between EPL staff and the Evanston community to address issues surrounding equity and race.

Drawing from input from over 100 community members, the report, which was completed by DeEtta Jones and Associates — a consulting firm that addresses workplace equity, diversity and inclusion — produced a series of recommendations for how the library can better reach and connect with underserved populations in Evanston.

The report called for an innovative approach to providing spaces and services in the 5th Ward, said DeEtta Jones of DeEtta Jones and Associates. Jones said black residents who participated in the survey said felt they were lacking a space within the Evanston’s library system.

“There’s an opportunity for people to… actually have a space that feels like a community center for them, feels like it is something that is specifically catering to their needs and that has a welcome environment,” Jones said over Skype at the meeting.

Other recommendations called for increasing hiring of people of color to the library’s staff, expanding book collections to reflect the needs and interests of black and Latinx communities in Evanston and embedding equity, diversity and inclusion into the library’s communication strategy, Jones said.

In the report, Jones acknowledged that EPL has already initiated organizational changes to increase equity in the library. Following resident demands for an equity audit of EPL, the library launched an equity, diversity and inclusion committee and hosted cultural competence development professional experiences for its staff and board.

The EPL staff will be collecting public comment on the report through the end of October, said Karen Danczak Lyons, the library director. The report will be made public online on Thursday.

“To make sure that we succeed and do better in the future, it truly needs to be an engagement,” she told The Daily. “I’m listening differently, and I want to hear new voices. In order to do this well, I’m inviting people to join the conversation.”

During the meeting, board members also approved the library’s proposed budget for the 2019 fiscal year. The operating budget will increase from $7,693,209 in 2018 to $7,865,271 in 2019 to accommodate contractual wage increases and health insurance, as well as costs tied to the Robert Crown Community Center project.

EPL board member Rachel Hayman voted to approve the budget, although she said she had concerns about the lack of allotment of funds to provide resources needed to enact recommendations made in the equity, diversity and inclusion report. Still, Hayman said she hopes the library can work with the community to enact these changes.

“It’s a paradigm shift that were talking about in the way we view our library,” Hayman said. “And not just in Evanston. In Evanston, we always think that we’re doing things the right way, and we maybe haven’t been doing things the right way for some period of time.”

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