1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:07,640 Hello and welcome to the presentation. 2 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:10,019 Conducting a Targeted Equity Audit at your Library: 3 00:00:10,019 --> 00:00:12,220 Tips and Lessons Learned. 4 00:00:12,220 --> 00:00:16,480 My name is Jenny Kinniff and I'm the Head of Archives and Special Collections at Loyola 5 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:19,850 Notre Dame Library in Baltimore, Maryland. 6 00:00:19,850 --> 00:00:24,349 And I'm Danielle Whren Johnson, and I am the Copyright and Special Projects Librarian at 7 00:00:24,349 --> 00:00:30,900 the Loyola Notre Dame Library. 8 00:00:30,900 --> 00:00:33,900 So before we dive into the details of our equity audit, 9 00:00:33,900 --> 00:00:39,290 we thought it would be good to give a brief overview of the DEI landscape at our library 10 00:00:39,290 --> 00:00:42,710 and some of the initiatives that we've undertaken to date. 11 00:00:42,710 --> 00:00:49,280 So they fall into these five broad categories of outreach, collection development, 12 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:56,230 staff training, campus affinity and DEI groups and an accessibility plan. 13 00:00:56,230 --> 00:01:00,810 So outreach is probably the area that we've made the most connections on the campuses 14 00:01:00,810 --> 00:01:02,410 of the two universities we serve, 15 00:01:02,410 --> 00:01:07,250 which are Loyola University Maryland and Notre Dame of Maryland University. 16 00:01:07,250 --> 00:01:12,970 We've worked with a pretty diverse array of departments at both schools to find ways to 17 00:01:12,970 --> 00:01:17,550 bring our services to a broader swath of the students, 18 00:01:17,550 --> 00:01:19,940 faculty and staff at both schools. 19 00:01:19,940 --> 00:01:25,960 We've also partnered with some of the centers and programs at the schools that have outreach 20 00:01:25,960 --> 00:01:36,570 to the Baltimore community as a way of kind of broadening our reach and reaching a more diverse audience. 21 00:01:36,570 --> 00:01:40,650 We've also devoted some attention to collection development in the past few years, 22 00:01:40,650 --> 00:01:47,080 trying to find ways that we can assess our collection and also make purchasing decisions 23 00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:53,000 that add to the diversity of our collection and meet the research needs of our two universities. 24 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:59,299 So we utilize vendor lists of sort of DEI focused titles to diversify our purchasing 25 00:01:59,299 --> 00:02:00,370 each year. 26 00:02:00,370 --> 00:02:06,659 We've been adding some new e-content, including databases like Archives of Sexuality and Gender 27 00:02:06,659 --> 00:02:08,920 and African-American newspapers. 28 00:02:08,920 --> 00:02:12,981 Again, in an effort to make sure that our collections are more inclusive and that they 29 00:02:12,981 --> 00:02:19,760 can serve a broader variety of research areas. 30 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:24,240 The library has been proactive in scheduling trainings for our staff and also 31 00:02:24,240 --> 00:02:30,100 identifying opportunities for things that they can participate in at the two universities. 32 00:02:30,100 --> 00:02:37,530 So we took part in kind of a campus wide training opportunity from Loyola that was led by Baltimore 33 00:02:37,530 --> 00:02:39,650 Racial Justice Action. 34 00:02:39,650 --> 00:02:46,240 We have a mandatory training now within the library that is sort of accessed through our 35 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:48,780 HR management system called Paylocity. 36 00:02:48,780 --> 00:02:54,870 And we the library encourages our staff to take part in opportunities at both campuses 37 00:02:54,870 --> 00:02:55,870 wherever they can. 38 00:02:55,870 --> 00:03:01,040 So that includes things like Loyola's annual diversity reading groups and affinity groups 39 00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:04,020 on campus, such as OUTLoyola. 40 00:03:04,020 --> 00:03:11,160 And then within the library, one major initiative that has been undertaken in the last few years 41 00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:14,010 is creating a five year accessibility plan. 42 00:03:14,010 --> 00:03:19,300 So this is designed to kind of evaluate where the library is with regards to accessibility 43 00:03:19,300 --> 00:03:23,360 and begin to improve in a variety of areas, 44 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:27,600 just kind of implementing standards and enhancing the services that we offer. 45 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:33,660 So the plan touches on the physical space of the library, digital content creation and 46 00:03:33,660 --> 00:03:36,410 remediation for accessibility, 47 00:03:36,410 --> 00:03:43,349 acquisitions and procurement, exhibit standards to ensure maximum accessibility, our library's 48 00:03:43,349 --> 00:03:49,349 web presence, assistive technologies within the library, and creating accessible documents 49 00:03:49,349 --> 00:03:55,269 in our internal and public facing library work. 50 00:03:55,269 --> 00:03:59,989 So as you can see, we've already done a lot of work in regards to diversity, 51 00:03:59,989 --> 00:04:01,410 equity and inclusion. 52 00:04:01,410 --> 00:04:05,459 Something we've been involved with for several years now. 53 00:04:05,459 --> 00:04:13,710 But Loyola recently started a process of doing equity audits across the campus in every department. 54 00:04:13,710 --> 00:04:17,160 They're hoping to get every department to kind of buy into this process and take part it it. 55 00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:22,580 It's being run through Loyola's Office of Equity and Inclusion, and so the library kind 56 00:04:22,580 --> 00:04:25,460 of jumped at the chance to take part in this. 57 00:04:25,460 --> 00:04:29,379 We volunteered to be one of the first departments to go through this new audit process that 58 00:04:29,379 --> 00:04:32,069 Loyola developed, 59 00:04:32,069 --> 00:04:36,539 and we worked through this process with guidance from Loyola's Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer, 60 00:04:36,539 --> 00:04:41,379 as well as the Assistant Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness and Academic Assessment. 61 00:04:41,379 --> 00:04:46,159 And so they have been the ones working on developing this equity audit process that 62 00:04:46,159 --> 00:04:47,580 we went through and 63 00:04:47,580 --> 00:04:52,270 worked closely with us throughout the process to guide us through it and provide feedback 64 00:04:52,270 --> 00:04:53,689 along the way. 65 00:04:53,689 --> 00:04:59,349 So it's actually a seven step process that we used in this particular audit. 66 00:04:59,349 --> 00:05:03,150 It's actually been updated now to an eight step process based on some feedback we provided. 67 00:05:03,150 --> 00:05:06,490 We'll get into that a little bit later in the presentation. 68 00:05:06,490 --> 00:05:09,659 But this is the process that we actually went through. 69 00:05:09,659 --> 00:05:17,520 And so this is a process that is designed to focus very narrowly on one particular area. 70 00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:24,319 So each equity audit you do is designed to be driven from the staff up. 71 00:05:24,319 --> 00:05:26,970 It's not something that should be coming from administration down. 72 00:05:26,970 --> 00:05:32,369 It's really supposed to be something that helps staff buy into whatever it is you're 73 00:05:32,369 --> 00:05:36,110 looking at and is designed to be sort of an iterative process 74 00:05:36,110 --> 00:05:44,029 so that you conduct an equity audit on a very particular narrow question and then provide 75 00:05:44,029 --> 00:05:46,779 recommendations surrounding that one particular question. 76 00:05:46,779 --> 00:05:50,419 And then it's a process that you can repeat with additional questions, 77 00:05:50,419 --> 00:05:57,349 but it really provides a way to focus in and have concrete recommendations that can be 78 00:05:57,349 --> 00:05:58,349 implemented, 79 00:05:58,349 --> 00:06:01,760 as opposed to one large report that you may be getting from some sort of outside vendor 80 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:08,180 who comes in and does an audit of where it thinks the your library is in regards to diversity, 81 00:06:08,180 --> 00:06:16,800 equity and inclusion or something that is brought from administration down that can 82 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:21,289 be overwhelming and is easily shelved because there's just too much to process in it. 83 00:06:21,289 --> 00:06:25,800 So this was really, I think, a good process for us to go through. 84 00:06:25,800 --> 00:06:31,659 It gave us a gives us a lot of opportunity to continue to work through and repeat over 85 00:06:31,659 --> 00:06:32,969 and over again. 86 00:06:32,969 --> 00:06:37,440 So the process that we went through was first to reflect on perceptions of equity and potential 87 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:38,440 areas of inquiry. 88 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:45,539 So basically looking at where the library is in regards to equity and seeing where there 89 00:06:45,539 --> 00:06:49,139 are potential areas that we might want to address. 90 00:06:49,139 --> 00:06:54,899 Then we had to choose and refine a research question that we wanted to investigate as 91 00:06:54,899 --> 00:06:55,899 part of the process. 92 00:06:55,899 --> 00:07:00,280 And that's really where we took the rest of the audit and focused in on one particular area. 93 00:07:00,280 --> 00:07:11,110 We then collected data and metrics and reports and things like that to help us look at where 94 00:07:11,110 --> 00:07:13,639 we were with that particular research question. 95 00:07:13,639 --> 00:07:18,059 And part of that process was identifying not just data that was available, 96 00:07:18,059 --> 00:07:25,240 but also data that we wished that we had in order to help us identify certain aspects of that. 97 00:07:25,270 --> 00:07:31,320 So we'll talk about some of that data that we wish that we had had in our process as well. 98 00:07:31,349 --> 00:07:36,779 And then using that data to kind of look at where are the places where we aren't being 99 00:07:36,779 --> 00:07:38,879 equitable or inclusive in 100 00:07:38,879 --> 00:07:44,059 what we're doing and identifying any of those inequities or disproportionalities or any 101 00:07:44,059 --> 00:07:46,099 patterns that might exist, 102 00:07:46,099 --> 00:07:50,300 and then reflecting on those findings and then eventually creating goals and concrete 103 00:07:50,300 --> 00:07:56,569 action steps and timelines to address those inequities or disproportionalities. 104 00:07:56,569 --> 00:08:01,539 So the way that we went through this process was we first started off with staff discussions 105 00:08:01,539 --> 00:08:03,459 internally in the library. 106 00:08:03,459 --> 00:08:09,809 So Jenny and I were coordinating this process, and we held small group discussions with many 107 00:08:09,809 --> 00:08:13,539 members of the library staff, mostly our full time staff, 108 00:08:13,539 --> 00:08:16,360 to understand their perceptions of diversity, 109 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:21,099 equity and inclusion at the library and what areas they thought we were doing well in and 110 00:08:21,099 --> 00:08:23,360 where they thought there were opportunities for growth. 111 00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:27,430 So some of the identified strengths that got mentioned during these meetings was 112 00:08:27,430 --> 00:08:33,430 that people thought there was really strong support for LGBTQ staff and issues. 113 00:08:33,430 --> 00:08:37,250 They also highlighted that training that Jenny had mentioned earlier that we did through 114 00:08:37,250 --> 00:08:39,940 Loyola with Baltimore Racial Justice Action. 115 00:08:39,940 --> 00:08:43,150 That was a training that people really found effective and something they wanted to see 116 00:08:43,150 --> 00:08:47,020 more training similar to that. 117 00:08:47,020 --> 00:08:53,440 And they also mentioned that we provide access to online resources and virtual programing to 118 00:08:53,470 --> 00:08:57,310 support users who can't physically come to the library so that we're being more equitable, 119 00:08:57,310 --> 00:09:00,880 equitable to not just people who are able to come into the building, 120 00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:07,160 but also those who just want to access our content and our services from remote locations. 121 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:12,310 They also did identify a number of areas where they thought we had room for improvement. 122 00:09:12,310 --> 00:09:19,520 So recruiting, hiring and staff retention were mentioned repeatedly as we are a very 123 00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:23,610 white staff historically. 124 00:09:23,610 --> 00:09:30,400 People also mentioned wanting to make sure that our collections were diverse and inclusive 125 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:34,880 and making sure that the patron services that we're providing the services that we're giving 126 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:42,240 our users are making sure that people are feeling like they're included and that they belong and that 127 00:09:42,250 --> 00:09:47,650 there is not anything happening that is making people feel like the library is not for them. 128 00:09:47,650 --> 00:09:52,050 And then also creating an organizational culture within the library staff just to 129 00:09:52,050 --> 00:09:57,470 make sure that this is something that is really a part of what we're doing in all 130 00:09:57,470 --> 00:10:03,080 areas of the library is making sure we're incorporating and ensuring that our services 131 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:11,140 and our resources are being inclusive and being provided in an equitable manner. 132 00:10:11,140 --> 00:10:15,120 So the research question that we settled on because it was the number one thing that came 133 00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:17,520 up during our discussions, 134 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:22,770 was how can articulation of core values and enhancements to the hiring process support 135 00:10:22,770 --> 00:10:26,410 greater racial diversity in library staff? 136 00:10:26,410 --> 00:10:30,830 So this is what we focused on in the rest of the process that we went through. 137 00:10:30,830 --> 00:10:35,360 And as I mentioned, this is a very narrow question that we looked at. 138 00:10:35,360 --> 00:10:38,020 So it was only this particular thing. 139 00:10:38,020 --> 00:10:41,750 Obviously, there was a lot of things that were mentioned by our staff during those meetings, 140 00:10:41,750 --> 00:10:46,500 and we created sort of a parking lot document to make sure that that information is kept 141 00:10:46,500 --> 00:10:49,240 and can potentially be used in future audits 142 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:50,240 that we do. 143 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:55,950 We wanted to make sure that staff were aware that their what they mentioned was heard. 144 00:10:55,950 --> 00:11:00,290 And just because we are only focusing on this one particular question, we weren't just disregarding 145 00:11:00,290 --> 00:11:02,750 all of the other things that were mentioned, 146 00:11:02,750 --> 00:11:08,760 but that this particular process would only focus on this one small area. 147 00:11:08,760 --> 00:11:11,630 So we collected a bunch of data. 148 00:11:11,630 --> 00:11:16,000 We collected hiring documents from all the searches for librarians that we conducted 149 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:18,570 between March 2016 and March 2021, 150 00:11:18,570 --> 00:11:23,040 which is the previous five years when we were conducting this audit that included things 151 00:11:23,040 --> 00:11:26,320 like the job announcements for the positions, 152 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:31,570 rubrics and interview questions that we used during the interview process. 153 00:11:31,570 --> 00:11:38,840 We also looked at some documents for the previous three searches that we did for non librarian searches. 154 00:11:38,850 --> 00:11:45,350 We also gathered the list of places where our job announcements have been posted previously. 155 00:11:45,350 --> 00:11:48,220 And we looked at the library's current mission statement, 156 00:11:48,220 --> 00:11:54,470 and we also discovered that we don't have any current vision and value statements, although 157 00:11:54,470 --> 00:11:56,070 we're working on that right now. 158 00:11:56,070 --> 00:12:00,800 But at the time of this audit, we did not have any active vision and value statements. 159 00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:07,220 So we also collected the previous vision and value statements that we have had at former 160 00:12:07,220 --> 00:12:13,800 times during the library's history and looked at some of the most recent versions of those, 161 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:16,760 as well as the current mission statement. 162 00:12:16,760 --> 00:12:23,260 We also looked at other institutions, including the we're a part of the Association of Jesuit 163 00:12:23,260 --> 00:12:24,550 Colleges and Universities. 164 00:12:24,550 --> 00:12:30,040 So we looked at those universities as well as some of our comparator schools that we 165 00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:32,920 look at for their mission, 166 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:38,630 vision and value statements to see how they were incorporating things that might influence 167 00:12:38,630 --> 00:12:43,690 people in deciding to apply for a job with our library. 168 00:12:43,690 --> 00:12:51,490 Also, we looked at equity best practices in equity in hiring in both library field, education, 169 00:12:51,490 --> 00:12:53,360 business and HR field. 170 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:55,620 We didn't want to limit just to libraries itself. 171 00:12:55,620 --> 00:13:00,450 We wanted to broaden out a little bit and look at other areas that we thought 172 00:13:00,450 --> 00:13:06,380 would be beneficial to see what their best practices were in this field as well. 173 00:13:06,380 --> 00:13:10,510 And we also found some other academic libraries that have already done a lot of this work, 174 00:13:10,510 --> 00:13:11,850 which was super helpful. 175 00:13:11,850 --> 00:13:15,490 And they had already created some reports and handbooks on equitable hiring practices, 176 00:13:15,490 --> 00:13:19,320 which was very useful and informative for our work. 177 00:13:19,320 --> 00:13:23,210 And as I mentioned, we also identified data that we could not locate. 178 00:13:23,210 --> 00:13:27,170 It was unavailable to us that we wish that we had had. 179 00:13:27,170 --> 00:13:35,170 And so that informs some of what we might want to look at in the future as far as adding 180 00:13:35,170 --> 00:13:36,570 this to our hiring process. 181 00:13:36,570 --> 00:13:42,550 But currently we do not collect any demographic data on our current or former library staff, 182 00:13:42,550 --> 00:13:47,980 so it's hard to benchmark where we are and whether we're improving in hiring a more diverse 183 00:13:47,980 --> 00:13:49,930 staff when we don't have data 184 00:13:49,930 --> 00:13:54,800 on our existing staff or previous staff as well as we don't actually collect any demographic 185 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:56,500 data for our job candidates. 186 00:13:56,500 --> 00:14:02,200 So we don't know if we are getting a diverse candidate pool or at least one that matches 187 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:03,820 the library field as a whole. 188 00:14:03,820 --> 00:14:08,480 As we know, the library field as a whole is not very diverse in and of itself. 189 00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:14,130 So we looked at all of that data and did an analysis of it to determine what were the 190 00:14:14,130 --> 00:14:15,830 strengths that we had identified in our 191 00:14:15,830 --> 00:14:20,910 process and where were the opportunities that we could adjust some things to perhaps make 192 00:14:20,910 --> 00:14:23,080 them more equitable and inclusive. 193 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:27,450 So some of the strengths that we identified were that we already had a really well structured 194 00:14:27,450 --> 00:14:29,380 hiring process in the library. 195 00:14:29,380 --> 00:14:33,380 We used standard evaluation rubrics and standard questions across all candidates. 196 00:14:33,380 --> 00:14:38,810 Those are some of the top things that we saw in all the best practices that we looked at. 197 00:14:38,810 --> 00:14:43,530 We also have an existing checklist that search committees use in the process that could be 198 00:14:43,530 --> 00:14:47,080 expanded to provide more in-depth guidance on diversity, 199 00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:48,580 equity, inclusion related issues. 200 00:14:48,580 --> 00:14:55,630 So we already have a good baseline for that and being able to expand it. 201 00:14:55,630 --> 00:15:00,860 Library staff are enthusiastic about creating a culture of DEI in the library, so we don't 202 00:15:00,860 --> 00:15:04,190 have to worry about getting buy in from people. 203 00:15:04,190 --> 00:15:10,240 People are already very enthusiastic about doing this work and are eager to continue it. 204 00:15:10,260 --> 00:15:12,400 And so it's not something where we're spending a lot of time trying to convince staff that 205 00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:15,730 this is something that is important to address. 206 00:15:15,730 --> 00:15:18,130 We already have that buy in. 207 00:15:18,130 --> 00:15:21,730 And as Jenny already mentioned at the beginning, we've already been embarking on a variety 208 00:15:21,730 --> 00:15:23,740 of different DEI initiatives, 209 00:15:23,740 --> 00:15:28,610 although obviously we have a lot of work that continues to need to be addressed. 210 00:15:28,610 --> 00:15:33,430 Some of the opportunities for improvement that we found looking at the data that we 211 00:15:33,430 --> 00:15:36,920 collected was the library's mission statement 212 00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:41,770 doesn't currently reflect the strong personal and professional commitment to DEI that our 213 00:15:41,770 --> 00:15:43,460 library staff has expressed. 214 00:15:43,460 --> 00:15:48,430 And it's also something that we had not had publicly available at all to the communities 215 00:15:48,430 --> 00:15:50,540 we serve or potential job candidates. 216 00:15:50,540 --> 00:15:54,960 The only place it was really available at the time this equity audit was conducted was 217 00:15:54,960 --> 00:15:57,220 in our staff handbook. 218 00:15:57,220 --> 00:16:00,460 And so I don't even think a lot of staff realized it was in there. 219 00:16:00,460 --> 00:16:05,720 Obviously not something that people who may be potentially applying for jobs at the library 220 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:07,550 would be able to find. 221 00:16:07,550 --> 00:16:12,950 And as I mentioned, we didn't have a current vision or value statement as well. 222 00:16:12,950 --> 00:16:18,290 Opportunities, other opportunities were again filling in some of those missing data gaps, 223 00:16:18,290 --> 00:16:22,860 collecting that demographic data on current library staff and applicant pools that is 224 00:16:22,860 --> 00:16:25,290 currently unavailable. 225 00:16:25,290 --> 00:16:30,890 And also expanding some of the things that we identified as best practices. 226 00:16:30,890 --> 00:16:35,970 As I mentioned, we already are doing some of the things that we saw as best practices 227 00:16:35,970 --> 00:16:40,120 in regards to hiring for diversity, equity and inclusion. 228 00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:45,630 But there are some best practices that we saw mentioned repeatedly that we do not currently 229 00:16:45,630 --> 00:16:46,930 do at the library. 230 00:16:46,930 --> 00:16:54,940 So potentially implementing some of those into our process. 231 00:16:54,940 --> 00:16:59,230 So sorry. 232 00:16:59,230 --> 00:17:05,769 So from all of this research and data gathering and, you know, consulting with our staff that 233 00:17:05,769 --> 00:17:08,980 we did through the equity audit process, 234 00:17:08,980 --> 00:17:14,220 we developed a list of recommendations that we thought would be ways to effectively address 235 00:17:14,220 --> 00:17:16,119 our research question. 236 00:17:16,119 --> 00:17:21,799 The first was to revisit the library's current mission statement and the previous vision 237 00:17:21,799 --> 00:17:23,029 and value statements, 238 00:17:23,029 --> 00:17:28,439 and to update them so that they reflect our current library organizational culture and 239 00:17:28,439 --> 00:17:31,320 commitment to equity and inclusion. 240 00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:32,320 And then, as Danielle mentioned, you know, 241 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:37,650 it would be a new step for us to be sharing that publicly by our library website and to 242 00:17:37,650 --> 00:17:39,919 not just have it hiding in our employee manual, 243 00:17:39,919 --> 00:17:43,850 but to really make it a living part of our library's organizational culture. 244 00:17:43,850 --> 00:17:48,649 Our second recommendation was that the library work with our H.R. 245 00:17:48,649 --> 00:17:51,679 Consultant, which is a firm known as PSA, 246 00:17:51,679 --> 00:17:57,450 to determine whether the library can begin collecting data on race and ethnicity for 247 00:17:57,450 --> 00:18:00,960 our current staff and also for our applicant pools. 248 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:04,740 And again, this is something we felt would be really beneficial so that we can actually 249 00:18:04,740 --> 00:18:09,149 benchmark and measure our progress in this area. 250 00:18:09,149 --> 00:18:15,389 We also recommended that the library create and implement some best practices in hiring, 251 00:18:15,389 --> 00:18:21,499 specifically in regard to diversity, equity and inclusion and then to, you know, 252 00:18:21,499 --> 00:18:27,299 kind of pull those guidelines into a search committee handbook so that all staff that 253 00:18:27,299 --> 00:18:29,799 are on search committees will have access to, 254 00:18:29,799 --> 00:18:35,369 you know, these sort of guidelines for consistent and equitable hiring practices for our librarian 255 00:18:35,369 --> 00:18:39,130 and non librarian staff. 256 00:18:39,130 --> 00:18:45,649 And then our last recommendation was to create a diversity focus committee within the library, 257 00:18:45,649 --> 00:18:51,749 and that would be in order to provide some continuity on this kind of DEI focused work 258 00:18:51,749 --> 00:18:52,749 and a 259 00:18:52,749 --> 00:18:58,320 commitment to ensuring that these kinds of issues are continually incorporated into our 260 00:18:58,320 --> 00:19:01,149 hiring, but also all other aspects of library work. 261 00:19:01,149 --> 00:19:07,830 And, you know, it's our vision and one that the library administration also has that, 262 00:19:07,830 --> 00:19:08,830 you know, 263 00:19:08,830 --> 00:19:14,149 the diversity work in the library not kind of be lumped into the diversity committee 264 00:19:14,149 --> 00:19:15,909 and not have it take place anywhere else, 265 00:19:15,909 --> 00:19:20,380 but that the diversity committee really be a way to kind of boost the signal and amplify 266 00:19:20,380 --> 00:19:26,990 that work that's going on in all areas of the library. 267 00:19:26,990 --> 00:19:32,179 And so once we created these recommendations, we presented many times to many different 268 00:19:32,179 --> 00:19:34,200 people about them. 269 00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:40,320 We first shared our recommendations with our Library Directors Advisory Group, which is 270 00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:43,360 comprised of the senior managers within our library. 271 00:19:43,360 --> 00:19:48,480 So we shared with them to have the recommendations approved, to get their feedback on them so 272 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:50,059 that, you know, 273 00:19:50,059 --> 00:19:55,580 this report that was put out from the library just kind of reflected everyone's understanding 274 00:19:55,580 --> 00:19:57,580 of the process. 275 00:19:57,580 --> 00:20:03,739 We then presented internally to the library board of directors and to all of our staff 276 00:20:03,739 --> 00:20:06,169 at a library wide staff meeting. 277 00:20:06,169 --> 00:20:10,960 We also presented to Loyola's President's Council on Equity and Inclusion, 278 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:15,030 which is kind of the place where the equity audit process lives and gets its guidance 279 00:20:15,030 --> 00:20:17,179 and support. 280 00:20:17,179 --> 00:20:22,429 Our report is now available on our library website, so we've got a link here if anyone 281 00:20:22,429 --> 00:20:28,100 would like to download that and take a closer look. 282 00:20:28,100 --> 00:20:30,800 And then so our progress to date, you know, 283 00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:34,370 we were really hopeful that this would not just be a report that would get put on the 284 00:20:34,370 --> 00:20:37,299 shelf or filed away and nothing would ever be done with it. 285 00:20:37,299 --> 00:20:41,360 And, you know, we were really excited and pleased that the library administration embraced 286 00:20:41,360 --> 00:20:42,399 our recommendations 287 00:20:42,399 --> 00:20:49,000 and committed to implementing them over the course of the next couple of years. 288 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:54,080 So we currently have a working group within the library that's revising our mission, vision 289 00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:56,010 and value statements. 290 00:20:56,010 --> 00:21:00,399 So that work is ongoing and it's on target for October 2022 completion. 291 00:21:00,399 --> 00:21:09,169 Just this month, in July 2022, the library sort of created and launched, 292 00:21:09,169 --> 00:21:15,220 created a charge and sort of invited staff to join what we are calling the IDEA Committee. 293 00:21:15,220 --> 00:21:19,149 So that stands for inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility. 294 00:21:19,149 --> 00:21:23,370 So we're really excited to be creating this new group within the library, and we have 295 00:21:23,370 --> 00:21:26,929 a lot of staff that are enthusiastic about this work. 296 00:21:26,929 --> 00:21:28,440 And then some of the H.R. 297 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:33,470 related recommendations that we made will be included or are included in the library's 298 00:21:33,470 --> 00:21:39,159 work plan for fiscal year 2023. 299 00:21:39,159 --> 00:21:44,429 So we did have some lessons that we learned as we went throughout this process. 300 00:21:44,429 --> 00:21:47,520 First and most importantly, communication is everything. 301 00:21:47,520 --> 00:21:53,610 As I mentioned at the beginning, we had direct conversations with staff across the library. 302 00:21:53,610 --> 00:21:58,090 As the start of this process, we really wanted to get feedback from everyone and make sure 303 00:21:58,090 --> 00:21:59,730 that we were presenting what 304 00:21:59,730 --> 00:22:03,639 people thought was the most important thing that we were doing with this initial equity 305 00:22:03,639 --> 00:22:10,200 audit so that it would create buy in and that people would not feel like things were being 306 00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:16,809 imposed upon them or that we weren't addressing the areas that they felt were important. 307 00:22:16,809 --> 00:22:24,070 We also learned that we needed to have better communication with our administration throughout 308 00:22:24,070 --> 00:22:25,070 the process. 309 00:22:25,070 --> 00:22:30,519 So this is actually the step, as I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation. 310 00:22:30,519 --> 00:22:34,309 It's now an official officially an eight step process that all the future 311 00:22:34,309 --> 00:22:40,130 departments at Loyola who are going to be using this method are going to go through. 312 00:22:40,130 --> 00:22:47,440 So due to the feedback that we provided them as one of the first groups to go through this, 313 00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:51,620 there's now a built in check in meeting with administration in the process because as I 314 00:22:51,620 --> 00:22:56,610 mentioned, this is really meant to be a staff driven process. 315 00:22:56,610 --> 00:23:02,299 So it's something that the administration was not involved in the actual process of 316 00:23:02,299 --> 00:23:04,489 going through this. 317 00:23:04,489 --> 00:23:05,510 They knew we were doing it. 318 00:23:05,510 --> 00:23:10,230 And obviously were the ones who encouraged this to happen, but then really turned it 319 00:23:10,230 --> 00:23:11,580 over to us to do. 320 00:23:11,580 --> 00:23:18,210 And so there was some just miscommunication about 321 00:23:18,210 --> 00:23:22,759 when we would be providing updates to them during the process going forward. 322 00:23:22,759 --> 00:23:28,080 And so I think there was some, some surprise by our administration that we had not communicated 323 00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:29,080 some things 324 00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:32,669 like what our research question was going to be to them earlier in the process. 325 00:23:32,669 --> 00:23:38,289 And so that created a little bit of difficulty for them that we had to address. 326 00:23:38,289 --> 00:23:45,330 And so we after discussions with the people we were working with at Loyola as well 327 00:23:45,330 --> 00:23:50,679 they really also agreed that it was important for future people to make sure that they were 328 00:23:50,679 --> 00:23:58,090 having a specific check in with their administration during the middle of the process so that 329 00:23:58,090 --> 00:24:03,169 people weren't surprised by what was happening in the equity process. 330 00:24:03,169 --> 00:24:10,009 We also, because the library has already done a number of sort of audit things in a slightly 331 00:24:10,009 --> 00:24:11,359 different format, 332 00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:16,009 I think there was some confusion and expectations about what was going to come out of this audit 333 00:24:16,009 --> 00:24:17,009 at the end. 334 00:24:17,009 --> 00:24:20,840 As Jenny mentioned, we have this five year accessibility plan where we did an accessibility 335 00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:24,190 audit that we used to then create that plan. 336 00:24:24,190 --> 00:24:29,049 That was an overarching plan that covered, as she mentioned, lots and lots of areas that 337 00:24:29,049 --> 00:24:32,799 we're looking at and working to improve there. 338 00:24:32,799 --> 00:24:39,289 We've done things like create do an assessment of instruction to create an instruction plan, 339 00:24:39,289 --> 00:24:41,559 things that are more over encompassing. 340 00:24:41,559 --> 00:24:46,049 And so I don't think that it got properly communicated at the beginning with people 341 00:24:46,049 --> 00:24:50,539 that this was an audit that was meant to only look at a narrow scope of things. 342 00:24:50,539 --> 00:24:54,809 There were some people who, when we shared the results, were surprised. 343 00:24:54,809 --> 00:24:56,820 They were expecting one of these larger, 344 00:24:56,820 --> 00:25:03,129 all encompassing things that we could use to look at across all areas of the library. 345 00:25:03,129 --> 00:25:04,489 So going through this process, 346 00:25:04,489 --> 00:25:11,019 it would have been beneficial to really communicate better that this was the narrow scope of this 347 00:25:11,019 --> 00:25:12,619 particular audit and how this particular 348 00:25:12,619 --> 00:25:17,249 audit was meant to work and that it wasn't going to provide a deliverable as large as 349 00:25:17,249 --> 00:25:20,629 some people thought it might at the end. 350 00:25:20,629 --> 00:25:25,399 And then the other things that we learned, which were kind of the positive things, were 351 00:25:25,399 --> 00:25:28,039 that this targeted equity audit can lead to much more. 352 00:25:28,039 --> 00:25:33,649 As I mentioned, this is just really the very start of this process. 353 00:25:33,649 --> 00:25:37,249 People felt that they were really heard in this process, which I think was very important 354 00:25:37,249 --> 00:25:38,249 to our staff, 355 00:25:38,249 --> 00:25:43,480 that when they shared things with us, they actually felt like what they said to us was 356 00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:47,320 being acted upon through this audit. 357 00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:51,679 And that distilling their feedback into one research question really did help us focus 358 00:25:51,679 --> 00:25:53,440 and come up with 359 00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:57,679 recommendations that are achievable and something that we could easily build into our goals 360 00:25:57,679 --> 00:25:59,289 in the next year. 361 00:25:59,289 --> 00:26:02,659 We probably would have even been further along in the process if we didn't have a bunch of 362 00:26:02,659 --> 00:26:05,619 staffing changes over the last year. 363 00:26:05,619 --> 00:26:11,429 That kind of set a couple of those recommendations that we wanted to implement back for for us 364 00:26:11,429 --> 00:26:12,879 to work on this year. 365 00:26:12,879 --> 00:26:18,059 But it really did give us some achievable goals at the end to work on. 366 00:26:18,059 --> 00:26:22,190 But as I said, leaves us with a parking lot of ideas to continue to work through this 367 00:26:22,190 --> 00:26:25,049 process and then 368 00:26:25,049 --> 00:26:30,299 continue to come up with additional recommendations for things we can address in the future. 369 00:26:30,299 --> 00:26:34,940 So and also just the fact that we went through this audit process was enough to kind of spur 370 00:26:34,940 --> 00:26:36,299 action on some other equity 371 00:26:36,299 --> 00:26:41,799 issues that just came to light during the process of going through this or sparked in 372 00:26:41,799 --> 00:26:45,669 people's minds as we were doing this. 373 00:26:45,669 --> 00:26:47,419 So that is our presentation. 374 00:26:47,419 --> 00:26:49,559 Thank you for watching it. 375 00:26:49,559 --> 00:26:53,779 I know we obviously can't take any questions from you right now as this is prerecorded, 376 00:26:53,779 --> 00:27:00,109 but if you do have questions about our process or anything else you'd like to ask us about, 377 00:27:00,109 --> 00:27:03,520 we would be happy if you would email us.