Racial Equity Team Up

While the past year has been a severely challenging time for libraries to provide basic services, let alone examine and revamp them through a racial equity lens, a trio of Madison Public Library (MPL) employees were determined to do just that. Dominic Davis, Jody Mohrbacher, and Yesianne Ramírez-Madera, coleaders of MPL’s Racial Equity Change Team (RECT), kicked their efforts into high gear following the library’s closure in March 2020—and succeeded on many fronts.

“Although there was already an awareness of the need for addressing issues of equity and social justice within our library system, this initiative has formalized our institutional efforts to tackle these issues,” explains Ramírez-Madera.

With the support of library management and a team of 14 staff members, RECT’s accomplishments include organizing a group of consultants to help represent voices of color authentically in communications; publishing a racial equity staff newsletter; drafting recommendations on the employee transfer process after discovering that its focus on seniority inordinately benefited white staff; and making revisions to the behavior consequences policy when an analysis revealed children of color were banned at higher rates than white ones. The trio are currently gathering demographic data to help improve the outside consultant hiring process.

The three are deeply proud of the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) Affinity Group that they organized. Within five months RECT developed a charter, hosted a vision session, and recruited a third of the library’s staff of color as members.

Says Davis, “We needed to make sure during this pandemic and beyond, during heightened political tension, that our BIPOC staff felt supported and that they belonged.”

Racial equity discussion groups were then launched for all staff, drawing 228 participants, more than 40 percent of all staff. “I’m most excited about the upcoming financial literacy series for staff of color,” says Davis. “We’ll discuss the racial wealth gap, home ownership, common methods of investing, and retirement planning.”

Meanwhile, Mohrbacher looks forward to completing a diversity audit of MPL’s collections, to ensure that materials reflect the community as well as a range of viewpoints and experiences. “I’m eager to get the data and begin to explore ways to improve and update the collections,” she says.

A high point for Ramírez-Madera was a program showcasing the work of artist and lithographer José Guadalupe Posada, which attracted many patrons of color. “The work we public librarians do has changed dramatically over the years, but the basic principles of the profession have not,” she notes. “Today, we can think of libraries as places designated to help communities connect and thrive.” The team has connected to other library and civic equity initiatives as well.

“Leading all these efforts takes tremendous courage,” says nominator Tana Elias, MPL digital services and marketing manager. “Dominic, Jody, and Yesianne have each shown this courage.”