As we continue work on equity, diversity, and inclusion in the six areas identified in our action plans, the EDI Advisory Committee provides short monthly updates on the work being done. The following are the updates from our first year of implementation (September 2020- August 2021). If you have any questions or want to learn more about one of the six areas, reach out the EDI Advisory Committee (bcl-edi-ggroup@bc.edu) or to the liaison for a particular group.
For the year of September 2020-August 2021, liaisons for each of the groups were as follows:
These contact points may no longer be accurate. For updated contact points, check the current progress updates page.
We are working toward making the BC libraries more inclusive of off-hour staff. To this end, we are currently gathering feedback from those who do not work in a typical Monday-Friday, 9-5 role to move this initiative forward.
Call for Feedback: If you work evenings, nights, or weekends we would love to gather your thoughts, feedback, concerns, and how you feel we can best support or include you? Please feel free to reach out to the Staff Support Liaisons: Cat Ruth-Coleman and Jocelyn Figlock. However, if you would prefer to share feedback and remain anonymous, you can use LEAG's feedback form and LEAG will redirect it to the Staff Support group. Thank you!
We’re actively coordinating logistics for the summer discussion groups and follow up sessions.
Benchmarking meeting to be held at the end of June. Will be included in the July updates.
In March and April, EDI Coll. scoped their mandate and set priorities for FY 2022, which we worked into our scheduled tasks. Because the tasks EDI Coll. approaches often require pilots and working groups with members from across the libraries, the group has decided to move forward with one meeting a month (last Wednesday). We’re excited about moving forward!
A proposal to provide automatic renewals for all users was submitted and is being reviewed by Public Services Heads, Systems, and the Liaison Librarians A proposal to provide same-library and same-campus requesting for all users was submitted and is being reviewed by Public Services Heads, Systems, and the Liaison Librarians. EDI Action Items are being sent to service owners for prioritization. Items that can be completed this summer will be identified.
The Public Service Heads group is in the process of analysing the assessment tool that will be used to determine libraries’ compliance with EDI requirements and expectations. When approved, Public Service Heads will implement the assessment. The group will discuss benchmarking for EDI initiatives on June 10, 2021.
The following BCL affinity groups have officially launched and had their first meetings: BIPOC (Rodrigo Castro), People with Disabilities (Anna Bartolini), LGBTQIA (Kathleen Monahan). Staff Support liaisons will be checking in with the facilitators shortly to figure out how things are proceeding. Once the affinity groups initiative is on solid footing, the Staff Support liaisons will be turning their attention to assessing how to better support & include employees that work an off typical hours schedules( ie. non Monday-Friday/9-5 schedules).
The EDI Collections subgroup has the exciting news that in collaboration with the liaisons we have written and published a commitment to EDI in our public facing Collection Development Policy. Over the year, the liaisons will be adding EDI statements to the subject specific policies as well as choosing discipline-specific actions in order to act on those commitments.
After presenting the Services Action Items to both Public Services Heads and the O’Neill Outreach team, more work is needed to determine who ultimately is responsible for creating and issuing guidelines and for requesting UX testing, etc. The Services Action Items will be clarified and reassigned as necessary.
Public Service Heads started reviewing The Physical Environment Questionnaire. This questionnaire will be used to assess how EDI elements influence physical spaces. The questionnaire includes five categories: General factors, Integration of EDI principles, Community engagement, Furniture configurations, and Accessibility. The group is currently evaluating the instrument. Once approved, we will proceed with the implementation of the assessment process.
The following BCL affinity groups have officially launched and had their first meetings: BIPOC (Rodrigo Castro), People with Disabilities (Anna Bartolini), LGBTQIA (Kathleen Monahan). Staff Support liaisons will be checking in with the facilitators shortly to figure out how things are proceeding. Once the affinity groups initiative is on solid footing, the Staff Support liaisons will be turning their attention to assessing how to better support & include employees that work an off typical hours schedules( ie. non Monday-Friday/9-5 schedules).
Staff and Leadership Training met with Damita Davis and Patricia Lowe from the Office of Institutional Diversity to continue discussions around developing a Library training program. Although Damita will be leaving BC, OID is well positioned to help us plan, facilitate, and assess training initiatives.
Entering a third phase in work, EDI Coll. is working on developing a mandate with consideration toward group goals and organization to facilitate cross-library communication and collaboration.
Service action items were reviewed and will be shared with responsible staff, departments and committees in March.
The Physical Environment Liaison met with Public Services Heads to discuss the progress of the questionnaire intended for assessing physical spaces’ compliance with EDI recommendations. It was decided that we need to reorganize the questions based on the level of ownership (e.g. questions related to facilities require input and expertise from other university units; questions related to community engagement can be fully addressed by members of the Public Service Heads group.
Staff Support Liaisons have secured three facilitators for the following affinity groups: BIPOC (Rodrigo Castro), Disability (Anna Bartolini), LGBTQIA (Kathleen Monahan). A message is currently being drafted to announce the first meetings of the three groups which will be sent out to the libraries. The meetings will also be added to the BCL EDI Event Calendar in the wiki.
The Training committee met with Damita Davis from the Office of Institutional Diversity to explore developing training for the library. While OID’s calendar for the Spring is full, we’ll continue to work with them to plan future training. In the meantime the group has begun exploring ways to engage staff in discussion groups.
The WRRC began working in three small subgroups 1. Exit Interview Information 2. Retention Survey for Staff and 3. Recruitment / Hiring / Onboarding Processes. The Exit interview group and the retention groups both have finalized recommendations, which will be submitted to the EDI advisory group for review and next steps. The recruitment group will continue reviewing job descriptions. They are close to finalizing their recommendations on this and once they are done this will be sent to the EDI advisory group for review. The retention group will focus its efforts on advancement pathways. While the exit interview members will turn their focus to hiring.
