Activist Toolkit

1. What motivates you to seek this office? What skills, experiences, and perspectives would you bring to the Library Board, and why would those contributions be valuable to the River Forest Public Library?

I am running for the River Forest Library Board because I believe in and want to support its missions. Libraries work hand-in-hand with our schools to educate and socialize our children, and they provide adult residents with information and resources that enhance the quality of their lives. I have attended meetings of the Library Board since last summer. The Board works with the Director to develop policy, maintain the building, and prepare budgets. The Board also guides the work of the River Forest Public Library Foundation. My training as a lawyer and my community involvement over the past 30 years provide me with the skills and experiences that are relevant to the work of the Library Board. I was on the board of Pilgrim Nursery School for six years (two as co-chair) and dealt with issues similar to those addressed by the Library Board: personnel issues, maintenance of an older building, budgeting and fundraising, parking problems, and working with governmental agencies. I volunteered in a number of areas at Grace Lutheran School and at Roosevelt Middle School, including working in the library and as a reading parent, and organizing fundraisers. I also volunteered on a number of committees at Grace Lutheran Church, some of which dealt with the rehab of portions of the building; stewardship and fundraising; and school funding issues. In addition to my volunteer experience, my training as a lawyer would be helpful in applying the state statutes that guide the work of the Library Board and in reviewing the various service contracts into which the library enters.

2. What steps will you take to improve and expand community engagement with the Library and the Board? What is your view on how local elected officials should communicate with and respond to constituents?

The members of the Library Board serve as a conduit between the library and the community. One way that the Director and staff learn of the needs of the community is through the Board, and the Library Trustees provide information about the library to the residents of the village. Members of the community have expressed their views about the library to me as I interacted with them during the campaign. Constituents can communicate with the members of the Board by email via the library’s website. The library provides regular updates to the community through its Bookplate mailing. A more recent method of engagement involves the River Forest Public Library Foundation, which has started to increase its outreach through emails and mailings. Once the current health crisis is over, the Board should consider continuing to allow public attendance at its meetings via Zoom. All of these methods are effective tools to engage the community and are ones that I would support as a Library Trustee.

3. Give an example of a time when you worked to understand a situation or view different from your own. What helped you to move through that process? What hindered you as you moved through the process?

I served as chair of a committee that was considering changing the funding method for the school that was associated with my church. The school’s funding method was becoming less and less sustainable. I supported moving to a different model, but some members of the committee and some parents did not want to make the change. I reached out to committee members to discuss their concerns and also held sessions with parents to hear their points of view. Economically, the school needed to change its funding model, but it also needed to allay the concerns of some parents that they would not be able to afford to send their children to the school under the new model. Our messaging to the parents was that while the school needed the new funding model, we wanted them to stay, and we would work with them to ensure that that could happen. When we finally adopted the new model, we made adjustments to it in response to the concerns we heard. Respectful communication was key for all interested constituents to understand one another and to reach an acceptable outcome.

4. Who or what is your role model for your approach to governing?

I believe in a collaborative model for governing. An effective Library Trustee must work respectfully with the other members of the Board and with the Director. At the February meeting of the Library Board, one of the Trustees imparted some sound advice: there should be no surprises. The best policies are those developed with input from other members of the Board, the library staff, and the members of the community. Absent such input, new policies may not be accepted and may have unintended and unfortunate consequences. When I have served on boards in the past, either as a member or as chair, if a particularly contentious issue was going to be up for discussion, I made a point of contacting the other board members between meetings to get their thoughts about the issue. Our meetings were more productive, and the other members knew that their opinions were being heard.

5. What do you feel are the three biggest issues facing the Library, and how do you intend to address them? How will you prioritize among competing priorities? 

In response to the pandemic, the staff developed protocols to maximize access to the library while ensuring the safety of staff and patrons. Post-pandemic, the library will need to determine which of its protocols should be retained, relying on guidance from the CDC, state health officials, other libraries, and professional organizations. The Director has pointed out that the pandemic also created the opportunity for some positive changes in library services, including an expansion of online offerings, that the library hopes to continue and build on. The air handler for the library, which takes up an entire room in the building, needs to be replaced. The Board would like to place the new air handler outside the building to recapture precious indoor space. Since the Park District owns the land under and adjacent to the library, the Board must get its approval to move the air handler outside. I favor this change as it would create a rare opportunity for the library to increase its useable space without a costly addition. The Library Foundation has been increasing its visibility, donor base, and contributions. The Foundation is a wonderful non-tax resource that can increase financial and public support for the library. My experience in fundraising for several non-profit organizations would be useful in supporting the Foundation.

6. What do you believe has been the most significant action taken by the Library in recent years, and why? Do you believe the Board acted appropriately?

One of the library’s most significant actions in the past few years is its Fine Free initiative which it implemented in 2019. The library forgave outstanding fines for the late return of materials and did away with such fines in the future. I think this was an appropriate and fair action for the library to take and reflected a larger trend in public libraries to do away with late fees. Studies showed that the inability to pay late fees, even small ones, kept patrons away from libraries and, in particular, kept away the people who most needed the services of the library, members of lower income communities. Libraries also were spending more money chasing fees than they were collecting. By waiving these fees, the library got people back in the door and benefiting from its resources. While access to the library still can be denied if a book is not returned, returning a book, unlike paying a fine, does not depend on a person’s ability to pay. The library struck the right balance.

7. How do you define racial equity? Have recent events and discussions in the larger community informed or changed your thinking?

I agree with the definition of “racial equity” used by the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (“GARE”), which has done presentations in conjunction with the American Library Association: racial equity means “closing the gaps so that race does not predict one’s success”. To close these gaps, we must get rid of unconscious bias as well as governmental policies which, while neutral on their face, have a disparate impact. News organizations have been reporting on instances of unconscious bias, including recent stories detailing how the medical symptoms of people of color are not being taken as seriously as they should be during the pandemic. In the context of unconscious bias in the library setting, GARE mentions that such bias may be exhibited in the discretion staff members have in enforcing policies. That organization recommends training staff to become aware of latent biases. With respect to seemingly neutral policies that have a disparate effect, as I discussed above, late fines are a governmental policy in the library context that disproportionately affects the access of lower income communities to a public resource. The River Forest Library removed this financial barrier to access by eliminating late fees.

8. How do you plan to solicit feedback from people who may be experiencing the community in a different way than you? What barriers do you believe may exist in this process?

I will be open to feedback from residents at Board meetings, in more informal settings, and via email. The Director also brings patron suggestions to the attention of the Board. To reach populations that might not otherwise use the services the library offers, the library has formed partnerships with other community organizations, such as the River Forest Township. The library staff’s interactions with these populations through these partnerships can lead to a better understanding of how best to serve different groups within the village.

9. River Forest lacks a true community hub. Do you see this as a role that could be filled by the River Forest Library? Why or why not?  

The library does serve as a community hub for a number of villagers. It offers hundreds of programs a year that bring individuals and families together to learn, create, or be entertained. In addition to those programs, the library provides space for other groups to pursue their own activities. Even while engaging in more solitary activities such as using a computer terminal or browsing the stacks, the library’s open spaces provide the opportunity for serendipitous encounters with other members of the village. In nicer weather, the front garden provides a space for people to gather, either for a formal library program or on their own.

10. How should the Library balance the needs of the various groups that rely on its programs, services, and facilities?

The library’s resources, of course, are limited, and it must make choices in the programs it presents and hosts. For example, the library has many more requests for the use of its meeting facilities than it can accommodate. In allocating that resource, the library should give priority to residents and to groups that have no alternative space to use, and to consider the number of people benefitting from the use of the space. Also, while the library has been increasing its online offerings and decreasing its purchases of hard copies of DVD’s, it has realized that not all of its patrons have the resources to invest in the technology needed to access online books and movies. Consequently, it has devoted resources to funding portable technology that residents can check out. The library also recently began offering a streaming service, Kanopy, through which patrons can watch movies for free. Kanopy is a terrific use of the library’s resources; patrons who may not be able to afford a streaming service on their own now have access to a variety of movies they can watch in their homes during the pandemic.

11. How do you keep abreast of changes in library trends?

Publications and webinars offered by professional organizations, such as the American Library Association, are a source of information about changes in library trends. The ALA offers programs specifically for library trustees to keep them up to date on current issues facing libraries and the changing nature of libraries. The Chicago area also has a wealth of public and university libraries. Members of the library staff currently network with librarians from other institutions with whom they share ideas. Members of the Library Board also can visit these other facilities to get fresh perspectives on library services. When I served on school and church committees, as part of our decision making process, the committees would reach out to other institutions to see how they dealt with a change in policy or improvement to their facilities. I found that other leaders were open to sharing their experiences which helped the institutions I was representing make more informed decisions.

12. With libraries adapting to the changing needs of their communities, what will you do to ensure that the River Forest library is providing value to the River Forest community?

A well-run library, like ours, recognizes that libraries are the repositories of knowledge and information needed by its residents. Libraries must keep up with current events and changes in technology, including how residents consume information. The River Forest Library has responded to these changes by offering more online resources and the tech hardware to enjoy them, by updating its children’s programs to offer various STEM challenges, and by partnering with other local organizations to extend its reach into the community. I am confident that the River Forest Library will continue to evolve to meet the changing needs of the community it serves. As I discussed earlier, one important change the library can make is to increase its meeting and program space by moving some of its mechanicals outside. Such a move would provide a rare opportunity for the library to increase its useable footprint and expand its space for programs without the expense of an addition. The demand for additional meeting and program space is there, and repurposing the existing room is a cost effective way to meet it.

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[The above answers were supplied on 2/25/21.]