Activist Toolkit

1. What motivates you to seek this office? What skills, experiences, and perspectives would you bring to the Village, and why would those contributions be valuable in the role of Library Board Trustee?

I am motivated by my belief that public libraries play a vital role in our communities. I am proud of the work the library staff has done to provide services to our community and how it has been a leader among other public libraries in both policy and service. I bring years of experience of already being on the board that carries a depth of knowledge of our advancements as well as attempts that came up short. 

2. What are the three biggest challenges or opportunities you expect the Library to face in the coming years, and how would you work with your colleagues to address these challenges or realize these opportunities?

Perhaps the largest opportunity for public libraries at this time is the freedom to demonstrably redefine their role in society. Even more so than the invention of the e-book or the 2008 financial crisis, we are at a time when public libraries can connect with people and provide an enrichment that is harder to attain elsewhere in the way we are currently interacting socially. A perpetual challenge for public libraries is determining why the people who do not interact with the public library do not do so and how to connect with them. Is it that they are aware of what we offer but are uninterested or are they unaware? Each of those requires a different approach to assessment and response. In the current climate of skepticism of various news media public libraries have an opportunity to help people refresh their critical and nuanced thinking. Library staff can help us accept that we need to be uncomfortable at times for us to learn and grow.

3. How will you balance competing interests, such as your own deeply-held values and opinions, input from Library staff and fellow board members, and diverse views from the community? How would you describe your leadership style and your decision-making process generally?

Every issue that comes before the board requires a different calculus to examine those interests. As a lifelong resident of Oak Park, I believe I have developed a diverse network of friends and acquaintances that allow me to draw in perspectives that don’t always align with my own. As board members, we should have a high level of trust for the information and opinion provided by the professional staff. I endeavor to approach each decision from a perspective of how we can best fulfill our mission and vision to empower the community. When I work on a larger issue I come to my own initial decision and then I will reach out to neighbors or board members to get their input. Sometimes that will change my thinking and on other occasions, it will reinforce it. 

4. What values would you bring to the budgeting process? What changes do you favor in the process by which the Library conducts its budgeting and fiscal planning?

The two most important parts of our budget are our staff and our materials. We must spend the money we levy wisely but we need to make sure we remember that our vision to empower extends to our staff and we need to compensate them equitably. The way we spend our materials budget has adapted over the years to reflect both the available technology and the needs of our community.

We must also keep on top of the needs of our physical facilities as our main branch is approaching twenty years of use; some of the systems have begun reaching their end of useful life and we will need to plan accordingly for their eventual replacement. At this time I do not see any need for changes to the budget development process for the library board.

5. How will you balance the community's desire to decrease the property tax burden with the Library’s mission of sharing information, services, and opportunities, and the need to maintain facilities?

As a service-providing organization, we must constantly be examining our deliverables to the community. Often when there have been economic pressures on the community there has been a corresponding increase in demand for services at public libraries. People view us as a resource to help lift them out of the unexpectedly stressed position in which they find themselves. While people will look to us to provide them assistance we must also be mindful of how our spending can add additional stresses. While our budget is significantly smaller than some of the other government bodies we cannot view that as an excuse to not be responsible with our spending. 

6. How do you define equity? Have recent discussions in the larger community informed or changed your thinking?

I see our efforts towards equity as removing as many barriers for community members so they can have the access to resources to fuel their success. This work takes many shapes in both our policies and practices as well as in the work we do in partnership across Oak Park.

Yes, my thinking has been influenced by these discussions. I used to think that as long as our policies were plain and didn’t create different tiers of users that we were treating everyone equitably. I have since realized that not taking into account the perspective of users of different backgrounds than my own had created blind spots in how our decisions impact those who come through our doors. Our work towards equity will likely lead to uncomfortable conversations, including those of our failings, but for our community to move forward from conversations to actions, we must be willing to take chances and uproot old ways of thinking.

7. How do you plan to solicit feedback from people who may be experiencing Oak Park’s libraries in a different way than you? What barriers do you believe may exist in this process?

I plan to continue to engage on social media through the various community groups in the hopes to reach those in Oak Park with whom I would not normally cross paths. Depending on the state of public activities come spring I will participate in as many events where the library has a presence as I am able. I hope that we would be able to secure a station at the Farmer’s Market this summer. We recently commissioned a community survey and I hope that we will engage in smaller follow-up surveys so that we can collect feedback from a representative sample of the community.

A consistent challenge in this process is collecting feedback from those who are not already users of the library, as we have means of contacting our current users. Perhaps one of the barriers in collecting feedback is that people are not sure how the information provided will be used. Sharing with the public how the feedback is being considered in decision-making could help encourage more people to offer up their constructive feedback.

8. How will you collaborate with neighboring communities? Discuss a specific initiative you would wish to undertake. What benefits and challenges would you anticipate?

Over the years the Oak Park Library has collaborated with neighboring libraries and other organizations on programs and grants. We can and will continue to do so. Our continued participation in SWAN is a key way that we collaborate across the Chicagoland region. As our staff is in regular contact with their peers in other libraries they are the best source for collaboration ideas and I trust that they will, as they have in the past, bring these ideas before the board to gauge our support. 

9. In recent years, the Library has replaced security guards with social workers, increased salaries for its lower waged workers, and eliminated late fees for borrowers. Do you believe these initiatives have been successful? Why or why not? Are there ways in which you would anticipate expanding or rolling back this work?

The change of our security from a contracted service to library personnel has provided the benefit of greater accountability. We no longer have people with police-like uniforms creating a hostile environment for our users before they even interact with someone in the building. This allows for more consistent training and communication across our staff. The hiring of a social worker has benefited our staff and our users. They have been able to bring great training and experience to our staff. It allows us to engage people and provide them resources where they are, already in our building. The elimination of late fees has been a key elimination of a barrier to service. Both the hiring of a social worker and eliminating late fees are ideas that have seen increasing adoption by public libraries across the country. The salary adjustments over the last several years were efforts to address pay inequities between our staff and the market rates in the region for their positions. This investment in staff not only acknowledges our need to have equity internally but it helps up retain staff when training new staff ties up resources that could be better focused on delivering services to the community.

10. What lessons learned from the services provided or not provided during the pandemic do you believe will be applicable going forward, even after the pandemic abates?

Our increased digital presence, both in collections and as an avenue for engagement, is something I hope that we continue to utilize as we move forward. With the installation of digital lockers, we will be able to make physical materials available 24 hours a day. As we progress through and out of this pandemic I hope that we can continue to refine our operations to utilize best practices from other libraries across the country. We must always be looking for new ideas and information, but in the end, we should act in what is in the best interest of our community and staff.

11. In an era of radical changes to how people find and consume information, what should and shouldn’t change about the services provided by the Library?

Public libraries have been evolving to meet how people learn and create for generations. I have every bit of faith that the Oak Park Public Library will continue to do just that. The staff currently works with teachers at both local school districts to help them find the best tools and methods for students. We have moved past the notion that libraries are just buildings full of books with staff waiting for someone to walk in the door, we are out engaging the communities where the people are and we cannot afford to go back to that old thinking.

12. How do you feel services and supports for homeless patrons fit within the mission of the Library?

I feel that public libraries have an obligation to provide service to all those that come in our doors. For some that service is a book to check out, others it is an online genealogy research access, and for those experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity, it could be connecting them with government or nonprofit contact information. Public libraries are places where one can go to seek respite from the world, whether in a book, a movie, or just a chair. We should continue to be that place and be ready to provide assistance in other ways should it be asked of us.

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[The above answers were supplied on 2/22/21.]