MIKA SELENA YAMAMOTO

candidate for 2025 OAK PARK LIBRARY board

1. What motivates you to seek this office? What skills do you bring to the office? What sets you apart from other candidates? What does success look like for you after four years in the position?

In 2016, I wrote an article for a single mother’s website about libraries that were offering free online high school diplomas. These libraries saw the need in the community and figured out a way to meet it. Since then, I’ve been fascinated by how libraries act as community caretakers. I was motivated at this specific moment in time to run for the library board because I saw the national political landscape becoming ever more hostile towards libraries. I saw too that some libraries in the suburbs of Chicago were being undone by their own malicious board—cue Elmwood Park Public Library and Niles Public Library. I knew that complacency was dangerous and if I didn’t want that to happen in Oak Park, I had to step up and run for the library board. I think what makes me uniquely qualified to be on the library board at this particular time is my experience of being fired as a teacher and having to sue the school for Civil Right and First Amendment Right violation. I can’t get into it here because there’s a word count limit (one day you can read the book), but what I learned from that experience is that fighting for justice comes with a cost but not fighting comes at a greater cost.

2. What do you see as the three biggest challenges or opportunities facing the Library  and what role do you see the Board playing to address them over the next four years?

I see one great challenge: the national political landscape. For years, I have watched libraries being attacked. Now, with Project 2025 going so far as to explicitly name schools and libraries as purveyors of pornography, libraries will be at an unprecedented risk. Yet, the community’s need for libraries will only increase. As school curriculum comes under greater scrutiny and marginalized people are increasingly villainized, the library will be the last place where knowledge is free to all. Oak Park Public Library will face great challenges to stay true to its vision of being a library for everyone when the national administration is mandating the dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion. More than ever, our library leadership must be courageous.

3. What is your decision making process? What are steps the Board can take to ensure transparency, clear communication, and community engagement to ensure the Board is hearing from the full range of the Library’s constituents?.

My partner and I have a simple method for making decisions. We ask: What is the problem? Who is an expert at solving this problem? Who do I know that is an expert at solving  this problem? Who do I know that might know an expert at solving this problem? We continue like this until we  find the expert(s). Then we trust them and  listen to their advice until they give us a reason not to. There is seldom a perfect decision, but a decision that’s grounded in knowledge has a chance of being a good decision. Knowing how you made a decision makes it easy to be transparent about it to others. As for decisions about community engagement, as with all other decisions the Library makes, it should be grounded in principles of equity.

4. Please share your thoughts about the Library’s current financial picture.What’s your understanding of the Board role in the budgeting process and the allocation of resources? Do you have organizational finance experience?

On February 3rd, library board trustee candidates for the 2025 election were invited to a Library Leadership meeting by the interim executive director, Suzy Wulf. At the meeting, Billy Treese, the Director of Finance, explained the library’s budget to us. We currently have a balanced budget for the first time in years. The role of the library board in the budgetary process is to review, approve, and advocate for a budget to the community. The board ensures the budget aligns with the library’s vision and acts as the final decision-maker.

5. What would you say to voters who are worried about Oak Park’s overall tax burden?

We don’t want property taxes that make Oak Park too expensive to sustain an economically diverse community. However, the library accounts for only 4.5% of the total property tax paid in Oak Park. On average, that’s $4/week per person in Oak Park. Personally, I think that’s a great deal.

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

In the context of the library, the definition of equity is simple: any patron should have equal access to the resources and services of a library. If there are barriers that make it more difficult for someone to gain access, then those barriers must be removed. Discussions at the national level may be distracting. They may also force us to have very difficult conversations. However, nothing will be unsurmountable if we stay clear-eyed about our vision to be “a library for everyone.”

7. What do you see as the role of the Library in responding to the ever-changing ways in which people find and consume information? 

Patrons who come to the Library today do not just passively consume information; they can be creators and co-creators of content too. For example, we have used the library resources in many ways to produce information for our library board campaigns. We rented out the lobby space to hold a button making party; we used our printing privileges to print out our button patterns; we used the printer again to print out campaign flyers. Next week, we might use the audio station to record a podcast about book banning. All of this for free! This is an example of how the Library can help to eliminate some of the economic barriers that might prevent people from running for public office; this directly strengthens democracy.

8. 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. Please share your thoughts about these initiatives. Are there ways in which you would anticipate expanding or rolling back this work?  

I love all of this! What’s not to love? Yes to social workers instead of security guards because we want people to come to the library and get help. Yes to lower-waged workers getting paid more because the library IS the people (about three quarters of the budget goes to payroll). Yes to no late fees so people don’t stop coming to the library because they can’t afford it (and also, if I’m honest, because my own library hygiene is not fantastic. I have an overdue book right now, in fact).

9. What approach should the Library take towards intergovernmental cooperation initiatives such as the Collaboration for Early Childhood? Are there other specific initiatives that you would like to implement or expand upon? 

I work at Oak Park River Forest High School, so I see an opportunity for collaboration between the schools and the Library that does not currently exist. For example, at the end of January, ASPIRA—a student club focused on promoting empowerment of Latinx leadership—hosted a “Know Your Rights” workshop in partnership with the Library. The students of the club saw a community need to be educated about how to respond to ICE and saw that this need was not being addressed by the school or any other institutions. They decided to do something about it themselves. It was an extremely successful event that had a real impact on our community members. It is important to note, though, that this event was a partnership only between a student club and the Library. The school itself was not involved. What would happen if the schools and the Library actively collaborated to create space for students to do important community work? I’d like to see that happen—that’s exciting to think about.

10. What approach should the Library take towards intermunicipal cooperation with neighboring communities? Are there specific initiatives that you would like to implement or expand upon?

The Library should take a very proactive approach towards intermunicipal cooperation. According to the Illinois State Library Heritage Project, the importance of interlibrary cooperation has been recognized since at least 1971. There are many reasons why intermunicipal cooperation is beneficial, but in this political climate, it is imperative that we not work in isolation, especially as we fend off hostile forces that aim to dismantle libraries: more than ever, we need to be working in collaboration. Sharing our experiences with each other allows us to: grow our knowledge-base, develop effective tools, and support each other.

11. How do you see services and supports for homeless patrons fitting within the mission of the Library?

I am a teacher, so I think first about the children and young people who do not have stable living situations. Not having a home has the effect of making it hard for a child to feel safe in most other spaces too, including (sadly) school. Yet, the library can be different. For these children, feeling connected to the library can make all the difference in the world. In the safety of a library, they can imagine a life different than the one they are living. They can imagine a life where they are safe. These children might be prone to assume exclusion, so we need to ensure all barriers are removed and they feel genuinely invited. The American Library Association’s stance is that patron’s without secure housing “provide libraries with an important opportunity to change lives.” I strongly agree with this.

12. How should the Library handle the question around the removal of books, subscriptions, and materials from the shelves if community members deem the content to be inappropriate, too controversial or objectionable? 

The Library must stand strong against any attempt of censorship from community members. The American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom states, “Librarians and governing bodies should maintain that parents—and only parents—have the right and the responsibility to restrict the access of their children—and only their children—to library resources.” Period.

13. Knowing that the Board cannot share certain information related to employment matters, what measures do you believe are needed to restore confidence in the Board and the executive level management in the wake of the controversy around the executive director last year? 

The first step to repair is truth-telling. Regarding “the controversy”, there is plenty of information that is public that would help the community understand what happened. For example, information shared at a library board meetings, library board statements, and any information that can be accessed by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is not confidential. The barrier is not confidentiality but drudgery. Who has time to listen to hours-long meetings or constantly FOIA the board?  The board can help by taking the time to offer a clear narrative.

14. The Library Board’s primary responsibility is oversight of the Executive Director. What criteria do you believe the Board should use to evaluate the performance of the Executive Director?

Koya Partners has been retained to help the library hire the new Executive Director and help with the transition. My hope is that Koya Partners will also give the board guidance on the evaluation process so that it is equitable and fair.

15. Last November, Oak Park voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative that proposed that voters be able to approve ordinances and policies through a direct vote. At this point, the vote on the ballot initiative was advisory or non-binding. The next step is for the Village or any other taxing body in Oak Park (as reported by the Wednesday Journal November 7, 2024) to decide whether or not to place the issue on the ballot as a binding referendum. Please share your views on this initiative. 

Ballot initiatives undermine the structure of a representative republic. The United States was designed as a republic, not a direct democracy because good governance is hard. It requires expertise, deliberation, and accountability. What regular person can demonstrate all that and govern consistently, without pay or credit—in addition to going to work, picking up the kids, picking up the dry cleaning, picking up the dinner, and picking up the dog poop? Especially about complex policy matters that we can only pretend to understand after A.I. explains it (maybe incorrectly) to us? Instead, voters elect representatives who have the time, resources, and responsibility to make informed decisions. Direct ballot measures only promote simplistic and emotional decision-making.

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