By Bob Seidenberg
Yolande Wilburn, the Evanston Public Library’s new executive director, told library trustees that one question came up repeatedly in conversations with patrons and in surveys. Members of the Library’s Racial Equity Task Force, in a lot of their brainstorming, grappled with the issue too, she said.
“People kept saying, ‘What our are values?’” she said.
“And they [those same people] actually told us what our values were,” she quickly added, “and they were right: inclusivity and belonging.
“And that was a word – ‘belonging’ – that kept coming up over and over again.”
The term emerged as one of the key values in the 2024-26 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Plan that Wilburn presented to the Library Board on Wednesday.
One of the plan’s top goals is creating an environment where all residents feel represented and welcome within the library’s space.
2018 report a ‘foundation’ document
Library officials began moving in that direction in 2018, contracting with DeEtta Jones & Associates to conduct an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Needs Assessment.
The library’s Racial Equity Task Force was created the same year and comprises library staff and community members.
As a result of the DeEtta Jones findings, the library issued a statement in 2020 recognizing historic racism in Evanston and committing the library to social justice, one of the earliest if not the earliest of Evanston government bodies to do so.
Staff EDI training, meanwhile, began in 2019 and continues annually on an ongoing basis, Wilburn noted in her presentation.
There have been some painful decisions too. In 2020, Evanston Public Library trustees voted to close two of its branches, the Chicago Avenue/Main Street location and the North Branch at 2026 Central St., declaring that future branch locations would be based on need and equity.
Guiding values
Besides inclusivity and belonging, lifelong exploration, equitable access, community wellbeing and sustainability are other components of the new plan, said Wilburn, who started in the executive director’s job in November 2023 after a nationwide search by the board.
“Lifelong exploration is learning, right, as I always want to know more and I’m never too old to learn; there’s always something more that I can do and explore,” she explained.
