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September 2023 | Volume XLI, Issue 3 »

RAILS EDI Learning Cohort

September 1, 2023
Diana Rusch, Reaching Across Illinois Library System & Katie Clausen, Gail Borden Public Library

Last October, RAILS provided a special opportunity through its EDI Learning Cohort. The Cohort was promoted primarily through RAILS E-News. Library staff members in a management, professional, or paraprofessional role were invited to apply via an online application. All applicants were accepted into the cohort. Composed of nearly 40 library staff members in a wide spectrum of job positions from all library types, this program engaged participants in a collective discourse on critical EDI issues.

Led by EDI trainer and consultant Elisabeth “Biz” Lindsay-Ryan, the cohort met monthly from October 2022 through May 2023. Each session focused on a different topic and participants had access to monthly readings, podcast episodes, and videos through Moodle, an open-source learning platform. 

Sessions took place via Zoom, where participants learned EDI concepts synchronously via live lectures and group discussions. Small group discussions rounded out each month’s active learning experience. 

As part of RAILS’ Consulting and Continuing Education (CCE) team, I assisted with implementing this program along with then-Director of Consulting and Continuing Education-now RAILS Associate Executive Director-Joe Filapek. One of the program’s participants, Katie Clausen, spoke about her experience via email. My questions and her responses follow.

Diana Rusch: Introduce yourself and share why you applied to the RAILS EDI Cohort. 

Katie Clausen: I’m Katie Clausen, and I’m the Early Literacy Services Manager at Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin, IL. I applied to the RAILS EDI Cohort because libraries and librarians have a deep impact on children’s lives. Each library visit is a formative experience in which children learn about the library, their community, and the world. My words, actions, and behaviors (or the absence of them) matter to the kids who attend my storytimes. I wanted to take responsibility for my own learning about EDI and find actionable ways to speak up but not speak for historically marginalized communities. I believe one of the biggest issues of racism is silence; another is the belief that it is in history. Or that racism no longer exists. This cohort helped me understand that racism and discrimination are perfect shapeshifters. They are highly adaptive, constantly morphing and figuring out how to survive and emerge in a new way. Racism is a format, not a single event. As a White person, I wanted to be a part of dismantling the system that hurts everyone—White people and people of color, alike. This cohort offered many ways to show up and actively challenge our system.

DR: Briefly describe your overall experience with the cohort.

KC: The cohort was incredibly impactful. Biz provided a safe space (which doesn’t always mean comfortable space because growth can be uncomfortable) to be brave in our learning community. Here are some takeaways that I hope others may find useful:

• No one can be the spokesperson of an entire community. During one session, Biz asked the White women in the cohort, “What do White women think of Donald Trump?” We were a Zoom room of blank stares. Because of course, White women are part of a group of individuals, and individuals feel differently from one another. Yet, we often ask Black people, Indigenous people, other people of color, as well as those in the LGBTQIA+ community, disability community, and other diverse communities–to do just that, speak for a whole group of people, and that is unfair and exhausting.
• Anti-racist isn’t a fixed identity. It’s not a tattoo you get or a name tag stating, “No longer racist.” I know I can still cause racial impact and harm because everyone has that capacity. I live in the system. But I will never give up learning and growing. Prejudice starts with a lack of interest, in the same way that violence starts with segregation. I am committed to asking myself over and over, “Who am I seeing in my community? Who am I not seeing?”
• Talking about White privilege (and owning your own if you are White) does not mean you’ve never suffered. Suffering crosses all possible boundaries. No matter what group you’re in, you’ve been touched by trauma. But your identity, the color of your skin, your group are not the cause of the harm. And that is one thing we will never understand as White people, and trying to compare our own suffering is detrimental.
• When you are used to having privilege, equity can feel like oppression.
• When having conversations with others you disagree with, it can feel so challenging and can end up in debate that inhibits progress. Instead, maybe the goal could be to create doubt. To plant a seed for the next conversation, and the next, and the next. You don’t need to facilitate the growth or entire socialization of a human being. But maybe you can get someone thinking that maybe they don’t have the whole thing figured out! Maybe your own viewpoint will be challenged, too.
• Accept the fact that impact counts more than intention. It doesn’t matter if I didn’t mean to hurt someone, I still need to apologize when they are hurt.
• Commit to not deciding what or who someone is by one factor. Assumptions like, “Oh they have a phone; they must have access to food,” only perpetuate stereotypes.
• Not all diversity is visible. Neurodivergences, learning differences, debilitating pain, PTSD, and other disabilities are not always obvious to the onlooker, but can really impact how someone shows up in the world. Be compassionate to all.

DR: Tell us about a cohort highlight that positively impacted you.

KC: There are too many to name! One particular conversation does stand out to me, however. We were discussing the layers and nuances of racism and discrimination. Biz, our leader, said to pay attention to surprise. All of us have biases and make assumptions about what and who we interact with every day. We are all filling in a narrative about each other all the time. When we do this, we stop wondering about others, and instead put them in a box of “This is all I need to know about that person.” Instead, how can we create a space for people to be all the dimensions that they are? So when someone shares something with you and you are surprised, that means you were biased. Confronting that bias head on–getting into the messy muck of our bias instead of pretending that it doesn’t exist–is the first step of extinguishing it.

DR: What have you brought from what you learned in the cohort back to your library?

KC: One action item I’ve brought to our library is a DEI in Storytime group, which began about halfway through the RAILS Cohort. This group is composed of library staff district-wide who present storytimes in the community (Children’s department, but also staff from our branch locations, bookmobile, and school outreach, for example). We meet every other month with the common goal of modeling diverse representation by the books and materials we choose in programming. We discuss the importance of uplifting voices that have historically been marginalized, we share books that feature everyday diversity, and are collaborating to create an Early Literacy Philosophy for our storytime planning and presentation. Inclusivity is the bedrock of librarianship, and storytimes need to feature stories that are “mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors” (quote from Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop). Children need to see themselves, but also each other, in stories. They need books that reflect their unique identity, but also books that illustrate the lived experience of their peers, and the larger world they are a part of.

DR: Given your experience with this cohort, what is your hope for the future of EDI training in the Illinois Library Community?

KC: I hope that it doesn’t stop. EDI education isn’t a box to check off, or the end of a board game where you’ve suddenly completed the journey. Continuous critical thinking about language, messaging, behavior, policies, practices, and power structures is essential. Inclusive terminology and practices evolve, and we are responsible for navigating that evolution and changing our practices. Because inclusivity matters. I wish everyone in  llinois could have been a part of this training, and I hope RAILS offers it again. We all need opportunities to grow as library workers, but also as human beings. Like Jason Reynolds said once in an interview, “Let’s sprint towards compassion, and crawl towards judgment.” We owe it to each other to recognize our beautiful differences and also know that we all want the same thing: to belong.

The Cohort was just one opportunity for RAILS members to increase their awareness and knowledge of EDI and consider how this work impacts individuals, libraries, and communities.

Hear more about the EDI Cohort and other RAILS Libraries and their EDI initiatives in the upcoming ILA Annual Conference session Cultivate Belonging: How We Moved EDI Initiatives from Training to Action. Moderated by Becky Spratford, La Grange Public Library Trustee and RA Specialist. This panel discussion is scheduled from 3-4 p.m. on Thursday, October 26. This year’s ILA conference is October 24-26 at the BOS Center in Springfield. For more information and to register visit ila.org/events/annual-conference.