2 New Course Offerings for Pride Month!

Thanks so much for sharing these out, Candace! I think this is a great opportunity for staff to broaden their understanding of why Pride Month is something we recognize as an organization and how it impacts our diverse communities.

I have brought this to the fore in a few conversations but we should be embracing EDI and Respect as core values in our culture. This will take much more than book displays, staff training, and workgroup discussions. In order to demonstrate our true care for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, I think we need to take steps to live out these values in our everyday work.

Several weeks ago, DOES championed the effort for staff to voluntarily acquire and wear pronoun pins at work. This is a step in the right direction for us to practice what we preach, so to speak, when it comes to inclusion. It is my understanding from this week's Engagement Cabinet meeting that the effort has stalled out due to concerns from our administration, and that the project has been back-burnered indefinitely.

I do hope that our leaders communicate with all staff their concerns about this effort. It's such a small thing we can do to make our customers and staff feel safer in our libraries. The effort has proposed has been well thought out and approached with professionalism. Can we say yes to this effort to truly live out the core values of EDI & Respect?

For more information about the value of sharing pronouns and how sharing them can help build positive, core-value-oriented culture, there are some FAQs available at https://www.glsen.org/activity/pronouns-guide-glsen.

I was heartbroken to hear that this project was stalled out. I would love to hear from our administration about why this project was put on pause and how this impacts our approach to core values as a system.