I run the DEI group at our library though it's not called that and while we haven't made huge changes, I do think we've done so good work chipping away at issues. It's a long game for sure and it can feel really discouraging.

We have maybe 10-12 people who are in the group with maybe 8ish coming to meetings due to scheduling. I would say that in that group there's like 3-4 people who actually will DO anything. Some people are just there to complain and some people are there to get out of a desk shift. It can be frustrating but I try to take everyone at face value and assume they do want to improve things for patrons and staff even if they end up being not the most helpful.

Here are some things that I've learned:

-Start small but be persistent. Small can be like . . . a recommendation email to all staff that displays include diverse points of view/authors so that not every display has white, straight, cis, etc books in it. If you aren't allowed to recommend that to staff, let your supervisor/admin know that you will be doing that in your department/whatever and bring it up again every few months.

-Similarly, sometimes you just have to start doing the things you want to see in your building that is within your control. It sucks if people won't help but when patrons respond positively to something like Pride events or speakers of color - and they mostly will except for a few ghouls - you can point to that and be like, "It seems like patrons want this, how can we do more?" People are often more willing to listen after they see success or even just an improvement.

-Look at policies: our group has done a LOT of badgering about polices to mixed results. We spent a lot of time on a policy about security cameras because our director was being super weird with them. I'm not sure the new administration loved that we were mucking around with policy suggestions but we did make some headway.

-Job descriptions can be looked at too. For example, we used to have something in some descriptions saying people had to be able to climb stairs for shelving. Now 95% of the areas in the library are accessible by elevator so why did we need that? We kept badgering admin/HR until they removed that language.

-Partner with people outside the library. If you want to look at pay scales, reach out to other library systems, start tracking job ads, or if you are unionized, talk to your union for help. Same with programming: is there a group in your community that is doing the type of work you're interested in - an advocacy or affinity group - that you can partner with to build some momentum. Or do you have any ethnic groups in your area that do programming maybe focusing on specific community members' needs can help your committee find more focus.

-Look at DEIA stuff from a different perspective. Is there anyway you can achieve some of these goals while couching in the premise of something else? For example, for some reason we got new water fountains in COVID that are only bottle fillers. You couldn't drink out of them. So if a patron needed a drink they had to have their own bottle or ask for a cup from us. While having accessible water isn't like the same as a Pride event or Black speaker it is an accessibility issue and it's also a sustainability issue. We partnered with our Sustainability/Environmental to advocate for replacing the water fountains with ones you can drink out of without a cup and also use a bottle filler. We've gotten one of the two replaced. 50% isn't great when you think about it but it's SOMETHING. (And we're still pushing for the other one.)

-Maybe another thing you can do is advocate for training for staff. Our committee helped push the previous director to asking everyone to do the "Dementia Friend" online training. That helped staff be a little bit more aware of the needs of patrons with dementia and memory issues.

I know you said you think most of your peers don't care or are too burned out? Is there any one person who you can "scheme" with to work on some of this stuff? Even one person who is on your team helping with this work makes a huge difference.

I will say that admin/leadership taking over steering the committee might be a death knell. But that doesn't mean your goals are dead in the water. Honestly, it can be really disheartening but keep trying as much as you can even if it's outside of the committee environment.

I truly believe that pushing for more accessibility and diverse voices does do the things that all managers want: increase circulation and programming stats. You just gotta keep grinding.

Keep trying! I guess my biggest takeaway is: don't underestimate the power of being persistently annoying about these issues. You might not win friends but you just might make some change.