A Return to the Library

Coworker: Matt! It’s so good to see you! How have you been?

Me: Oh, you know. Just like everyone else, haha: Rage. Constant, existential dread. Just normal pandemic feelings. haha

Coworker: 😲

Coworker: 😐

Coworker: 😕

Coworker: 😔

But like, picture all those emojis with masks on or whatever

Yes! I’m back at the library. And it’s fucking WEIRD. I’ve been back for… 3 weeks? A month? What even is time anymore?

For anyone not in the loop, the culture at the Free Library has been… tumultuous, to say the least. A group of workers known as the “Concerned Black Workers of the Free Library of Philadelphia” wrote an open letter to library director Siobhan Reardon about how Black workers were more likely to die or suffer worse from COVID and how the safety plan was nowhere near enough. In response, Siobhan did… pretty much nothing. After weeks of turmoil and back-and-forth, accomplishing nothing…

Jesus. I’m honestly embarrassed to be telling this story.

In response to Siobhan’s unwillingness to cooperate with the bare minimum of providing SOME level of equity to her Black staff, a whole bunch of non-Black staff- something close to 200 of us- signed an open letter condemning her.

And that letter caught her eye, prompting even more rage and existential dread. Why would she respond to the concerns of non-Black workers before Black workers, I wonder?

My favorite part of this whole thing, and I haven’t seen this in any of the publications, is that when Siobhan and the board hired this company, DiverseForce, which made us all collectively groan. Like, what the fuck, man. You’re gonna spend thousands of dollars* hiring a firm to tell you what you already know, and then not listen to them? Well that’s exactly what happened, but there was a twist we- or at least I- didn’t expect.

DiverseForce emailed library staff right towards the end of this, and these brazen people openly said that they gave Siobhan and the board a whole bunch of recommendations that went completely ignored.

I don’t know how well I’m conveying this, so I’ll rephrase it:

• They hired a consulting firm to be like “hey stop being racist”
• They did not listen to this consulting firm
• The consulting firm then, in turn, emailed the staff and said “y’all’s boss isn’t listening”

And it was beautiful. I feel like I’m not supposed to like businesses like DiverseForce, but they were so clear and honest that I gotta say, they earned some brownie points with me. Whether or not they sent that email with the consent of the Board, I don’t know. But I was just… ahh, so tickled to see that they told the Board not to voice their support for Siobhan, and then, when they did, say to us “Hey, don’t look at me!”

There’s a lot more to this story- I’m leaving most of it out for brevity- but in the end, Siobhan resigned in disgrace.

So we have a small victory. It is far from the end of making the library a fair and safe place to work, but it’s a start.

*I don’t actually know the cost but it FEELS like it should be a big number