This series highlights the councils and committees across campus whose leaders come together to make up the EDI Leaders Circle. The circle provides leaders working toward equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) the chance to collaborate and share efforts and ideas. The circle is led from the Office of Equity and Inclusion at Illinois State.
Milner Library’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Committee reflects the concept of the University’s wordmark: “Equity, diversity, and inclusion is you” that places the responsibility for advancing equity on each member of campus.
“We’re working to cultivate a culture of equity, rather than exist as a committee that is tasked with doing everything relating to EDI,” said Student Success Librarian Mallory Jallas, who heads up the IDEA Committee with Instructional Design Librarian Lindsey Skaggs.
The committee acts as a resource for EDI efforts library wide that represent various departments and perspectives from around the library. IDEA also helps to promote EDI resources and programming at the library. “Accessibility is key for libraries,” said Jallas. “Our goal is to engage different departments so our students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds can see themselves represented.”
The IDEA Committee evolved from an ad-hoc group started in 2013 to focus on diversity and internationalization at Milner. The group adopted the IDEA name in 2021. IDEA works to inspire an equity-first approach for fellow committees and working groups in the library that focus on programming, exhibits, and collections that include databases, books, journals, movies, etc.
“There are a lot of great initiatives from folks throughout the library,” said Skaggs. “People are looking around and saying, ‘We can see this [work] needs to be done.’” Many EDI efforts can be seen in the Milner Library Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access Annual Report, which represents work from areas across Milner.
The committee continues work to draw attention to Milner resources, including creating guides for students, faculty, and staff to explore EDI-related topics, such as those dedicated to systemic racism, LGBTQIA+ resources, and reproductive justice. Members share ideas for reading, like those for Pride Month. IDEA also compiles EDI-related professional development opportunities to be published in the internal monthly Milner Monitor.
The dean’s office in Milner recently approved a $6,000 grant for the IDEA Committee to help enhance resources in dealing with sensitive subjects, such as gender and sexuality; relationships; mental health; and substance use. “Our students are evolving, facing new challenges every year,” said Jallas, who noted IDEA identified 175 items to add to Milner’s collections. “It’s important to keep our materials fresh to meet their needs.”
The group’s next steps will be creating an EDI plan for Milner, which will incorporate input from constituents across campus. “The library sits at that place of serving many so we want to make sure we’re getting feedback from anyone who can access the library,” said Skaggs.
Learn more about the IDEA Committee.
