Annual Report July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2021
Executive Summary Looking back at this most exceptional, challenging, unprecedented year, it’s hard to find the distance we need to make sense of it. It’s been an extraordinary year of growth and change, and there’s more to come. Even as we reflect on the last year, it’s important to look ahead at the possibility of the next. On July 22, 2020, the Board of Library Trustees adopted an equity and inclusion statement reaffirming the library’s commitment to racial justice and equality. The library embarked on a slate of programming to support this vision, including a partnership with Study Circles Aurora, which uses intentional conversation to improve understanding and respect among the diverse individuals and groups in our community. The board later hired a consultant to guide the library’s efforts. In the months since, we’ve revised our policies with an equity lens, adjusted our hiring practices, and we look forward to staff training and a review of the library’s program and collection offerings. Equity, diversity, and inclusion are our core values as a library, and this work will help us serve you better. At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, library staff refocused their work on keeping the lines of communication with the community open, and providing as much service as we could, as safely as we could. We made the wrenching decision to close our buildings to the public on March 17, 2020. We retooled our collection to focus on digital materials while we couldn’t circulate our physical collection. We learned how to take our programs virtual so that we could continue to engage the community. Staff worked from home answering customer communication through email, social media, and over the phone. As the country began to open up, we provided drive up service and curbside and home delivery of physical materials beginning in May 2020. We opened our reconfigured for social distance public computing areas in June 2020; and we opened for in-person visits by appointment in July 2020. We provided access to unbiased information on the virus and the vaccine, and we worked with community partners to help connect staff and customers to vaccination appointments as they became available. We continue to closely watch the development of the pandemic as we work to keep our spaces safe for staff and customers, and to help our community begin to heal from the devastation of the virus. And finally, on July 1, 2020, the City of Aurora Public Library became the Aurora Public Library District. In Illinois, library districts have elected boards, and so April 6, 2021 was the historic first election for library trustees. Ryan Cytryn, Joe Filapek, Paul LaTour, Sandeep Londhe, Matthew Orr, Melinda Riddick and Suzanne Stegeman were officially seated at the May 26, 2021 board meeting. We thank the last board of the City of Aurora Public Library for their years of service, their dedication, and vision.