Berkshire Athenaeum Using Feedback to Push Harder for Diversity Efforts
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Athenaeum is using a local and celebrated author's negative experience at the facility as a learning experience to drive its efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion even further.
"We know that prejudices exist and that we need to work to keep them in check, still, on the whole, our perception of how well we account for those implicit biases and how we how well we keep them in check can be inaccurate," Director Alex Reczkowski said.
"One of the most impactful lessons has been input from the community, and namely, from a local and highly celebrated author, Ocean Vuong, who is a Vietnamese poet and novelist."
In the process of writing his 2019 book "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous," Vuong visited the Berkshire Athenaeum to research Herman Melville. During this visit, a library staff member reportedly acted on implicit bias and made an explicit comment that made his visit harmful to him.
So much was he affected that, a year later, he spoke about the experience in an interview with the Toronto Public Library.
Reczkowski said Vuong "generously and graciously" gave the Berkshire Athenaeum Board of Library Trustees permission to play the video at the meeting so that members could better inform themselves on the matter.
"I'm a small quote, unquote, you know, not necessarily, you know, masculine body, and it comes with all the trappings, I was researching Melville for this book, and my partner drove me to the library to research, and, everyone has these stories, but, and by this point, I'm a professor at UMass and all that and I went to Pittsfield to look at Melville's personal belongings and it's housed in the public library there," Vuong said in the interview.
"You know, in a secret room, not a secret room, but a room in the back that's special, and my partner is a white cis man, and as soon as the woman who is in charge of that room saw us approaching she said 'you know, there's no tutoring in that room.'"
He clarified that he would have gone there alone but does not drive. This cut Vuong down, to be spoken to in that way while doing his passionate work, and made him feel "on his knees mentally."
"You would never think a librarian at a small rural library would have such power," the MacArthur Fellowship recipient added.
This had clearly weighed upon Reczkowski on hearing about it and triggered silence from the board as it played. Instead of rising to defend themselves, the library trustees have used the unfortunate occurrence to drive their mission toward social justice by addressing implicit bias to make sure that this doesn't happen again.
To Reczkowski, being an organization that truly practices diversity, equity, and inclusion goes beyond staff training and theoretical talk that exists in the library's curriculum and rides on performance in the real world.
He said most everyone accepted this as a challenge to be better.
"I think you might be feeling some of the feelings that I had when I first saw this," he said to the silent panel.
"It's one thing to be in workshops, it's one thing to take implicit bias tests, it's one thing to theoretically talk about how, of course, we want to treat people right and, and do all the right things. It's something very different to see, to have it put so clearly in front of us when we don't live up to our goals and we don't live up to our expectations on ourselves."
Reczkowski said he was glad to announce that Vuong and his partner returned to Pittsfield two weeks ago for the first time since the interview and relationships have begun to mend.
In other news, Reczkowski reported that the roof of the library is "virtually done" and that the building will be receiving HVAC repairs from the city maintenance department to continue to offer a safe and clean space for patrons.
He also announced that the library now has a clothes donation bin on its property that makes it easy for people to donate at any time. By having it there, the city receives additional credits in the recycling program and there is less garbage going into the city flow.
The library is following national trends with having less than a full complement of staff. Reczkowski said that many employees who have left just had different personal goals or were moving to a different area, as many young people are doing.
Tags: berkshire athenaeum, diversity, public library,
