Board of Library Trustees

The Oak Park Public Library Board of Trustees (the Board) issued a Request for Proposals for qualified vendors to assist the Board in identifying the next Executive Director of the Oak Park Public Library. The Board seeks a partner to help identify an Executive Director to ensure that the library’s vision, mission, and strategic priorities are accomplished. The request for proposals closed at 5 pm Friday, May 10.

This is an updated version of the statement that was read at the conclusion of the March 16 Special Board Meeting. Watch the meeting here.

At a special meeting today, with regret, the Oak Park Public Library Board of Trustees voted to terminate the employment of Executive Director Joslyn Bowling Dixon, who joined the Library in November 2022 after a national search. To be clear, we continue to have great respect for Ms. Bowling Dixon’s professional credentials and expertise as a library professional, and wish her well in her future endeavors. 

While we have heard and deliberately considered the extensive staff and community input received over recent weeks—both positive and negative—regarding the day-to-day management, decision-making and operations of the Library, this difficult decision was not based on any one incident or action. Rather, it was a consistent pattern, observed over many months, of a persistent lack of alignment between the priorities of the Board and the Executive Director that prompted this decision. Simply put, the supportive and collaborative working relationship between us, which is absolutely essential to advance the strategic vision and plan based on the needs of our community, has been damaged. The resulting confusion, miscommunication and distrust, both internally and externally, has critically impacted our ability to move forward together and prompted today’s action. 

We are committed to minimizing the adverse impact of this transition for library staff and community, and are taking immediate and deliberate steps to set us on a path toward healing and rebuilding trust: 

• The Board will engage an independent expert to conduct a forward-looking survey of all Library staff to identify opportunities to strengthen and improve our workplace culture. We hope to invite a firm/individual to attend a special meeting of our Board to be scheduled in April to present a recommended strategic approach and timeline to complete this important work.
• Two experienced leaders from the Library’s leadership team, Deputy Director Suzy Wulf and Director of Collections Leigh Tarullo, will work collaboratively, on a short-term basis, to provide day-to-day leadership of the Library. It is not the Board’s role, nor does it expect, to direct further personnel changes. Suzy and Leigh will work to support each Library team through this transition. 
• The Board will work with haste to identify an experienced library professional to join our team as an interim executive director—ideally, by the April 23 Board meeting. Based on feedback from Library leadership, we will be seeking external candidates for this role. In addition to directing all Library operations, this individual will also direct the following Board priorities:
  
  • An analysis of the Library’s FOIA policy and current practices to affirm that they are consistent and responsive.
    
  • An internal review to gain a better understanding of the Library’s actions regarding the planning and implementation of the Palestinian Cultural Event held in January 2024. We want to be sure that our protocols and procedures for community events and facility usage/rentals moving forward are clear, consistent and fair.  

• Finally, it is our intent to initiate a national search to identify our next executive director. This process will include extensive opportunities for both staff and community participation. We will share more details in the coming weeks.

We know that you are counting on us to act expeditiously to address the issues facing our beloved Library, to support our valued employees, and to ensure that we consistently act in accordance with our shared mission and values. The Board is committed to providing periodic updates to staff (through Leadership) and our community. We take this responsibility very seriously and will move forward in a manner that maintains the standards of excellence, openness, and equity for which our organization is known and that we all value.

The Oak Park Public Library Board of Trustees

Matthew Fruth, President

Virginia Bloom, Vice President

Madhurima Chakraborty

Susanne Fairfax

Theodore N. Foss

Maya L. Ganguly

Kristina Rogers

The Board of Library Trustees acknowledges there have been multiple examples of damage caused to the Oak Park area community, to our community partners, and to members of the Oak Park Public Library staff, and that we have much work to do to rebuild the broken trust. We apologize for the relationships that have been compromised during our tenure as a board, we take accountability for this harm in our community, and we thank the community for your patience while we work on best steps toward repairs.

All seven trustees of the Oak Park Public Library Board are grateful for everyone who attended the Tuesday, February 27 library board meeting, and everyone who has sent their thoughts to us in other ways. We are all deeply affected not only by the sheer number of those that reached out, but also by the resounding call to mend strained relationships between Oak Park Public Library leadership and members of library staff, members of our community, and community partners (specifically those that organized the event, A Day of Celebration of Palestinian Culture, and the Friends of the Oak Park Public Library). We stand ready to repair those relationships. We also intend to honor our shared commitment to restorative justice in our pursuit of this reparative work.

It is important that we proceed with thoughtfulness and intention so that we can be confident that the steps we take next are in service of true and meaningful change. We also appreciate that, at the same time, there is an urgent and growing concern about Oak Park Public Library’s ability to maintain the standards of excellence, openness, and equity that it is known for. We are trying to balance both this deliberativeness and urgency as we determine the best ways to move forward.

While we are still working on our full plan forward, the board has initiated some steps.

• We are pursuing a process to open avenues for anonymous staff feedback through an external service provider. We are doing this to include staff voices in our evaluation process of leadership.
• We have extended the timeline of our evaluation process to include this input.
• Board leadership held a conversation with staff leadership on Wednesday, February 28 about specific restorative practices expectations.
• We are also considering how the board can meet our commitment to accountability to the community. We will be setting a special board meeting between now and our next regular board meeting to continue our steps forward in service to our community.

We recognize the engagement of the community and staff as an expression of love for our library and our community as well as voicing high expectations of our library. We on the board share those sentiments. Please continue to hold us accountable, as we do our due diligence to understand and take action on these critical matters at hand. We welcome your comments sent to board@oppl.org.

Whereas the Oak Park Public Library adheres to the American Library Association Freedom to Read Statement;

Whereas the Oak Park Public Library adheres to the American Library Association Freedom to View Statement;

Whereas the Oak Park Public Library has Collection Strategy Statement that was developed by staff and approved by the Board of Trustees;

Whereas the Oak Park Public Library Board has adopted the following policies Library Bill of Rights, Equity and Anti-Racism Statement, and A Library for Everyone;

Whereas there have been renewed organized efforts to censor and remove materials from school and public libraries across the country;

Whereas efforts to provide equitable and diverse programming has been met with hate speech, protests, and threats;

Whereas these challenged books and programs are often elevating the voices and viewpoints of historically marginalized peoples; and

Whereas the Oak Park Public Library actively recruits trained and passionate individuals to manage our collections, provide services, and execute programs for our community;

Resolved, that the Oak Park Public Library Board:

1. Supports its professional staff and the decisions they make in selecting the collection materials and programs that in their judgment best engage with the community;

2. Stands in solidarity with public libraries across the region, state, and country as they face renewed efforts to limit access to books and programs;

3. Encourages library staff everywhere to continue raising voices of historically marginalized peoples regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation;

4. Calls on people who believe in the mission of public libraries to run for election to their local public library board; and 

5. Calls on communities to restore their faith in and support of the professional library staff members who work to bring resources and opportunities to their communities in their continued improvement.