DEI Toolkit

Like many other aspects of our sector, libraries, museums, archives, historical and genealogical societies, and cultural heritage sites must set goals and measure success against benchmarks for diversity, equity, inclusion, antiracism, accessibility, and justice (DEI) in our organizations. These evaluations fall into three categories: individual, organizational or institutional, and structural or systemic. Regular evaluation of our goals and progress across these three categories allows our organizations to engage in continuous improvement and iterate solutions for our constituents and stakeholders. They work most effectively as three interdependent forms of evaluation.

This type of evaluation can be simultaneously the most difficult yet most accessible. Volunteers, board members, faculty and staff, and leadership can make individual decisions about how best to plan and implement their own DEI learning journey. As individuals we have an incredible amount of autonomy to determine what we will learn about, how we’ll learn it, and at what pace. We also face the discouragement of feeling lonely, helpless, or frustrated in our singular DEI journey, which can cause resistance or avoidance to continued learning. Affinity groups and networks help alleviate some of this loneliness and create opportunities for beloved community to take hold. As we build out our individual learning plans, we must tie them to our organizational learning and evaluation.

Organizational evaluation can feel unwieldy because no matter the size or scope of our organization there never seems to be enough time, money, or people to do the work. Organizational evaluation requires us to follow the adage “work smarter not harder.” Specifically, use your organization’s (or department’s) governing documents to benchmark and evaluate DEI at this broader level. Embed DEI in your organization’s (or department’s) vision, mission, and values statements, in the strategic plan, and in the policies that govern your organization (or part of it). This allows us to consistently tie DEI work into our broader purpose and evaluate ourselves against both at once.

Systems (or structural) change is a long road and a complex one, but it is possible and necessary. Systems change builds on the work of individuals and organizations, identifying points of impact that can shift the direction of our cultural heritage and collections sector. Once points of impact are identified, we can update and iterate more relevant policies, guidance on preferred practices, advocate for legislative and statutory updates, and create infrastructures to begin and sustain the work of systems change.

Individual Evaluation

Use this template to create your individual DEI goal(s) and articulate your values that support the goal. Identify tasks and activities, how you will hold yourself accountable, your notes and reflections, and how you can apply this to your work and organization.

My DEI Goal:

My values that support achieving this goal:

Organizational Evaluation Tool

Use this template to map your organization’s DEI goals to its vision, mission, and strategic plan. This template is designed for people in leadership to complete with input from their teams.

Systemic Evaluation Tool

A system evaluation map is a visual diagram of a system that identifies the parts and relationships in that system that are expected to change and how they will change, and then identifies ways of measuring or capturing whether those changes have occurred. This system that is being evaluated could be a literal library system, it could be a regional grouping of cultural heritage organizations and sites, it could be all collecting organizations within a village or town, or any other grouping that feels meaningful to evolution and change.

The process of creating a systems map can occur through a variety of methods including stakeholder interviews, focus groups, network analyses.  The map should address the following: 

• Which system is this evaluating?
• Who are the specific stakeholders and organizations within this system?
• What are the DEI goals of each of the organizations?
• Where are there commonalities and affinities in the DEI goals?
• What are the organizational and system wide resources assigned to these common DEI affinities or goals?
• Of the commonalities, which affinities or goals are the best resourced? These are your points of impact!
• Which additional resources do we need to fully resource these points of impact?
• Who else needs to be at the decision-making tables for these points of impact? What other skills do we need?
• What will keep our system (and its member organizations) motivated and encourage in our shared DEI work?
• Create your action plan with the following information:
• Points of Impact- Identify the points of impact that will make systems change possible.
• Systems Change Vision- what is the end goal for this group of changemakers?
• Goals- What is/are the specific DEI goal(s) of the systems group?
• Benchmarks- Which meaningful benchmarks will help us reach our shared DEI goal(s)?
• Tactics and Activities- Which day to day actions get us to each benchmark?
• Accountability- How will we know we are succeeding? Who is responsible for making sure our tactics and activities are accomplished and we meet our benchmarks and goals?

Create your system map with the following information:

• Points of Impact- Identify the points of impact that will make systems change possible.
• Systems Change Vision- what is the end goal for this group of changemakers?
• Goals- What is/are the specific DEI goal(s) of the systems group?
• Benchmarks- Which meaningful benchmarks will help us reach our shared DEI goal(s)?
• Tactics and Activities- Which day to day actions get us to each benchmark?
• Accountability- How will we know we are succeeding? Who is responsible for making sure our tactics and activities are accomplished and we meet our benchmarks and goals?