CREI is a California State Library initiative to promote racial equity and inclusion in libraries. It involves community needs assessments, building diverse leadership, drafting a Racial Equity Action Plan, and making organizational changes. The document discusses why racial equity work is important for libraries and outlines the current and planned efforts of the Santa Cruz Public Library to address inequities, such as expanding diverse collections, programs, and staffing and creating a more inclusive culture.

1. CREI
Cultivating Racial Equity and
Inclusion

2. What is CREI?
A California State Library Initiative, CREI is an
immersive process, designed specifically for California
Libraries to infuse a race and equity focus into
organizational outcomes and service delivery through
evidence-based shifts in operations, processes and
policies

3. CREI Objectives
● Renew and build skills to promote inclusion and racial equity
through library programs
● Implement community needs assessments and engage community
stakeholders in building equity at the community level
● Support diversity and inclusion in the library workplace that grows
diverse and sustainable leadership
● Gain understanding of the role of government and libraries in
relation to racial equity
● Draft a Racial Equity Action Plan and organize the internal
infrastructure to implement it

4. Why do Libraries Take On Racial Equity Work?
We acknowledge that public libraries are racialized systems, in
both their staffing and the programs, services, and collections
provided for public use. The unfairly biased foundation libraries
are built on are detrimental to all people in our communities; even
those who do not use the library are negatively affected by
inequitable access to information. As an organization, SCPL, thus
far has been typical of most libraries, with a predominantly white,
English speaking staff, vast majority of programming and
circulating materials offered in English only, and program times
centered around a 9-5, Monday to Friday, workweek.

5. Taking Steps to Address Inequities
Inspired by the growing social justice movement to address
racial inequities, as well as inequities in SCPL programs,
services, and staffing, Eric Howard, Interim Library Director,
formed the SCPL Equity Team. The Equity Team includes
staff from many levels in the organization – including upper
management, librarians, branch managers, and frontline
staff, who are committed to lead racial equity and social
justice work within our organization. However, we are still at
the beginning of driving organizational change.

6. Current SCPL Work Addressing Inequities
● Cuéntame un Cuento - Spanish Storytime
● Partnership with the SC County Jails and Juvenile Hall
● Life Literacies Center -transformative and equitable programs
via collaborative engagement with community partners
● Spanish Translation Team
● Equity Sub Teams
○ Workplace Culture
○ Hiring & Retention
○ Collections, Programs, & Services

7. Looking Ahead:
● Hiring & Retention of Diverse Staff at all levels
● Building More Diverse Collections
● Developing & Implementing More Diverse Programs
● Creating an Inclusive Library Culture via staff training,
building trust in the workplace, and creating library spaces
that are welcoming to all
● Continued participation in CREI and implementing our Racial
Equity Action Plan

8. Thank you!
● Susan Nilsson - Lead on Jail and Homelessness Services
○ nilssons@santacruzpl.org
○ 831-427-7700 x 7791
● Jesse Silva - Interim Manager of Branch Operations
○ silvaj@santacruzpl.org
○ 427-7700 x 7669