32 Association of Research Libraries Research Library Issues 301 2020 into the workflows, communication, daily practice, assessment strategies for our employees and those they serve? As the fall semester is ending and the spring semester approaches, how are we considering the impact and effect of providing services to people and how is that different depending on their role, identities (visible and invisible), and status in the workplace? I am finding that more people are willing to talk about whiteness, white supremacy, and even colonialism and decolonization. It is a much-needed and required shift in mindset and focus. Puente: As our institutions and associations attempt to move forward, some with reopening (at least to some degree), and surely almost all looking at significant financial implications, how can we best advocate for DEI efforts? What might that look like? Kumaran: We have to make DEI work part of academic culture. We have to go beyond collecting knowledge resources. We have to concentrate on activity and build accountability. Many people from minority cultures are not asked to collaborate with researchers. How do we change that? We have to stop thinking about DEI as a separate entity. It needs to be part and parcel of everything we do. Our policies and planning need to be more inclusive and accommodating, and not just building rooms for breast-feeding or for prayers. We have to think about how inequity is built into things like our recruitment, collaborations, and promotion & tenure process. We have to ensure that Indigenous ways of knowing and learning are part of academic inquiry. Witt: There will be significant differences in the way the budget will be used. We are under a hiring freeze, so there won’t be lots of opportunities in terms of bringing in new people. There will be many implications and our ways of doing this work may be more limited in the future. Our strategy is to get the dean’s commitment to racial equity work. This year will focus on this. In order to be effective we have to be that specific and identify specific goals. It will help us not get sidetracked. The work has already started. Our
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