The Dayton Metro Library has merged two departments: the Community Impact Department and the Engagement Department.
Some critics believe the system is abandoning its commitment of support to diverse populations.
Executive Director Jeffrey Trzeciak said Dayton Metro Library system continues working on behalf of the city’s many distinct groups.
He also answered questions about a range of topics, from free menstrual products, to its new flag policy, to the services offered now versus decades ago.
This transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity. The interview can be heard by pressing "listen" at the top of the page.
Jeffrey Trzeciak: All that we've done is reorganize the departments so that we have our staff working more efficiently and working more effectively in order to meet the needs of the community. And what is that new department called? It is the Department of Community Engagement and Impact.
For example, we do ESL — English as a Second Language. Again, Internal Workings of the Library was a position under our EDI department, but it was being hosted in the community engagement space. There are lots of opportunities there for us to join those two departments and provide greater support and greater service to the community. So if you look at our Older Adult Specialist, which was in our EDI department, we could work together with our community wellness person, who is in our community engagement department, to deliver services and support to older adults that might have a wellness component to them. So we want to be able to get them more focused on working together, and looking at the intersectionality of some of the work they do so that we're better able through cross-training of everyone to provide the support that people expect.
Kathryn Mobley: Jeffrey, as you take staff from these two different departments and bring them together into the Department of Community Engagement and Impact, how is that going to really benefit residents of Dayton?
Trzeciak: Those positions that were in both of those departments, many of them are specialists. So you might have an older adult specialist, community wellness specialist, nonprofit specialist, small business specialist. And I think one of the great examples of the work that we do is Dr. Gabriella Pickett, who is our new American specialist. Gabriella provides a range of services to immigrant communities. Everything from Table Talks, to help them practice their English language skills, to ESL, to understanding their rights as immigrants, to understanding pathways to citizenship. That work is going to continue. It's just gonna be part of this bigger department we've put together.
"We're the only place that you can go for free anymore and get help and we're one of the few places left people actually trust."
Our food bank services, I think is another example of that. There are many who are experiencing food insecurity in our community, and we have a great partnership with Foodbank. That work gonna continue as well. We actually have just recently launched a new program called Reading Railroad, and the focus is on encouraging black boys to read and working with African-American men in the community to do things like book readings, story times for these kids because often it might be years of schooling before they have an opportunity to engage with a Black male teacher. So we want to make sure that we have Black men reading to these kids, because we know it will impact their interest in reading. We have an LGBTQ outreach specialist who does a wide range of programs of interest to the LGBTQ community as well.
So all of that stuff is going to continue, just as part of this broader department, which will also focus on nonprofits, small business support.
Mobley: For critics who say, 'Dayton Metro Library is getting rid of DEI because of federal pressures.' What is your response?
Trzeciak: We face no federal pressures. We aren't federally funded, and so none of the decisions that we make are affected in any way by decisions that are happening at the federal level.
Mobley: Jeffrey, I understand the library gives out free menstrual products.
Trzeciak: We've been providing free menstrual products and that's pads, not tampons. We provide free pads at all of our locations around the County. And we've been doing that also for almost four years. We work with Aunt Flow, which is an Ohio-based company and they design dispensers for public dispensing and they provide the menstrual products at a much reduced cost.
There are many reasons why you may want menstrual products. There's the obvious reason, but some of the less obvious reasons are related to incontinence. Older adults and those who are disabled might be experiencing incontinence and the menstrual products allow them to come to the library and be assured that it's going to be a dignified experience.
Mobley: Dayton Metro Library system and your team have come under criticism of where these menstrual product dispensaries are actually located. What's the problem?
Trzeciak: We provide free menstrual products in the men's room and the women's restroom. They're in the men's room because 8% of all single parent families in Montgomery County are dads. That's a huge number, 8%. And many of them have daughters. And we know from experience, girls who are menstruating, if they don't have access to menstrual products may skip school as a result, they won't go to class. So we provide them so that dads who may not have the financial capacity, come in and get free pads for their daughters, get them for their mothers, for their wives, for their girlfriends. It may be an older adult, like I mentioned, experiencing incontinence. It maybe a caretaker who has a disabled adult that they're caring for.
To me, it's the same type of service as toilet paper. I mean, we provide toilet paper and nobody's upset about that.
Mobley: Feels like the library now in 2025 does a lot more things than the library did let's say 1995 or 2005. Would you say that's true?
Trzeciak: Yes, I think that's very much true and I think that's really a reflection on the realities that we have. You know, a lot of social service agencies are underfunded or they've been defunded and there aren't a lot of places for people to turn. Plus we are a trusted community resource. We're the only place that you can go for free anymore and get help and we're one of the few places left people actually trust. So they'll come to us for support when they might not go to other places. So, we've become a one-stop community hub.
Mobley: Recently, Dayton Metro Library came into the spotlight because of a policy change regarding the flags that will now be on display in every branch. Talk about that.
Trzeciak: First thing I want to clear up is that we have not banned flags in the library. I think there's been, some people have interpreted it as the library is never going to have a pride flag and we're never going have a Juneteenth flag. And that is simply not the case. So we recently changed our policy regarding displays to really focus on a standard for us across all of our locations, which is to display both the U S flag and also the Ohio flag. We are encouraging staff to focus cultural flags on the cultural months where it's most appropriate. And with programs that might be related to those cultural activities or events. So pride flag might be up in June for pride might be up for LGBTQ history month. For example, it might be. If we bring in a queer author who's going to be speaking about a book that they've recently published. You'll also see when you go into our various locations, especially down at the main library, that we have standing book displays for the LGBTQ community. Those are staying and they certainly have elements of the flag, the colors. And we also have a BIPOC book display as well. So we want to make sure that we are being supportive of the entire community. And we want be able to really highlight the different aspects of our community, which means being able to rotate things in and out.
Mobley: Another new policy you guys have put in place for your downtown location is a chaperone. Yes. What's that about?
Trzeciak: Over the last few years, we've been experiencing some violence at our main library and our Southeast -Branch in particular, kids are kids, no matter where you are in the county. So fighting is going to occur no matter where are, but some of our fights as you're aware, were quite large at both Main and at Southeast. We worked with Dayton Public Schools, Dayton police, and other organizations to try to find ways to minimize that violence. And so we put this policy in place for individuals who are underage. So they have to be with a chaperone, 25 and older, only between the hours of 2-6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and only during the school year. This does not limit the teens per se, because if they don't have a chaperone, they could still come in on a Saturday. They could still, come in after those hours without a chaperone. But during those peak after school hours, we're going to require that they have someone with them.
And I have to say to date, it's been super effective. We just have not had the same number of incidents that we've had in the past.
Mobley: What are some of the requirements for the chaperones as well as for the young people?
Trzeciak: All chaperones have to remain on the premises. You can't drop someone off and let them in. You have to actually stay on the premises. While the teen is making use of the library they will be held responsible for and accountable for the actions of the individuals. And we do require proof of age. They can also pre-register for a library program or tutoring, for example. And then they don't need a chaperone because the tutor would be the chaperon or. the person leading the program, like a children's librarian, teens librarian, would in effect be the chaperone. So there are other ways that people can come in, they don't have a chaperone, they can always register for tutoring or a program.
