On Its Own For A Decade Library Shines

Judy McGovern

The Ann Arbor News

On its own for a decade library shines

Next month, the Ann Arbor District Library opens its newest branch: a 16,500-square-foot facility on the west side, near the Ann Arbor Ice Cube.

Like the popular Malletts Creek branch that opened on the south side two years ago, the new branch on Oak Valley Drive has been built with cash.

The plan is to pay for the next construction project, on the north side near the city’s Leslie golf course and still-new Bill Stapp Nature Area, in the same way.

No bonding, no borrowing, no debates. Instead, a reallocation of extra tax revenue that resulted from the boost in the tax rate that followed the library’s financial crash back in 2000. That tax increase, you may recall, was required to mop up the mess created by embezzlement and grossly inadequate oversight by now-long-departed library officials.

At that time, the library’s elected board of trustees said the rate increase - to near the maximum allowed - would be temporary. And it did little to restore public confidence when that decision was reconsidered.

Today, however, the library organization is more different than most would then have dared predict.

It’s meeting operating expenses based on the same tax rate that was levied half a dozen years ago. And when the construction program is complete, library director Josie Parker looks forward to being able to back the tax rate down and give folks a break.

Sure, as assessments and the community’s tax base have increased that tax rate has brought in more money. And the cost of doing business make it unlikely that, when the anticipated rollback comes, the tax rate will drop all the way back to previous levels.

But we now have an organization with leadership that scrutinizes personnel, priorities and services, making ongoing adjustments in a rapidly changing field.

We now have an organization that’s on track.

And the evidence extends beyond finances.

The library is clearly giving community members what they want: More of us are visiting - 8 percent more in the library’s 2004-2005 fiscal year than the year before.

And the increased activity isn’t limited to the shiny, new Malletts Creek branch. There’s more traffic at every location and increased circulation in just about every category - books and magazines, adults and children’s materials, DVDs and CDs, a 33-percent increase overall.

Just as important, the library is growing into its role as a leading community institution: Parker and her staff aren’t just hosting discussions about downtown development, they’re participating in them. It’s a new, and completely appropriate, level of engagement.

It’s been 10 years since a statewide overhaul in K-12 financing cut community libraries loose from the public school districts they’d been paired with.

The initial results, for Ann Arbor, were certainly mixed.

One one hand, an independent library board was able to go to the public for support of projects that the school board - unwilling to take grief for increases in school and library taxes - may have shied away from. On the other hand, the transition included messy and long-unresolved labor issues as well as the $1 million financial debacle.

It’s not that we should expect anything less than a solid, professional operation for $14 million a year.

Still, the maturation is nice to see.

There's information about the opening of the Oak Valley branch and planning for the new library branch at Traverwood and Huron at www.aadl.org.