ANN ARBOR DISTRICT LIBRARY BOARD
343 S. FIFTH AVENUE, ANN ARBOR, MI
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL MEETING
MONDAY, JANUARY 20, 2014
14-001 I. CALL TO ORDER
President Rosenthal called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m.
14-002 II. ATTENDANCE
Present: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
Absent: None
Staff: Choate, Neiburger, Nieman, Parker, Wilson (recorder)
14-003 III. PRESIDENT’S REMARKS
President Rosenthal remarked that it has been an honor to serve as President of the Board for the past year. She highlighted a number of achievements during 2013:
* Outreach Department Manager Soave and her staff were acknowledged for their work with CS Mott Hospital, PALMA and the WLBPD
* Director Parker and Associate Director Nieman accessed the physical condition of all AADL facilities
* Allerton Hill Consulting was engaged to create a communication plan
* USA Today quoted Associate Director Choate regarding AADL special collections
* The 2013-2014 budget and the FAADL Space Use Agreement extension were approved
* Associate Director Neiburger and Community Relations Department Manager Grimes were again invited by the Tribeca Film Institute to participate on a new NEH project focusing on Immigration.
* The It’s All Write Short Story Contest and Summer Games were very successful
* The Pittsfield Charter Township Corridor Improvement TIF agreement was signed
* Staff reviewed and presented numerous policy updates to the Policy Committee
* AADL was named a Library Journal 5 Star Library for the fifth year in a row.
President Rosenthal commended the staff and director for all that is done on a daily basis that makes AADL so special.
14-004 IV. NOMINATION & ELECTION OF LIBRARY BOARD OFFICERS
1. PRESIDENT
(Item of action)
Roll call vote
Trustee Head, supported by Trustee Murphy, nominated Prue Rosenthal for Board President. No other nominations were made.
A roll call vote was taken.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
2. VICE PRESIDENT
(Item of action)
Roll call vote
Trustee Leary, supported by Trustee Surovell, nominated Barbara Murphy for Board Vice President. No other nominations were made.
A roll call vote was taken.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
3. TREASURER
(Item of action)
Roll call vote
Trustee Kaplan, supported by Trustee Head, nominated Jan Barney Newman for Board Treasurer. No other nominations were made.
A roll call vote was taken.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
4. SECRETARY
(Item of action)
Roll call vote
Trustee Barney Newman supported by Trustee Leary, nominated Rebecca Head for Board Secretary. No other nominations were made.
A roll call vote was taken.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
14-005 V. INSTALLATION OF OFFICERS
President Rosenthal administered the oath installing Board officers for 2014: Trustee Rosenthal as President, Trustee Murphy as Vice President, Trustee Barney Newman as Treasurer, and Trustee Head as Secretary.
“I, (name stated), DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR THAT I WILL ABIDE BY THE BYLAWS, RULES, AND REGULATIONS OF MY OFFICE AS TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY.”
14-006 VI. OFFICERS RELINQUISH CONTROL TO NEW OFFICERS
14-007 VII. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
(Item of action)
President Rosenthal proposed to amend the agenda by adding under New Business B. Resolution Establishing the Special Communications Committee; C. Resolution Establishing the Special Facilities Committee; D. Appointment of Board Committee Members.
Treasurer Barney Newman, supported by Trustee Kaplan, moved to approve the revised agenda.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
14-008 VIII. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF DECEMBER 16, 2013
(Item of action)
Trustee Leary, supported by Vice President Murphy, moved to approve the minutes of December 16, 2013.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
14-009 IX. CITIZENS’ COMMENTS
Jerzy Drozd
Hi everybody, my name is Jerzy Drozd and I am a cartoonist and teaching artist and my comments tonight are more or less just a big glowing thank you for three items. The Board of the Ann Arbor District Library provide the youth of Ann Arbor, as I have said I am a cartoonist, a teaching artist that means I teach courses on making graphic novels which is not a widely available field of study for young people. And even if you do find them, courses on making graphic novels, they can cost hundreds, even thousands of dollars. And for the past seven years I’ve been working with AADL to provide comic courses for young people for free. Free access to this information. I’ve seen young people, from seven years grow into young adults and I recently ran into one of my former students at Toronto Comics Arts Festival and she’s now working in the publishing industry alongside of award winning cartoonist Tom Hart, working on one of his books . So here’s a kid who seven years ago was a fourteen year old who loved manga. Because of what you provided to her she got access to information that allowed her to work in the publishing field. So thank you for that. The second thing I want to thank you guys for is Ann Arbor District Library netcast studio. If you don’t know the Ann Arbor District Library does podcasts and I’ve been hosting a podcast since 2011 now and it’s called “Comics are Great”, the Dick Cavett show for cartoonists. Which means that we have a lot of different guests and working professionals and local professionals and AADL staff on the show. In other words the youth in Ann Arbor has their TV show about making comics because AADL was forward thinking enough to say where to do kids watch stuff? YouTube, let’s put these, stream them live on YouTube. So every two weeks we do a show where we do all sorts of different best-selling authors, plus local celebrities. One highlight for me was, every hear of, familiar with a guy named Mark Kistler, PBS host of a drawing show from the seventies and eighties, I had him on, I got to teach him how to use twitter. So it’s been a benefit to me, it’s connected me to a wider group of cartoonists but, it’s also connected a wider world of cartoonists to AADL which leads me to my third thanks. I serve as the programing coordinator for an event called Kids Read Comics, which was mentioned earlier tonight and you’re all aware of this event that we do yearly. In 2012 we brought the event to AADL. AADL has been a very gracious, incredible partner for this event. I don’t need to give you guys numbers on how many people you’ve affected through this thing. But if people haven’t heard of this thing, it’s a weekend of twenty-five or more free workshops lead by three professionals around the nation. Guests include New York Times bestselling author Ann Tuttlemeyer (sic), Rafael Rosado, Ben Hatke and if those names don’t mean anything to you, imagine this you’re ten years old and you go to the library and there’s Charles Schultz and David (sic) sitting there saying come draw with me. How awesome would that be to you as a ten year old? One educator from out of town, we get people come from all over the country to this thing said to me it’s the single coolest pro-literacy event of the year. We have cartoonists who come from all over the globe, literally. One came from Australia a couple years ago on his dime. Because he had to be a part of this amazing, cool Kids Read Comics. One of my favorite stories to tell is, this goes back to podcasts, I mentioned AADL staff was on this podcast that I do, which reaches out to cartoonists. One of the guests at the show saw an AADL staff member walk by who had been on the show many, many times, and breathlessly grabbed me by the sleeve and said that’s her. I don’t know what to say. So AADL has celebrity librarians that cartoonists get the vapors when they’re around. One last time, again that you for supporting the youth of Ann Arbor.
Shary Brown
Well, mine’s not nearly so well organized, but I also have come to say thank you. I have been a card holder for probably more than sixty years. I was obviously born and raised in Ann Arbor. So I have three things also. I have being a resident of Ann Arbor as a kid and looking forward to seeing the bookmobile come around the corner. All the kids in the neighborhood up to the bookmobile. That was ground breaking stuff sixty years ago. And you guys were there and did that, brought books to us, and the community. As a professional, I organized events in Ann Arbor, ran the Street Art Fair and again the library stepped up and became a home for us, a home that we didn’t have. We were on the streets for four days a year, but we didn’t have a place to engage the community, but we did here. We didn’t have a place when the rug got pulled out from under us in how we juried our artists. The film was gone, the projectors were going, we needed to attract our artists, we needed to be able to review them, the library again stepped up and said we can help you. We can help you with this technology, we can help provide a place for you to bring your jurors and I think you continue to do this today. I’m now a retired person and I use the library and I think I would like to continue learning all my life and the library does that for me. You have great programs, one my jobs as a retired person is to volunteer and I volunteer at Fool Moon Festival and again, the library is there. You’ve engaged other organizations in town, you have become a center for us to meet other groups in town that would like to play with us as we put on our events. So I think, for me all of my life the library has been a place of leadership, its been forward looking , its provided new skills and technology to all of us who have nowhere else to go and I want to see you continue to do that. It has been a tremendous resource for me. Thank you.
Kathy Griswold
Good evening, following on the theme of showing appreciation, I also have a thank you and then a few comments. A year ago the Protect Our Libraries PAC mentioned the library’s contribution to serving the homeless population in this community and while we’re working on trying to find a better solution for the homeless, including twenty four hour a day warming centers, cooling shelters. I do want to acknowledge the service that is provided by the Ann Arbor District Library, especially the downtown branch for some of the people that use this for the resources including staying warm in winter. I know that’s a real burden and it needs to be addressed by a different group of people but for now it’s being done and really appreciated. I also have to agree that this is really a great report and great things are being done at the library but I’m somewhat troubled that given that you podcast and that this room is equipped for CTN and that you have spent money on improving communications, why you’re not recording these meetings. At least CTN now has an on demand feature so if someone wanted to see the work of the library board if wanted to skip and just see the financials, or one of the other reports they could easily do that through the on demand feature. So I really hope that you consider that this year. A few other comments, collaboration, I know that a lot of collaboration is being done especially at the staff level. I’d like to see more collaboration at the board level with the Ann Arbor Public Schools. Another is the Michigan Theater. If you can rent their viewing room, I think we all know that their desperate for more financial resources. And long term make plans for how your podcasting operation, and some of the functions you provide here will dovetail with what CTN is doing because some of your functions seem to be very similar and long term there’s probably some efficiencies there. Another area in addition to collaboration is becoming more professional. I’m really troubled that Ann Arbor District Library email addresses are not being used by the board members. That’s sort of standard for most boards within this community, the school board, city council members and that would be a very easy thing to do and provides a more professional appearance when communicating with community members. We’ve talked before about open committee meetings and just having more transparency, this is the beginning of a new year and I hope you’ll focus on that. And lastly, a question. I was looking on the library website and I was just going to type in Allerton Hill, because I wanted to look their communications report, and I don’t see any type of Google or other search for the library website. You have one once you get into the books and videos and your circulations. But I don’t see a search, so maybe I’m wrong, but if not, it would be nice to have. Thank you.
Don Salberg
My name is Don Salberg, I live on Lexington Drive in northeast Ann Arbor. I want to wish you all a happy new year. Good evening. I want to share a revelation and along with it some important new information that should interest you. I’ve always wondered way a new library would cost as much as the planned one would. Then I realized that the $330 per square foot that’s required for building the library which is much more than the average $200 per square foot is required in order to provide an adequate superstructure to hold the many shelves of books that you have. And that seems appropriate that it would cost that amount of money. It would be of benefit, of course, to be able to reduce the number of books and weight thereof and to be able to do the library much less expensively. In this regard, I must call your attention to a new digital library that opened up in San Antonio, Texas called the BiblioTech. Actually, Bexar County Digital Library. Some of you appear to be aware of it. It cost 2.4 million dollars to build. Holds 10 thousand eBooks, 500 hundred e-readers, 48 computers, 20 ipods and laptops. Similarly the Archbishop Stepinac High School, White Plains, New York has replaced all its textbooks with a digital library. Students no longer have to carry thirty-five pound backpacks. They also find it cheaper because they can pay for use of a digital library for $150 rather than having to out rightly buy textbooks for $750 each year. The digital library also is accessible wherever there is an internet connection. Which gives more freedom for students to be able to study anywhere they want. The students can highlight passages and annotate their material without having to worry about damaging the textbook, reducing its resale value. Teachers can add material easier, get homework and communicate with material being viewed by the student. The world is quickly becoming digital and while older individuals who may recall a world without computers, who resist the retirement of printed material, the younger generation born into the digital era who have no difficulty accommodating. When you consider again to ask for a new library bond referendum beware that the world of information, education and entertainment is rapidly changing and that the old library, with its thousands of books may become obsolete and undesirable for the new tech savvy world. Also it might well consider a de-centralized library system. Which a digital library would be able to provide. You can setup small branches in small rental places in multiple areas of the city and make it much more convenient for individuals to not have to travel distance down to a central library. Many of them will have to pay for parking. Having a digital branch library close by is very convenient. Thank you very much.
Libby Hunter
I would like to suggest that several reasons this group should meet, in my opinion, on a different night in the month of January. I’ll be very brief. Some of my reasons are the following, and I tried to think of as many as I could but I don’t know if they are all here. Martin Luther King Day is almost a sacred day for some people. He’s a hero to possibly thousands of people in Ann Arbor and certainly millions of people world-wide. There are Martin Luther King events in our area tonight and this is a day of service in his honor for many people. Let’s see, depending on your age, King lived during your lifetime or at least near your lifetime so his, it’s not like its celebrating someone who lived five hundred years ago. I can’t think of a better way to say that. The Ann Arbor Schools celebrate King today by not being in session and city council celebrates by postponing their regularly scheduled meeting until tomorrow night. I’m sure you have reasons for meeting on this holiday which I’m unaware of. I just feel compelled to state my reasons which I’m hoping you might take into consideration when creating next year’s meeting calendar. Thank you very much.
14-010 X. FINANCIAL REPORTS
Associate Director Nieman reported November showed unrestricted cash balance just over $13.5 million. Tax receipts just over $11 million, reflecting 97% of the budgeted amount, have been received through the end of December. The fund balance stands at just over $8.1 million. Six line items are over budget and will come back into line later in the year.
14-011 XI. APPROVAL OF DISBURSEMENTS
(Item of action)
Trustee Leary, supported by Secretary Head, moved to approve the December 2013 disbursements.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
14-012 XII. COMMITTEE REPORTS
14-013 A. COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
Chairperson Kaplan reported the committee had an information gathering meeting offsite with a local company.
14-014 B. POLICY COMMITTEE
Chairperson Murphy reported the committee met in December and reviewed the policy revisions being submitted for discussion tonight.
14-015 XIII. DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Director Parker began her report with a video presentation of the annual report. She reported on the number of Martin Luther King Day events being held at the library and the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads author program scheduled tomorrow at Washtenaw Community College.
14-016 XIV. NEW BUSINESS
14-017 A. APPROVAL OF BOARD MEETING DATES AND LOCATIONS FOR 2014
(Item of action)
Trustee Leary, supported by Secretary Head, moved to approve the 2014 AADL Board meeting dates and locations as presented.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
14-018 B. RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING A SPECIAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
(Item of action)
Secretary Head, supported by Trustee Leary, moved that the Board resolves that a special Communications Committee be established; that the charge to the special Communications Committee will be to consider the implementation of recommendations in the communications audit, and related issues; that the committee shall serve through 2014; that all resolutions and parts of resolutions that conflict with the provisions of this resolution are rescinded.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
14-019 C. RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING A SPECIAL FACILITIES COMMITTEE
(Item of action)
Trustee Leary, supported by Secretary Head, moved that the Board resolves that a special Facilities Committee be established; that the charge to the special Facilities Committee will be to recommend to the Board steps needed to develop and maintain clean, safe, physical facilities that creatively meet the needs of the community and staff with an emphasis on sustainability, accessibility and flexibility; that the committee shall serve through 2014; that all resolutions and parts of resolutions that conflict with the provisions of this resolution are rescinded.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
14-020 D. APPROVAL OF BOARD COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS
(Item of action)
President Rosenthal presented the following Board Committee appointments for approval:
Budget & Finance: Jan Barney Newman-Chair, Barbara Murphy, Nancy Kaplan
Communications: Rebecca Head-Chair, Margaret Leary, Prue Rosenthal
Facilities: Margaret Leary-Chair, Jan Barney Newman, Ed Surovell
Policy: Barbara Murphy-Chair, Nancy Kaplan, Prue Rosenthal
Secretary Head, supported by Trustee Leary, moved to approve the Board committee appointments as recommended.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
14-021 E. RESOLUTION OF THANKS TO BETH ANDERSEN UPON HER RETIREMENT
(Item of action)
Secretary Head, supported by Vice President Murphy, moved the Board resolves that it would like to officially thank Beth Andersen for her service as an employee from December 18, 1978 to January 30, 2014 of the Ann Arbor District Library; that all resolutions that conflict with the provisions of this resolution are rescinded.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0
14-022 F. RESOLUTION OF THANKS TO IEVA BATES UPON HER RETIREMENT
(Item of action)
Treasurer Barney Newman, supported by Vice President Murphy, moved the Board resolves that it would like to officially thank Ieva Bates for her service as an employee from August 23, 1976 to January 31, 2014 of the Ann Arbor District Library; that all resolutions that conflict with the provisions of this resolution are rescinded.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0
14-023 G. RESOLUTION OF THANKS TO JACQUELINE SASAKI UPON HER RETIREMENT
(Item of action)
President Rosenthal, supported by Treasurer Barney Newman, moved the Board resolves that it would like to officially thank Jacqueline Sasaki for her service as an employee from September 15, 1988 to January 31, 2014 of the Ann Arbor District Library; that all resolutions that conflict with the provisions of this resolution are rescinded.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0
14-024 H. RESOLUTION TO AMEND THE 2013-2014 APPROVED BUDGET
(Item of action)
Trustee Kaplan, supported by Secretary Head, moved the Board resolves to increase the Capital Outlays line item in the 2013-2014 budget by $30,000 to cover the purchase of a delivery truck from Varsity Ford; that the $30,000 increase to Capital Outlays be transferred from the Fund Balance; that all resolutions and parts of resolutions that conflict with the provisions of this resolution are rescinded.
Associate Director Nieman informed the board that a quote was also sought from Briarwood Ford. The vehicle from Varsity Ford met requirements more so than the one from Briarwood.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0
14-025 I. RESOLUTION TO AMEND THE 2013-2014 APPROVED BUDGET
(Item of action)
Secretary Head, supported by Trustee Leary, moved the Board resolves to increase the Library Programming line item in the 2013-2014 budget by $63,000; that the $63,000 increase to Library Programming be transferred from the Fund Balance; that all resolutions and parts of resolutions that conflict with the provisions of this resolution are rescinded.
Director Parker reported that the funds would be used to design, publish and mail a quarterly newsletter to district residents. That post cards to special events would also be mailed and recognition efforts would be made for our 5 Star designation.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0
14-026 J. RESOLUTION TO AMEND THE 2013-2014 APPROVED BUDGET
(Item of action)
Vice President Murphy, supported by Secretary Head, moved the Board resolves to increase the Purchased Services line item in the 2013-2014 budget by $20,000 to cover a satisfaction survey of library district residents to be conducted by EPIC-MRA; that the $20,000 increase to Purchase Services be transferred from the Fund Balance; that all resolutions and parts of resolutions that conflict with the provisions of this resolution are rescinded.
Director Parker stated that a recommendation of the communications audit was to survey district residents on a bi-yearly basis. From 500 up to 600 persons of various age demographics would be contacted.
Trustee Leary supported by Vice President Murphy moved to amend the motion to increase the amount to the Purchased Services budget line by $25,000.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
Treasurer Barney Newman, supported by Secretary Head, moved to approve the amended resolution.
AYES: Head, Kaplan, Leary, Murphy, Barney Newman, Rosenthal, Surovell
NAYS: None
Motion passed 7-0.
14-027 K. PROPOSED POLICY CHANGES
(Item of discussion)
Director Parker noted that in following past practice proposed policy changes are presented to the Board for review and discussion. There will be no action on them tonight. Policy changes were presented in the current view, marked up view and draft view for ease of noting changes. She noted the bulk of the changes affect the circulation policy and will allow greater access to AADL library cards to non-resident K-12 students.
14-028 XV. CITIZENS’ COMMENTS
There were no additional citizens’ comments.
14-029 XVI. ADJOURNMENT
Vice President Murphy, supported by Trustee Kaplan, moved to adjourn the meeting.
President Rosenthal adjourned the meeting at 8:31 p.m.