Cover of "When Your Song Breaks the Silence."

She left behind a novel. And her parents, Stan and Judith Jacobs of Ann Arbor, have published it, in ebook form, as a memorial to her.

“When Your Song Breaks the Silence” is an elegantly imagined life of Austrian composer Franz Schubert, distinguished by an articulate sensitivity and meticulous research. The completed novel’s existence was a surprise to her parents – its subject was not.

When her daughter was 11 years old, Judith Jacobs writes on the website she created for the book, “she wrote a story about the composer as a young child trying myopically – Natalie was also very near-sighted – to interact with his family and surroundings.” A graduate of Community High School, Natalie majored in English literature at the University of Michigan and was still working with the Schubert theme in the mid-1990s; when Stan and Judith traveled to Vienna in 1995 they made a point to visit the house where he died (in 1828, at age 31).

“A lilac bush was in full bloom in front of the building,” Jacobs says. They took a photograph.

A Body of Work Discovered

Natalie continued to write after embracing the more practical art of midwifery, for which she was finishing training in Portland, Oregon, when she died of viral myocarditis – an inflammation of the heart muscle – brought on by a case of flu.

After the Jacobses went to Portland to settle their daughter’s affairs, they gave Natalie’s computer to a friend of hers, who discovered on its hard drive a collection of Natalie’s writings. Among them was the novel.

From the opening chapter:

He is making what he hears into structures that he can understand: the sound of his mother’s voice, the tread of his father’s feet; the intricate melodies of words. Sounds beat down on him relentlessly, sometimes terrifying, sometimes soothing, but always present, even in the quietest room. He imagines he can hear the sounds that the grass in the courtyard makes as it grows. …

He comes to realize that sound is a language that he must learn in the same way that he must learn to read. These patterns mean something, they have secrets inside them. He is starting to understand. And meanwhile the patterns are everywhere: in the sounds of the priest giving Mass, in the sounds of his brother Ignaz practicing the piano, in the sounds of his mother’s murmured words of comfort after he wakes from a nightmare.

Shhh, Vögelein. Geh’ zu ruhe. Go to sleep, love.

I can’t.

It was clear to her, Judith Jacobs says, that the novel “had real possibilities.” A friend suggested she show it to Andrea Beauchamp, assistant director of the Hopwood Awards Program at UM. Beauchamp passed the manuscript along to writer and UM colleague Eileen Pollack (whose most recent book is the novel “Breaking and Entering”). First, though, she took the liberty of reading the manuscript herself; Beauchamp, Jacobs says, told her she “loved it, and cried at the end.”

“When Andrea and Judith first contacted me, I was reluctant to read the manuscript,” Pollack recalled in an e-mail. “I knew that Natalie was young when she died and that she had written the book on her own. In most such cases, the results are amateurish. If that turned out to be the case, how would I convey such a judgment to her parents without adding to their grief? On the other hand, as a parent, I could imagine what it would be like to be left with a child’s manuscript and want the work to reach a larger audience, to live on …. So you can understand how happy I was to discover that the novel was the work of a truly gifted writer.”

Pollack, says Jacobs, “really gave us confidence that we might be able to do something” with Natalie’s manuscript.

A Chapter Is Published

Her first step was to submit a chapter of the novel to about 30 literary magazines. Titled “An die Freude” (“To Joy”), it is Natalie’s retelling of the premiere of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 from the point of view of Schubert, who was in the audience in Vienna that May night in 1824. With Beethoven in view on stage, seated to one side of the orchestra, he absorbs the symphony’s opening measures:

Or had it begun? What was going on? There was just a pianissimo murmur of strings, open fifths, and Franz thought for a moment that there had been some sort of mistake and the orchestra was tuning again …. But then he realized what was happening. It was the primal moment, the chaos before creation, as the other instruments added descending cascades of open fifths, the simplest chords. Franz thought of God moving on the face of the waters, in darkness and silence. And then the music grew, expanded, exploded into a huge statement of the first theme that made him jump in his seat. Behold, the creation of the world!

From then on, he knew he was in the presence of something very wonderful, very new, altogether new. For in no other symphony had music remade the world. And the music around him rose and rose, blossoming into a million fantastic shapes, while he watched and listened, trying to understand even while the music transformed him into a vessel filled with sound, shaking with it …. He was drunk with it, and as it sang through his veins, he forgot it all: his failing body, his failing art, all gone, lost in this vast and wonderful ocean of sound.

He wished he could take it and pull it into himself, make the brilliance a part of himself. The idea of making something as wonderful as this was beyond his comprehension. How did the man do it? How could he possibly be holding this inside him? He looked so insignificant down there, hunched over his score, unaware of the glory all around him.

This is why he’s deaf, Franz thought. He’s been listening to God too much. The thought was absurd and would have made him smile had he not been grinning with elation already.

Many journals “ask for short stories or novel excerpts that can stand alone,” Jacobs found, “and this chapter filled the bill. … I was thinking in terms of finding an agent and a publisher and wanted to establish a track record to show that the work was publishable. There was also the wish to see something of hers in print in a decent magazine, of course, and publishing a chapter of the book might also bode well for publishing the whole thing.”

The Battered Suitcase, a print journal, accepted “An die Freude” by Natalie Jacobs and it appeared in the December 2010 issue. Now, Jacobs says, “people can read it online for all time. It’s too bad she wasn’t there to enjoy it.”

An Alternative: ePublishing

Meanwhile, Pollack had shown the manuscript to her literary agent. When she responded to Jacobs with “a lovely letter saying she liked it a great deal … but didn’t see what the market would be for it,” Jacobs began looking into alternatives.

She did some research into electronic publishing and found that it “looked very respectable.” But, “I had no idea how I would do it,” she says. And “in my online search for help in self-publishing, I learned that there seem to be as many books on the topic as there are actual self-published books.” “The Indie Author Guide: Self-Publishing Strategies Anyone Can Use,” by April L. Hamilton, would eventually become their “bible” for the project; Jacobs calls it “a very sensible, well-written guide – no hype.”

It was around that time that Stan Jacobs, an emeritus professor of atmospheric and oceanic science in the UM College of Engineering, was able to join more fully in the project. He’d read “An die Freude,” Judith says, “but that was really all.” It was three years before her husband could bring himself to read the entire novel: “It just made him too sad.”

Natalie Jacobs, whose novel "When Your Song Breaks the Silence" was published posthumously. (Photo courtesy of Stan and Judith Jacobs.)

Judith and Stan brought their individual strengths to editing Natalie’s manuscript. Judith was the copy editor; Stan did the fact checking. “It was astounding how much research she did,” Judith says. They checked several Schubert biographies – “it all tracked.” (And, as Pollack notes, “the portrait of Schubert and his contemporaries [is] utterly convincing without seeming too heavily researched.”)

Meanwhile, Stan Jacobs was formatting the manuscript for epublication.

“Judy wrote the description of the book required by the publisher and an afterword describing how it came into our possession,” Stan wrote in an email detailing the process. “She also wrote the front matter – the cover, the title page, the dedication page, and the copyright statement. I was responsible for casting the table of contents in the proper ebook form and for editing the manuscript to conform with ebook conventions.”

Sounding like the scientist he is, Stan advised that “provided that you read the publishers’ guidelines carefully, the process is straightforward.”

He prepared two versions of the manuscript for uploading, one for Amazon Kindle and one for Barnes & Noble’s Nook and other ebook readers. Then (after he “obsessively reread it another time to check for typos”), he used Calibre, the open-source ebook application, “to convert the file into the two most popular ebook formats, Mobi and EPub. I then checked the formatting using an Amazon Kindle and an iPod Touch for the Mobi and EPub versions, respectively.” After final checks of the book’s appearance and epublishing features, they sent it off to Amazon for Kindle and to Smashwords, the distributor for Nook and other ebook readers.

Even an ebook requires a cover. Judith Jacobs is an artist who makes digital fine-art prints. But she is not, she insists, “a graphic designer. So I tried to do something simple.” She researched cover designs at Barnes & Noble, collecting images of appealing book jackets. And she had an image of her own to work with: the photo taken in Vienna in 1995. “It looks the way the book sounds,” she says of the cover she created for her daughter’s book. “It suits both the style and the 19th-century subject matter.”

Natalie had not given her novel a name. “I felt very presumptuous, choosing a title for her book,” Judith Jacobs says, “but I thought Schubert would be OK.”

“When Your Song Breaks the Silence” is taken from the last stanza of “Der Einsame” (“The Hermit”), a poem by Karl Lappe put to music by Franz Schubert:

 Chirp on and on, dear cricket,

in my narrow and small hermitage.

I tolerate you gladly: you do not disturb me

when your song breaks the silence,

for then I am no longer so entirely alone.

The novel is available for Amazon Kindle. The Smashwords edition is now on the lists at Barnes and Noble Nook Store, Apple iTunes Store, Kobo, and soon to come at Sony.

About the writer: Domenica Trevor lives in Ann Arbor – her columns are published periodically in The Ann Arbor Chronicle. The Chronicle relies in part on regular voluntary subscriptions to support our columnists and other contributors. If you’re already supporting The Chronicle, please encourage your friends, neighbors and coworkers to do the same. Click this link for details: Subscribe to The Chronicle.

Nancy Kaplan, the newest Ann Arbor District Library board member, is introducing a proposal to videotape library board meetings for public broadcast. The board is expected to consider a resolution on that issue at its May 16 meeting. (Photos by the writer.)

The deal – which is getting national attention from library professionals – gives patrons unlimited access to a downloadable catalog of about 12,000 tracks in a wide range of genres. Though it doesn’t include songs by popular artists on major record labels, AADL director Josie Parker told the board that the selection should appeal to a community like Ann Arbor, which values alternative music.

The library is looking for other ways to increase its digital offerings of audiobooks, films, music, and free or open eBooks. Possibilities include tapping collections like Project Gutenberg, which has about 50,000 titles, and working with local authors, musicians and filmmakers who might be interested in making their work accessible to library patrons.

Also at Monday’s meeting, board member Nancy Kaplan advocated for televising the board’s monthly meetings, and said she’d like to bring a formal proposal to the board for a vote on May 16. Other groups like the Ann Arbor Public Schools board and the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority currently hold their meetings in the same location as the AADL board – the fourth floor conference room of the AADL’s downtown building on South Fifth Avenue. AAPS and AATA meetings are televised by Community Television Network. Parker agreed that there are benefits to televising the meetings, but cited issues of quality and control as reasons why they haven’t decided to do that yet.

In other business, board members got a preview of the 2011-12 budget, for the fiscal year starting July 1, 2011. They plan to keep the millage level unchanged – AADL levies 1.55 mills, not its maximum allowable 1.92 mills. There will be no layoffs, but no pay increases. The board will take a formal vote to approve the final budget at their May 16 meeting, which will also include a public hearing on the issue.

And in a discussion about the nonprofit Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library, Parker asked the board to consider putting a direct link to that organization’s website on the front page of the AADL website. The move would be “a pretty public vote of confidence for them, and recognition for everything they’ve done,” she said. The AADL had distanced itself from the Friends several years ago in the wake of financial oversight issues that have since been resolved. The group operates a used bookstore in the lower level of AADL’s downtown branch, with proceeds – $100,000 this year alone – benefiting the library.

Videotaping AADL Board Meetings

As an item for discussion, Nancy Kaplan – the board’s newest member, who was first elected in November 2010 – brought forward a proposal to videotape the monthly AADL library board meetings. She cited a list of benefits, such as enhancing the library’s outreach efforts and providing another way for the public to get information about AADL, its staff and programs. As an example, she mentioned the report by director Josie Parker at last month’s board meeting regarding Parker’s work with the Digital Public Library of America, and the presentation on eBooks that was made at the April board meeting.

Viewers would also learn, along with the board, about the challenges and changes happening at the library, Kaplan said, especially as it shifts to providing more digital services. Those changes might include delivery of services, the physical structure of the library, and the changing financial environment, she said. Kaplan asked the board to consider televising their meetings, saying that she believed it would cost only $50 per month, if even that much.

[By way of background, Community Television Network (CTN) – a unit of the city of Ann Arbor – records and televises a wide variety of public meetings, including several that are held in the same boardroom as the library board meetings – on the fourth floor of the downtown AADL building. Meetings that are currently recorded by CTN in that room include the Ann Arbor Public Schools board, the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority board, and the Ann Arbor Public Market Commission.]

Parker told the board that she couldn’t argue about the benefits. But she asked Tim Grimes, the district’s community relations and marketing manager, to describe how the library allocates its resources, and why they’ve made the decision in the past not to videotape board meetings.

Grimes said his staff includes two part-time employees who videotape and provide technical support for AADL events. He said they did have an initial conversation with CTN, but were told that because the library board meetings fall on the same night as Ann Arbor city council meetings, the library board meetings could not be aired live – they’d have to be taped for broadcast at a later date.

He also said if the board did decide to videotape meetings, his staff would do it – because all of the video on the AADL’s website is done in-house.

In giving an overview of the work his department does, Grimes said they film about 6-8 library events each month to post on the AADL’s website. Talks by authors like journalist Cokie Roberts in 2008 and TV producer Chuck Barris in 2007 had been especially popular, he said. Grimes also highlighted talks held at AADL in partnership with groups like the University of Michigan Depression Center and University Musical Society, and which are available in the AADL’s video-on-demand collection. In addition to videotaping events, his staff also does podcasts and provides technical assistance for AADL events, Grimes said.

Grimes noted that they produce an annual report video, which he said includes much of the information that Kaplan described, and features interviews with staff and patrons.

Another thing to consider is that on some board meeting nights, the library has to schedule author events at the same time, Grimes said. He cited as an example the board’s next meeting on May 16, when Sebastian Junger – author of “A Perfect Storm” – will be speaking at the same time in the library’s multi-purpose room at an event they’ll be videotaping. It’s the only night that Junger was available, Grimes said, so they didn’t have any choice about scheduling.

Grimes concluded by noting that he’s worked at the library for 22 years, and has been in his current job for 18 years. Not once, he said, has a member of the public asked to have library board meetings filmed. “I have lots of requests for other things, including Chuck Barris, but never for this.”

Margaret Leary, the board’s chair, posed a hypothetical question: If the library were to produce a video about a topic that might be touched on at a board meeting – like Parker’s presentation last month on the Digital Public Library of America – would it be more in-depth than a 5-10 minute talk? Certainly, Grimes replied, saying that their films are very polished in terms of quality of picture, sound and content.

Leary then asked Parker if she had any additional comments regarding their strategic thinking on this issue. Parker said they hadn’t really considered making films about their own initiatives. They certainly could, she said, but it’s more likely they’d look for partnerships – for example, the University of Michigan’s Google books project might be a way to discuss issues related to digitization and libraries.

More generally, Parker said it wasn’t an issue of cost. Rather, with CTN, the library would have no control over quality or scheduling, she said – and the video wouldn’t be the AADL’s. It would belong to CTN.

Kaplan said it seemed to be the culture of this community to televise public meetings. She noted that more entities – like the Downtown Development Authority and AATA – are moving in that direction. She said she isn’t looking for something perfect, but that with so many changes coming for AADL, it’s important to bring the community along with them. Even though Parker’s presentation last month had been brief, she said, it was also enlightening and informative. Kaplan also thought it would be possible to request that CTN broadcast the meetings at certain times.

At any rate, Kaplan added, these are logistics that can be worked out. What they really need to decide is the concept – do they want to record their meetings for broadcast? If there are concerns, she said, perhaps they could do it on a trial basis.

Kaplan plans to bring a formal resolution on the issue to the board’s May 16 meeting.

Digital Media at the AADL

A discussion at the board’s March 21 meeting – which focused on how digital books are transforming the publishing industry and, in turn, public libraries – prompted AADL director Josie Parker to offer to give the board an overview of the library’s digital offerings at their April meeting. On Monday, Celeste Choate – associate director of services, collections and access – gave a detailed presentation on the range of digital services that AADL provides its patrons.

Digital Media: Overdrive

Choate began by describing some of the services that the library offers for eBooks and audio books – including one that’s been a frustration for both library officials as well as patrons.

Overdrive is a business that provides electronic books to public libraries – AADL accesses this service through its membership in the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services. Because Overdrive is an outside vendor, AADL doesn’t have control over its offerings, Choate told the board. The service also only allows for one user download at a time per item, so there are long waiting lists to check out the most popular material. A common complaint is that people want to get the books more quickly, she said. And once the period of use has expired, the material is automatically erased from your computer.

There are technical constraints as well, Choate said. Overdrive is only compatible with certain equipment, and requires users to first install software on their computer. Later in the meeting she walked the board through the steps required to use Overdrive – a fairly complicated process.

Celeste Choate, AADL's associate director of services, collections and access.

Recently, 700 animated Disney storybooks were added to the Overdrive collection – those allow for simultaneous use, but can only be downloaded to computers, not electronic readers. Overdrive offers about 5,000 eBooks and 4,000 audiobooks, which are compatible with Nook and Sony electronic readers. Users of Kindle will be able to access the service at some point soon, Choate said, although she added that when more patrons start to use the service because they can read the material on their Kindles, wait lists will likely grow even more.

Over the past 12 months, there have been about 16,000 checkouts of Overdrive material.

Parker later noted that AADL hasn’t publicized Overdrive because it’s not a great service. Even when it’s available via Kindle, that won’t change the problems that patrons face when using it, she said.

Digital Media: eBooks for the Blind, Physically Disabled

Working with the National Library Service, AADL offers over 21,000 books and 48 magazine titles via the Braille and Audio Reading Download service, or BARD. This service allows for unlimited, simultaneous downloads, Choate said, and unlike Overdrive material, users can keep permanently whatever they download.

To provide faster access for patrons, AADL has downloaded all 21,000 books and can distribute them quickly on flashdrives, whenever there’s a request. This is a service that’s just been launched, Choate said, and is being coordinated by Terry Soave, AADL’s outreach and neighborhood services manager.

AADL also offers access to a program called BookShare, which provides more than 90,000 books, textbooks, periodicals and other material.

All of these services require that the users be a patron of the Washtenaw Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled, which is managed by AADL.

Digital Media: Tumblebooks

Tumblebooks is designed for visually impaired children, and allows users to download animated storybooks, audio games and other games to their computers. The service offers unlimited access, and last year there were 75,000 book views by library patrons, Choate said. Based on what AADL pays for the service, it costs the library less than a penny per book view, she said.

Digital Media: Magnatune

One of the most promising new digital offerings is available through Magnatune, a digital music publisher. AADL recently negotiated a deal with the firm for about 12,000 songs – or the equivalent of about 1,200 albums, Choate said. The service offers unlimited, simultaneous downloads with no waiting. The Magnatune page on AADL’s website describes it this way, in what appears to be an oblique reference to Overdrive: “You shouldn’t have to jump through 17 flaming hoops in order to access digital content, so we’ve tried to make the process as simple as possible.”

Since launching about three weeks ago, over 11,000 tracks have been downloaded, Choate said.

Parker noted that these are independent artists – you won’t find music by the current hot performers – but there’s a wide variety of genres, from world music and blues to hip hop, classical and alt rock. She said the music is appealing in a community like Ann Arbor, where alternative music is valued.

The AADL doesn’t pay per download – rather, the library paid a $10,000 flat fee in a licensing agreement that runs through June 30, 2012. So the more times the service is used, the lower the cost is per use. It’s a very cost-effective service for the library to provide, Choate said.

Digital Media: Future Plans

The library is looking for ways to increase its digital offerings, Choate said – audiobooks, films, music, and free or open eBooks. One example, she said, is to look at what’s available from Project Gutenberg, which has been compiling a collection of free eBooks and has about 50,000 titles. [The books are free because their copyright has expired.] AADL also hopes to talk with local authors, musicians and filmmakers who might be interested in making their work accessible to library patrons.

AADL has the infrastructure in place to provide these digital services, Choate said. They’re pursuing deals like the one with Magnatune, with fixed costs, unlimited downloads and annual licenses. The library is interested in getting the most use out of its collections, she said, while containing costs – they don’t want to pay per download.

Responding to a board member’s query, Parker said there’s never enough exposure for what the library offers, but that when they launch something like the deal with Magnatune, there’s no shortage of information about it. Social media networks are playing a huge role in spreading the word about AADL’s deal with Magnatune, and earlier in the day, Parker said, they got a call from Library Journal, which is interested in doing an article about the agreement.

People who are only interested in mainstream music – like the kind licensed by Sony – might not be interested in what’s available via Magnatune, Parker said. But it’s not worth it for the library to strike a deal with Sony – it would cost them almost as much as retail.

Margaret Leary, chair of the board, expressed frustration at the relatively limited material available to the general public. Leary is director of the University of Michigan Law Library, and described how easy it is for her – as an academic librarian – to quickly access any of thousands of electronic books in their system, all at no cost to her as a user. She described how she was researching earthworms as an invasive species, and with only a simple search found two books on the subject – the full texts were available to her online, she said. Leary indicated that resources should be equally available for the general public.

Financial Reports: March Update, 2011-12 Budget

The board heard two financial reports on Monday from Ken Nieman, associate director of finance, human resources and operations. He first gave an update on March 2011 financials. The district’s unrestricted cash balance at the end of March was $10.124 million, down from $11 million in February. Its fund balance stood at $7.924 million as of March 31. The district has received 96% of this fiscal year’s tax receipts, or $10.923 million.

Three line items – employee benefits, legal expenses and library programming costs – are over budget, Nieman reported. As he’s noted at previous meetings, the extra expenses for employee benefits – related to increased health care costs – are not likely to come back in line with the budget by year’s end. Year to date, that line item is $50,543 over budget.

The district spent $21,126 in legal expenses during March, compared to a budgeted amount of $6,250. Those costs related to four issues: Research on tax increment financing (TIF) for both the Washtenaw Avenue corridor project and the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority, labor negotiations, and preparation of an amicus brief in a Herrick District Library lawsuit against the Library of Michigan. Year to date, legal expenses are $11,609 over budget.

Library programs, which was $6,107 over budget for March, is expected to come back in line with its budgeted amount by year’s end.

Nieman also pointed out that AADL received $30,264 in state aid during March. Because of uncertainties related to the state’s economy, the district had not included any state aid in its current fiscal year budget – that’s been the district’s practice for several years. The payment is the first installment – typically, the state makes two payments of 50% each, he said. Board member Prue Rosenthal asked whether receiving this first payment means they’ll likely get another $30,000 from the state. Nieman said he thinks so: “We’re as certain as we can be about that.” [.pdf file of March 2011 finance report]

Financial Reports: 2011-12 Budget

Later in the meeting, Nieman returned to the podium to give a briefing on the proposed 2011-12 budget, which the board will vote on at its May 16 meeting. Barbara Murphy, chair of the board’s finance committee, said the committee discussed the budget with staff earlier this month. “It’s another tight budget,” she said. [.pdf file of 2011-12 AADL draft budget]

Nieman began by noting that the budget had been built on the assumption that tax revenues would drop by 3%. However, on April 21, the county’s equalization department released its report on taxable values for jurisdictions in Washtenaw County. [See Chronicle coverage: "Washtenaw County's Taxable Value Falls"] At that point, they learned that AADL’s tax revenues would drop by only 1.7%. “That’s good news,” Nieman said. “We’d always like it to go up, but it’s better than we were predicting.”

In a follow-up phone conversation with The Chronicle, Nieman said the budget presented on May 16 will be revised to reflect those higher-than-expected revenues. Revenues for FY2011-12 are now expected to total $12.034 million, rather than the $11.887 million indicated in the draft budget. The bulk of revenues in the budget – $11.092 million – are from tax receipts.

On Monday, Nieman told the board there will be no layoffs, no pay cuts, and the library’s hours and service levels will remain unaffected – patrons won’t notice any changes. The draft budget shows a $186,000 deficit, he said, but given the change in anticipated tax revenues, that deficit is now closer to $40,o00.

Nieman later told The Chronicle that AADL hopes to shift its union employees over to a similar health insurance plan that non-union workers were shifted to last October, to cut costs. About 50 of the roughly 250 AADL workers are represented by unions. Several line item expenses are lower in the FY2011-12 budget, including custodial, purchased services, utilities, and grants and memorial expenses. The budget includes an $18,000 increase in the line item for repair and maintenance, to $283,000.

For some employees, the AADL will see an increase in the amount it must contribute to the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS) – from 20.66% this year to 24.47%. Nieman noted that only 18 AADL employees are part of this state-mandated retirement program – they are people who were hired when the library was part of the Ann Arbor Public Schools system, before AADL was spun off as an independent entity in 1996. [For a primer on MPSERS funding, see Chronicle coverage of a February 2010 Ann Arbor Public Schools study session.]

On Monday, Nieman told the board that the administration will be working to present a balanced budget to the finance committee at its next meeting, and to the full board in May. He also pointed out that they’ll achieve the budget at the 1.55 mills that the district currently levies – they won’t be raising taxes.

Margaret Leary, the board chair, noted that they weren’t voting on the budget that evening, and that it would be modified before being brought to the board at their May meeting for approval. She clarified that although it’s possible for the AADL to levy up to 1.92 mills, they’ve chosen not to do that. “We have a track record of sticking to our budget and not overextending,” she said. “In this economy, there are not very many public organizations that are able to do that.”

Leary said that Nieman and AADL director Josie Parker deserve accolades – they set a great example for financial management and the provision of services.

Parker reminded the board that their May meeting will also include a public hearing on the budget.

Director’s Report

In addition to her written report, AADL director Josie Parker briefed the board on two other items. [.pdf file of AADL April director's report]

Josie Parker, Ann Arbor District Library director, at the board's April 25, 2011 meeting.

Parker reported that she had attended the oral arguments at the state court of appeals last week in the lawsuit brought by Herrick District Library lawsuit against the Library of Michigan.

[By way of background, new standards imposed by the Library of Michigan have changed how public libraries qualify for state aid. Those standards – originally proposed as rules – are the subject of a lawsuit against the state library, filed by the Herrick District Library in Holland. The AADL has filed an amicus curiae – or “friend of the court” – brief in support of the Herrick library’s position, which charges that the state library has no authority to set these rules, and is taking away local control from district libraries. Parker has discussed this lawsuit on previous occasions, including the board's March 21 meeting.]

Parker told the board that the three-judge panel had impressed her with their knowledge of the legal issues at stake, and that they were thorough in their questioning. It’s likely to take several months before they hand down a ruling, however. “For now, it’s a waiting game,” she said. In the meantime, she added, hopefully state aid will be dispersed.

Parker also reported that earlier that day, she’d been in Lansing for a meeting of the Michigan Library Association‘s legislative committee, on which she serves, to meet with the MLA’s lobbyist. In terms of state support for libraries, “it’s amazingly good news,” she said, relative to what they had anticipated. The state House proposed budget calls for cutting library funding from $7.25 million to $3.6 million, which she said is barely enough to fund the Library of Michigan and the Michigan eLibrary, known as MeL, for the year. There is no line item for MeL in the House version.

The Senate version holds library funding harmless – at the same levels as the current fiscal year – and includes a separate line item for MeL.

Parker said the House version at least doesn’t eliminate library funding entirely, and that the final budget will likely include funding somewhere between the House and Senate proposals. That’s “far more than we expected,” Parker said. She noted that legislators from the Ann Arbor area have been very responsive to these issues.

Director’s Evaluation

Margaret Leary, the board’s chair, is also chair of the director’s evaluation committee. She reported that all board members had participated in giving feedback about Josie Parker’s performance, and that they had discussed it in executive session earlier that evening. They’ll finish the formal evaluation document in the next month, and she’ll present a public letter regarding the evaluation at the May 16 board meeting. “It’s all good,” Leary said.

Friends of the AADL

Prue Rosenthal gave an update on the Friends of the Ann Arbor District Library (FAADL), a nonprofit that operates a used book shop in the lower level of the downtown AADL building to raise money for the library. They recently gave AADL a check for $20,000 – bringing this year’s total contributions to $100,000.

FAADL is planning a membership drive to coincide with the AADL’s summer reading program, Rosenthal said – she noted that the library is kicking off the summer reading program this year at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival.

Another thing that FAADL is discussing is whether to have a booth at the nonprofit part of the Ann Arbor Art Fairs. Parker had encouraged it, Rosenthal said, because this year it will be difficult to get access to the library from the art fairs. Fifth Avenue is closed between the library and East Liberty, where part of the art fairs are held, so it would be a good year to raise awareness about the bookstore, she said. They’ll need volunteers and $60 for the booth, Rosenthal reported, but it looks like they’ll go ahead with it.

March was down in sales – but overall for the year, the FAADL store is ahead of last year, Rosenthal said. They’ve raised $3,600 selling books online, via Ann Arbor-based Books by Chance and AbeBooks. “They are cooking on all burners,” she said.

Parker told the board that the space agreement between AADL and FAADL is up for renewal in May. At Leary’s request, Parker said she contacted FAADL president Pat McDonald to ask if there are any issues they need to address. McDonald indicated the agreement is fine as it stands, so Parker said she’ll likely ask the board to approve an extension to the agreement at their May 16 meeting.

As another item for the board to consider, Parker noted that several years ago, the library removed the FAADL from the library’s website when the nonprofit was struggling with some financial oversight issues. Now, the FAADL conducts annual audits and they’re clean, Parker said. She attends their meetings and is comfortable suggesting that the library place a link on their homepage to the FAADL website. Right now, the FAADL is only included on the library’s webpage that lists a variety of ways to contribute to AADL. Putting a link on the AADL front page would be “a pretty public vote of confidence for them, and recognition for everything they’ve done,” Parker said.

Rosenthal also noted that the FAADL is looking for board members, particularly people who have graphic design, marketing and public relations experience.

Auditors Approved

Added to the agenda at the beginning of Monday’s meeting was a resolution to approve the accounting firm Rehmann to conduct the AADL’s audit for fiscal years ending June 30, 2011 through June 30, 2014. [Rehmann – formerly Rehmann Robson – conducts audits for several local municipalities, including Washtenaw County. A representative from the accounting firm presented results of the county's audit at the April 20, 2011 county board of commissioners meeting.]

Barbara Murphy, chair of the finance committee, reported that Ken Nieman – associate director of finance, human resources and operations – had issued a request for proposals (RFP) and received four responses. Of those, two were chosen to interview: Rehmann, and Abraham & Gaffney. Murphy said that based on those interviews, it was clear that Rehmann best suited AADL’s needs.

Outcome: The board unanimously approved the selection of Rehmann to conduct the AADL’s audits through 2014.

Present: Rebecca Head, Nancy Kaplan, Margaret Leary, Barbara Murphy, Jan Barney Newman, Prue Rosenthal, Ed Surovell. Also AADL director Josie Parker.

Next meeting: Monday, May 16, 2011 at 7 p.m. in the library’s fourth floor meeting room, 343 S. Fifth Ave. [confirm date]

The avatar for Eli Neiburger – or click the photo to see how he looks in real life. Neiburger has been named by Library Journal as one of its 2011 Movers & Shakers.

The topic stemmed from a report by AADL director Josie Parker, who described her experience at a recent working group meeting for the Digital Public Library of America. At that invitation-only event, Parker framed the discussion among industry leaders regarding the future of public access to information, from the perspective of public libraries.

It’s an issue highlighted by the decision of two major publishers – Macmillan and Simon & Schuster – not to sell eBooks to public libraries, making more than 25% of the eBook market unavailable to library patrons. More recently, HarperCollins announced restrictions on how libraries can circulate eBooks that it publishes.

Eli Neiburger, AADL’s associate director of IT and product development, gave a talk on the impact of eBooks at a national summit last fall called “ebooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point” – his presentation can be viewed online. At Monday’s meeting, Parker congratulated him for being named by Library Journal as one of its 2011 Movers & Shakers, in the category of tech leaders.

In another technology-related update, Parker told the board she’s been invited to serve on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation‘s public access technology benchmarks program. That workgroup will be developing benchmarks that libraries can use to determine the kind of technology infrastructure they need to deliver services to their communities.

Parker also briefed the board on new standards imposed by the Library of Michigan, which changed how public libraries qualify for state aid. Those standards – originally proposed as rules – are the subject of a lawsuit against the state library, filed by the Herrick District Library in Holland. The AADL has filed an amicus curiae – or “friend of the court” – brief in support of the Herrick library’s position, which charges that the state library has no authority to set these rules, and is taking away local control from district libraries.

Aside from updates made by Parker, the board dispatched with the rest of its business quickly. No one spoke during the time available for public commentary.

Director’s Report

Josie Parker, AADL director, touched on several topics during her report to the board at Monday’s meeting. The issue that generated the most discussion related to her work with the Digital Public Library of America.

Director’s Report: Digital Public Library of America

At the January 2011 AADL board meeting, Parker had briefed the board on her involvement in the Digital Public Library of America initiative. She’d been invited to be part of a small working group that is helping to launch the project, which is spearheaded by Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

That working group met on March 1 in Cambridge, Mass. On Monday, Parker described the experience as the highlight of her professional career. Gathered in one room were people who represented all major industries that have an impact on public libraries, she said, and who’ll determine what direction they might move, in terms of public access. It was a one-time opportunity to tell people they need to pay more attention to what the word “public” means – not what she means by the word, Parker clarified, but what industry leaders intend.

Parker was the first speaker at the session, and her role was to frame the discussion from the perspective of public libraries, as opposed to academic research libraries. She said she explained to the working group how public libraries might participate in the digital distribution of information. Her talk, she said, ended up framing the discussion for the entire day – she noted that there were those who truly appreciated what she had to say, and those who wished she hadn’t shown up. “I did not shame us,” she said, “but they definitely know who we are.”

Parker reported that she sat at a table with the head of OverDrive, a business that provides eBooks and other digital material to public libraries, schools and universities. The executive was very harried that morning, she noted, because the publisher HarperCollins had just announced restrictions on how public libraries can circulate its eBooks. Rather than circulating the eBooks an unlimited number of times, as libraries do for print editions, HarperCollins will allow eBooks to be checked out only 26 times before they expire. Libraries would have to pay again for additional circulation.

At the working group session, they didn’t have enough information about the HarperCollins decision to really understand its implications, Parker said. Though the public library community is up in arms about it, she said, it’s not clear that the move is as bad as it’s been made out to be. Libraries have to recognize that negotiations are necessary – publishers have to make money, she said.

Parker pointed out that at least HarperCollins is still selling eBooks to public libraries. Two major publishing houses – Macmillan and Simon & Schuster – refuse to sell any of its eBooks to public libraries, she noted. That means that more than 25% of the eBook market isn’t available to library patrons. She suspected that executives at Macmillan and Simon & Schuster are happy about the firestorm against HarperCollins, because it draws attention away from the much more serious situation that their decisions pose.

Jan Barney Newman clarified that only eBooks were being limited. That’s true, Parker replied, but the published book is going away. If libraries are going to have material to distribute to their patrons, they need to negotiate for electronic material now, while they still have leverage because of their purchases of traditional books.

Newman asked for more details about the DPLA event. Parker said they operated under the Chatham House Rule, in which statements are recorded but not attributed to any particular speaker. People were allowed to use Twitter (hashtag #DPLA) – but again, statements couldn’t be attributed to a speaker. Later, John Palfrey, the head of the DPLA steering committee, posted some notes on his blog about the meeting.

Parker said it was important for those involved in the DPLA to hear the issue of public access from the public libraries’ perspective, rather than just from academic institutions. “So we’ll see – it’s a long process,” she said.

Prue Rosenthal asked whether authors are generally aware that distribution of their books is being limited in this way. Authors weren’t as aware in the beginning, Parker replied, but now it’s a standard part of their contracts. And some are finding ways to work around those publishers’ decisions. Some blockbuster authors are bypassing publishers altogether, for example. But the vast majority rely on large publishing houses to get their material distributed.

Publishers worry because digital material is so much easier to pass around, Parker said. The feeling is that if someone can get it for free from a library, they wouldn’t pay for it. “It’s early days,” she said, “but my instinct tells me that isn’t so.” She noted that she continues to buy books, even though she works at a library and has easy access to them for free.

Barbara Murphy observed that there seems to be parallels with the music industry. That’s true, Parker said – technology is transforming the publishing industry in ways that are somewhat similar. Within five years, some of the large publishing houses will likely go out of business, because they aren’t paying attention to what’s happening. But the library is paying attention, she added. They’re trying to keep up, so that as the market shifts to eBooks, they’re prepared.

Newman asked what percentage of AADL’s circulated material are eBooks. It’s small, Parker said, because of constraints on how eBooks are available to circulate. The library can’t purchase Kindles for circulation – Amazon’s electronic book reader – because of the way its licensing agreement is structured. Another eBook reader, the Nook, does allow downloads of eBooks that can be circulated, but the library hasn’t bought the hardware to do that yet. Right now, the AADL’s main interface for eBooks is through OverDrive, which Parker said isn’t easy to use. [More details about AADL's available eBook catalog is on the library's website.]

In response to queries from board members, Parker said she’d schedule a demonstration of OverDrive and other eBook options at the board’s April 25 meeting.

Margaret Leary asked whether ebrary, which also sells eBooks to libraries, is an option. Eli Neiburger, AADL’s associate director of IT and product development, said there’s not much material available from ebrary, and most of it is non-fiction.

Parker noted that they’re confined in what they can offer based on what OverDrive can negotiate with publishers. That business gets pummeled by the library community mainly because they’re the only target, Parker said: “There’s no competition – but that’s going to change.”

Director’s Report: Kudos to Eli Neiburger

Also during her director’s report, Parker highlighted the fact that Eli Neiburger – AADL’s associate director of IT and product development – has been named by Library Journal as one of its 2011 Movers & Shakers, in the category of tech leaders. Neiburger received a round of applause from the board and staff who attended Monday’s meeting.

Parker read from the Library Journal article that profiled Neiburger, quoting Toby Greenwalt, virtual services coordinator at Skokie Public Library, Illinois: “[Neiburger has] thus far exhibited a near-flawless track record at predicting the ways technology and web culture are going to impact the library world. He’s a person we definitely need to lead us into our redefined role.”

Directing her remarks to Neiburger, Parker said, “We do need you to lead us into our redefined role, and we’re just very glad you’re with us to lead us.”

Director’s Report: Update on Lawsuit

During her report, Parker gave an update on new standards imposed by the Library of Michigan. Those standards – originally proposed as rules – are the subject of a lawsuit against the state library, filed by the Herrick District Library in Holland. At their December 2010 meeting, the AADL board had voted to file an amicus curiae – or “friend of the court” – brief in support of the Herrick library’s position. From The Chronicle’s report of that meeting:

In 2009, the Library of Michigan issued new rules which changed the standards used to determine whether public libraries qualify for state aid. The rules were slated to take effect in October 2010 – the start of the state’s fiscal year. [.pdf file of 2010 Library of Michigan Certification Manual and State Aid to Public Libraries Grant Rules]

When the new rules were announced in draft form in 2008, directors of eight library cooperatives in the state – representing, through their memberships, many of the public libraries in Michigan – objected to the change. They contended that the Library of Michigan didn’t have the authority to set new rules on how libraries qualify for state aid, which is awarded by the state legislature. “It was a loud voice, and it went unheard,” Parker said.

In October 2009, the Herrick District Library filed a lawsuit in the Ottawa County Circuit Court, challenging the Library of Michigan’s authority to set these rules. The lawsuit focused on rules requiring that a public library provide the same level of service to all areas it serves.

Libraries have the authority to contract with areas outside of its millage boundaries to provide varying levels of service. A contracting municipality, for example, could receive limited library services for its residents, and pay an amount lower than what’s levied by the library millage within the library district’s boundary. The new rules prohibit this approach – and if a library continued to provide contracted services at a lower level, it would not qualify for state aid.

Herrick’s lawsuit argues that the Library of Michigan and the state’s History, Arts and Library Department – which previously housed the state library but which has since been dissolved – lack statutory authority to set rules for determining how state aid is distributed to public libraries. The suit also argues that neither the state constitution nor the statutes that govern public libraries require that libraries deliver the same level of service to contracting jurisdictions. Finally, the lawsuit contends that because the new rules are vague and overly broad, they are unconstitutional.

Parker told the AADL board that the lawsuit is challenging the new rules for the same reasons that the directors of the eight library cooperatives had objected to them – because the Library of Michigan has no authority to set the rules, and because the state library is taking away local control from district libraries.

On Sept. 9, 2010, Judge Calvin Bosman of the Ottawa County Circuit Court issued a ruling in the case, stating that the Library of Michigan lacked the authority to issue these new rules. The state library appealed the decision to the Michigan Court of Appeals, and filed a motion for stay – essentially asking that the lower court’s decision not take affect until the appeal is resolved. Parker said they learned earlier in the day that the motion for stay has been denied.

The lawsuit and the recent denial of the motion for stay throws state aid into limbo, Parker said. Libraries haven’t received aid for the state’s current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1 – although the money has been budgeted by the legislature. In the short term, it doesn’t affect AADL, Parker said – in general, state aid has been dwindling because of Michigan’s economic situation. Most recently, the legislature budgeted about $6 million in total aid to public libraries statewide.

Because of the state’s overall economy, AADL didn’t anticipate receiving state aid this year, so it won’t affect their current budget, Parker said. Nor does AADL have any contracts to provide services to other municipalities. But longer-term implications could be significant, she said.

On Monday, Parker told the board that earlier this year, the state library took the “rules” that were in dispute and imposed them as “standards.” They are essentially the same set of requirements, and state aid will be distributed to public libraries based on these standards. Parker reported that Herrick filed for an injunction against the state to prevent them from imposing the standards, but that injunction was not awarded by the circuit court. Herrick now plans to appeal the circuit court’s decision not to award an injunction. Meanwhile, the state library will move ahead in awarding state aid based on the new standards.

Parker reiterated to the board what she has previously stated – that these standards will result in public libraries deciding not to contract with municipalities unless those municipalities can pay for the full range of services that the library offers. She told the board that she’d keep them updated as Herrick’s legal action progresses.

Director’s Report: Gates Foundation

Parker told the board that she’s been invited to serve on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation‘s public access technology benchmarks program. The workgroup will be developing benchmarks that libraries can use to determine the kind of technology infrastructure they need to deliver services to their communities.

While the foundation’s early investments bought computers and Internet access for libraries, Parker said they’ve now shifted focus to help libraries evaluate their technology needs, train staff, and determine how to gain public support for long-term community funding.

Director’s Report: Addy Awards

The library received four ADDY awards earlier this year from the Ann Arbor Ad Club, Parker reported – one gold ADDY, and three silvers. The awards recognize work in advertising, marketing and promotion. For the library, the materials that won ADDYs this year were all designed by Heidi Woodward Sheffield of The Exclamation Point. The gold award was for material designed for AADL’s summer reading program. Silver AADYs were awarded for: stickers and puzzles; two issues of Jump! – a calendar of events for kids; and for a Reading to Me CD that’s distributed to families with infants.

Parker said that although the library has consistently received ADDY awards over the years, this is the first time they’ve been awarded so many at this level.

Financial Report

Ken Nieman, associate director of finance, human resources and operations, gave a brief monthly financial report to the board. [.pdf file of March 2011 financial report] The library’s unrestricted cash balance as of Feb. 28, 2011 was $11 million, down from $11.8 million in January. Its positive fund balance totaled $7.9 million.

Two items – software licenses and employee benefits – remain over budget, he said. Expenses for software licenses are expected to come back in line by the end of the fiscal year, June 30. The extra expenses for employee benefits – related to increased health care costs – have been discussed at previous meetings. Year to date, that line item is $53,393 over budget.

Nieman also pointed out that the Friends of the AADL, a nonprofit that raises money to support the library, donated just over $40,000 to AADL in February. So far this year, donations from the Friends have totaled roughly $95,000.

Committee Reports

Board president Margaret Leary gave a report on the executive committee meeting, held earlier this month. The group includes Leary, Barbara Murphy and Prue Rosenthal. They discussed prospects for the budget in the coming year, Leary said, including trends and possible solutions to challenges that had been outlined by AADL director Josie Parker. Leary did not elaborate. She said the committee also heard a presentation by local developer Peter Allen – Leary described it as a short seminar on development, given from his perspective. He’ll give the second part of his presentation at the committee’s March 30 meeting, she said.

Responding to a request from board member Nancy Kaplan to talk more about Allen’s presentation, Leary said it seemed like the kind of thing he’d give to his students. [Allen is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. His students gave presentations at a library board meeting in December 2009, based on class projects they'd developed for the city-owned Library Lot, located next to the downtown library on South Fifth Avenue.]

Leary said Allen’s handout, which she offered to distribute to other board members, outlined different stages of real estate development.

Present: Rebecca Head, Nancy Kaplan, Margaret Leary, Barbara Murphy, Jan Barney Newman, Prue Rosenthal. Also AADL director Josie Parker.

Absent: Ed Surovell

Next meeting: Monday, April 25, 2011 at 7 p.m. in the library’s fourth floor meeting room, 343 S. Fifth Ave. The board typically meets on the third Monday of each month, but moved the April meeting so that it wouldn’t fall on Passover, which this year is on April 18. [confirm date]