ON MARCH 17 Ms. Josie Parker, Director of the Ann Arbor District Library, spoke before Ann Arbor City Council and confessed that “over the past 36 months” there have been “five heroin overdoses” at the main branch of the public library. In a follow-up interview published by The Ann Arbor News, Parker told the reporter that prior to the library’s heroin problem, “we had a cocaine problem here where the library was being used as a cocaine drop.” When asked how often needles and/or drug paraphernalia are found in the main branch on Fifth Avenue, Parker replied, “Checking the bathroom wastebaskets is routine here, and it’s most days that we find paraphernalia or alcohol bottles. Most days it’s one or the other or both.”
Sources within the Ann Arbor District Library told The Ann Arbor Independent that Josie Parker was “worried” that the media would report on the overdoses, and expressed relief that a reporter from AnnArbor.com, despite having knowledge of a heroin overdose, did not publish a report about the overdose.
In emails sent by Ms. Parker to the AADL Board of Trustee members, she alerts them about heroin overdoses and then worries that information about the drug use by library patrons will be published by AnnArbor.com.
For instance, in an email dated July 10, 2013 and sent at 4:46 p.m., Parker wrote that: “A young man overdosed on heroin today in the lobby men’s room Downtown. I thought you should know in case the incident appears as a story in annarbor.com.”
While the email is addressed “Hi All,” it’s not clear to whom Parker sent the notification. There is no email header. On July 10, 2013 at 4:47 p.m. Library Board president Prue Rosenthal responded: “Josie, how awful for you and everyone.”
The emails, provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by The Indy did not include any other emails to Parker in response to her July 10, 2013 notification about the heroin overdose.
The July 15, 2013 minutes from the AADL Board meeting include this entry for the Director’s report:
Director Parker reported that Eli Neiburger and Tim Grimes were once again invited by the Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Institute to participate on a new NEH project focusing on immigration. They will again serve on an advisory group representing public libraries. It is quite an honor to be called upon twice.
During the art fair this week hold periods for materials at the downtown library will be extended so patrons can retrieve them after art fair has ended or they can be sent to branches for pickup. Due dates were also extended with no items due during art fair.
AADL received two Family Favorites awards from the Ann Arbor Family Magazine. One for best free activities and one for best storyhour. AADL also received a certificate of recognition for our participation with the Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative.
Recent gifts received include an oil painting entitled Bridge Construction in July, donated by the artist, Elaine Wilson. This painting will hang in the Pittsfield branch. Another significant donation received from an anonymous donor is a “classic video game collection”. As we do not circulate video games this collection will be used in future programming and video gaming events.
A second laptop bar was recently added to the Downtown library second floor providing additional seating, power outlets and lighting for up to eight. The vertical file collection was removed to accommodate this upgrade.
Trustee Leary acknowledged Director Parker’s recent inclusion in the book Library 2020: Today’s Leading Visionaries Describe Tomorrow’s Library edited by Joseph Janes. She recommended the title to all.
Erin Helmrich, AADL librarian, was introduced and updated the Board on “yarn bombing”, a form of knit graffiti and public art. Two programs were recently held at Pittsfield. Summer game codes can be found in the yarn bombed trees. The downtown library garden was also yarn bombed and has game codes.
At the July 15 public AADL Board meeting, neither Prue Rosenthal or Josie Parker spoke about the heroin overdose that had occurred five days earlier. In addition, meeting minutes include the fact that the Board’s Executive Committee, chaired by Rosenthal, “had not met.”
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, AADL officials provided copies of internal AADL incident reports filed over the past 36 months which document each of the five heroin overdoses which Ms. Parker told City Council members had occurred at the Downtown library.
The July 10, 2013 incident report includes this passage: “Security had received a report that there was a man locked into a stall passed out with a needle in his arm.” Elsewhere in the report, it becomes clear who found the overdose victim: “On the above date and time (July 10, 2013 at 2:23 p.m.) I was notified by Circulation Supervisor that a patron had reported to them that patron (redacted) had shot up and was unconscious in the first floor men’s room.”
The teen section is adjacent to the men’s room on the first floor of the Downtown library.
A 2011 email exchange between Parker and Rosenthal after a series of heroin overdoses also includes comments about keeping that information from the public.
On January 21, 2011 at 5:11 p.m. Josie Parker wrote in an email addressed “to all”: “This week two different young males have overdosed on heroin in the Downtown Library and both survived….It is believed that the heroin deal was also made in the Library.”
On January 22, 2011 Board Vice President Prue Rosenthal replied to Parker’s email: “It’s so sad to think of someone taking heroin and so scary to think of the effect if the public knew there was heroin dealing in the building….VERY scary.”
Board president Margaret Leary did not reply to Parker’s January 21, 2011 email, and neither did any other members of the newly-elected Executive Committee, Treasurer Barbara Murphy and Secretary Jan Barney Newman (both of whom still serve as library trustees).
Rosenthal was the only trustee who responded to Parker’s email about the January 2011 overdoses.
The January 2011 AADL Board meeting took place on January 17, 2011, before the two overdoses. Meeting minutes from the February 2011 AADL Board meeting include this Director’s Report:
Director Parker stated her report stands as written but highlighted several activities listed in the report.
Director Parker noted the Preschool Expo held on January 30th was an excellent example of community partnerships.
She remarked that the Second Grade Roundup, with transportation funding provided by the Friends, along with classroom visits to 5th graders in May are some examples of what the library does to provide additional educational support.
Vice President Rosenthal commended Director Parker and Associated Director Neiburger on their participation in international events.
As they had in 2013, neither Rosenthal nor Parker mentioned that there had been two heroin overdoses at the Downtown library within 48 hours and that heroin was being sold at the Downtown library.
As was to be the case two years later, internal AADL reports about the two overdoses indicate that in both instances patrons had reported the overdoses to library staff. Staff then contacted the library’s security staff. The security staff, in turn, contacted the AAPD, as well as the Huron Valley Ambulance Company.
How many people were impacted by what emails between Parker and Rosenthal suggest was an effort to keep the public ignorant of the drug sales and almost daily drug and/or alcohol use in the Downtown Library between January 2011 and March 2014? According to a 2012 AADL newsletter, the Downtown library averages 600,000 visits per year, or about 1,700 visitors per day, including thousands of teens and other children.
Crime in libraries in the United States has been on the rise, according to experts. Bloomington, Indiana is home to 80,000 residents, some 40,000 of whom attend Indiana University. The Bloomington Library averaged 3,100 visitors a day and saw more than 1.1 million visits in 2011.
“Arrests at the Monroe County Public Library in downtown Bloomington have tripled in the past six years, as have the number of reported assaults,” The Herald-Times reported. The number of people considered “trespassers” rose from one in 2006 to 14 in the last year.
The Ann Arbor Independent has filed further FOIA requests to discover whether AADL trustees other than Prue Rosenthal were aware of the ongoing problems of heroin sale and use in the Downtown library. The paper has also filed FOIAs to receive copies of the AADL crime/incident logs for all of the library branches.
