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Middleton Review issue 113Middleton9public libraryLibrary board closes and evicts Friends bookshopThe Middleton public library board hasdecided to permanently close the littlebookshop the Friends of the MiddletonPublic Library had been operating recently on theground floor (and for many years previously inthe basement) until it was shut down due to thepandemic.The decision, which was apparently made inclosed session at the board’s May 11 meeting,had come as a surprise since it was not noticedon the agenda for that meeting. What wasnoticed was a discussion about a ‘memorandumof understanding’ between the public libraryand the Friends of the Public Library: ‘Thelibrary board will convene into closed session inaccordance with section 19.85(1)e which states:(e) Deliberating or negotiating the purchasing ofpublic properties, the investing of public funds,or conducting other specified public business,whenever competitive or bargaining reasonsrequire a closed session. Friends of the MiddletonPublic Library MOU agreement. (action)’.This could be interpreted as meaning that theboard has violated Wisconsin’s open meetingslaw twice: One, any item to be discussed in apublic meeting, in open or in closed session, hasto be indicated on the agenda, and, two, closedsessions, by state law, are to be exceptional, andare only recommended for issues that requireconfidentiality, such as determining negotiatingpositions for (contentious or competitive)bargaining situations, such as property acquisitionor labor contracts, litigation the organization maybecome involved in or is involved in, or personnelmatters. Closing the book sale area was notmentioned on the agenda, and although it couldbe argued that it is part of the memorandum ofunderstanding, it is of greater public interest thanprobably any other aspect of the Friends’ activities,especially since of most the memorandumconcerns behind-the-scenes administrativematters, and the bookshop is only mentionedobliquely.Furthermore, as former Friends board memberMike Lutz pointed out in an interview withMiddleton e-View (the Middleton Review’s onlinenewsletter, where this information was originallypublished), it is odd that an agreement betweenthe library and the Friends would have to bediscussed in closed session at all, as if the Friendswas a foreign entity that tried to gain some kindof advantage over the library:“There is no bargaining; the Friends havenothing to bargain with, they do as the librarysays, always have if at all possible. The Friends wasfounded to support the library, not to competewith it.”The Friends of the Middleton Public Librarywas created in 1973 with the purpose of raisingfunds for the programs and/or other projectsundertaken by the Middleton public libraryabove and beyond the library’s annual budget.The amount of money raised and donated issignificant. According to information suppliedby the Friends, it has provided the library withmore than 600,000 since 1991, and since 2011used-book sales have brought in almost 302,000in revenue. In recent years, the book sales haveaccounted for over half of total revenue brought inby the Friends. Book sales for 2019 (the last fullyear of sales before the pandemic shutdown) were 36,242, with individual and corporate donations,as well as memberships of 21,012 making up therest of the Friends’ revenue. In 2019 it providedthe library with 44,651, as well as with a gift of 30,000 to help fund the ‘New Chapter’ project.According to the Friends, this was the largestdonation the library received from a single donor.For many years, the bookshop was located inthe library basement, occupying a generously sizedsale room and a slightly smaller sorting room.Sorting the donated books (up to 100,000 a year)and restocking was done by Friends volunteers(pictured above in a 2019 Middleton Review filephoto). The bookshop was open to the publicevery Thursday and Friday, as well as once amonth on Saturday; volunteers also handled thesales (between 50,000 and 60,000 books, mostlypriced at 50 cents or 1, a year).A statement put out by the public libraryconfirms that the decision to close the bookshopwas made - in apparent violation of the openmeetings law - in closed session: ‘The closure ofthe bookstore during the pandemic has allowedthe library board to consider whether thebookstore should remain housed in the library’sbuilding. The board is expected to formally voteon June 8 to discontinue the bookstore within thelibrary space. (.) This decision was made withsignificant consideration and debate over thecourse of several months.’The fact that the board would ‘formally vote’on June 8 to close the bookshop indicates thatthe decision had already been made, that the votewould only be a formality, and that the outcomewas a foregone conclusion. Whatever ‘significantconsideration and debate’ might have taken place‘over the course of several months’ must havebeen in the privacy of the library director’s office,since the Friends’ bookshop did not figure onany agenda of any library board meeting betweenJanuary 2020 and March 2021. Only the agendafor the April 2021 board meeting lists it under‘new business’ (in effect confirming that it hadn’tbeen officially discussed before) as ‘Friends MOU,book shop (discussion)’.According to the minutes for that meeting,Continued on page 13

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Middleton Review issue 11313Continued from page 9‘[Library director] Jocelyne Sansing reviewed thedraft memorandum of understanding (MOU)between the Friends and the board. Two majortopics in the MOU are regarding space use withinthe library and how finances are handled betweenthe Friends and the library. (.) No action wastaken at this meeting, but this topic will bereviewed again in the future.’Any ‘significant consideration and debate’ hasalso had to be quite one-sided, since the Friendswas neither informed about it, nor invited toparticipate. In a statement to Middleton e-View,the Friends board confirmed that they ‘hadplanned on resuming used-book collection andsales at the library sometime in the summer or fallof 2021 until we were informed by the Middletonlibrary board of trustees after their May 2021monthly meeting that the library would no longerprovide space for collecting, sorting or sales’.The library gives two main reasons for closingthe bookshop:‘1. The bookstore takes up space that isneeded for library services, both the space usedfor the bookstore itself, and space needed toaccommodate donation bins and to store donatedmaterials. The space vacated by the bookstore willbe used for additional programming space andspace for materials as the library reopens to thepublic. 2. While volunteers do much of the workneeded for the bookstore, significant library stafftime is also needed to collect and handle donatedmaterials, and to monitor and transact sales fromthe bookstore. The cost of library staff time tosupport the bookstore in 2019 nearly equaledthe amount that the bookstore raised during thisperiod.’According to public library director JocelyneSansing, the shift in operations led to an increasein library-staff time dedicated to the booksales from twelve hours per week to 126 hoursper week, at a cost of almost 22,700 per year.Weighed against book shop revenues of 36,200(and total donations of more than 44,600 fromthe Friends to the library in 2019) the directorand a majority of board members felt that keepinga permanent book sale area on premise was notworth the effort.This argument especially is disingenuousbecause it was the library’s own decision to movethe bookshop upstairs and keep it open duringregular library hours, thus virtually guaranteeingthat its own staff would have to handle the saleswhen no volunteers were present. In other words,the library itself provoked the very situation it isnow using as a reason to close the shop.More important, the book shop, like thelibrary itself, is a community service institution,not a commercial enterprise, and unless thelibrary director is willing to use the same purelymonetary cost-benefit analysis to also evaluatethe performance of the whole library, her singlingout of the book shop for a strict profit-and-losstreatment is borderline dishonest, not to mentionunfair. But, if one were to play her game andevaluate her and the library’s performance bythe same strict monetarist principles, the librarywould have to be closed down immediately:While the Friends’ book shop was profitable, evenafter the library director artificially increased itscosts, the library itself is a pure loss-maker andonly survives because of seven-figure taxpayersubsidies and donations (including from theFriends).On analysis, it is thus increasingly apparentthat the staff-time cost argument was little morethan a conjuring trick by the library directorto lend some substance to an otherwise ratherweak case to evict the Friends from the building.Also, the bookshop eviction will only result insaving 22,700 if the library actually reduces itspersonnel costs by that amount.Another indication that the library director wasplaying a long game to get rid of the book shopcompletely (and not just relocate it to the mainfloor for increased visibility, quality and sales, asshe stated in an interview with Middleton Reviewat the time) is her acknowledgment that she cutthe Friends off from a major book supply: Booksthat were withdrawn from library circulation.While a lot of privately donated books cannotbe resold because they are torn, moldy andotherwise damaged, or just plain junk, librarywithdrawals are usually eminently saleable: Theyare often in reasonably good shape because theyhave protective covers, and because they arewithdrawn before they are damaged. They are alsooften good-quality books, content-wise, and, incase of novels, they are often first editions.The withdrawn materials used to be given to theFriends for sale in the book shop until the librarydirector stopped the practice a while back. Theynow go to an outfit called Better World Books, afor-profit semi-charity based in Indiana that sellsbooks online, and for each book sold donates oneto Books for Africa and similar organizations.What can’t be sold or donated is recycled.And within that context, it seems that thestock of books that the Friends had accumulatedprior to their bookshop being shut down by thepandemic has disappeared.In a terse email response to the question ofwhat had happened to these books, JocelyneSansing stated that ‘the items in the bookshopwere either added to the collection, set aside foroutreach or programs, or sent to Better WorldBooks for resale or recycle’.As this edition of the Middleton Review wentto press, she had not yet responded to a follow-upemail requesting clarification on what ‘collection’and ‘outreach or programs’ meant, but it seemsthat the for-profit semi-charity received the bulkof the donated books.In other words, people who donated booksto the Friends of the Middleton Public Libraryin good faith and with the understanding thatthey would be resold locally to help support theMiddleton public library, have now seen theirgood intentions perverted, and their donations arenow supporting a commercial out-of-state semicharity that for one reason or another has foundfavor with the library director.District 2 alderman Robert Burck, who is theMiddleton city council representative on theContinued on page 16

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issue 113 Middleton Review16Continued from page 13library board, did respond to a question aboutwhether the library board had violated theopen meetings law, in the process of his answercontradicting himself, the library’s own statement,and the memorandum of understanding:‘You mentioned that you heard, or read on aFacebook page, that the library board decidedduring a closed session at its May meeting toclose the Friends bookshop. This is incorrect. Thelibrary went into closed session in May to discussthe negotiation of a proposed memorandumof understanding between the Friends and thelibrary, and specifically whether to agree toproposed provisions in the MOU that wouldpermit the Friends to operate a used bookstoreusing space in the library building for sales andstorage, and using library staff time to collectdonated books, dispose of or transfer non-saleablebooks, monitor the bookstore and conductsales (among other tasks). We believe that wasa permitted use of a closed session, allowingthe board to discuss provisions of a proposedagreement with an outside entity. Importantly,no final decision was made in the May closedsession regarding whether the library wouldallow the Friends to reopen a used bookstorewithin the library space once covid restrictionsare lifted. That topic will be on the agenda forthe library board’s meeting on June 8, and will bediscussed and voted on by the trustees in opensession. It was clear during the closed sessionthat the trustees are expected to vote in June thatthe bookstore will not be permitted to reopenin the library building, for the reasons outlinedin the statement: the bookstore takes up spacethat would better serve the public if it was usedfor programming and library materials, and thefinancial cost to the library in terms of staff timerelated to the bookstore is almost equivalent tothe amount of money raised by the bookstore. Wethought it was fair to share the board’s expecteddecision with the leadership of the Friends, sincewe did not want volunteers to be spending timein the interim preparing to reopen. It was theFriends that decided to make a public statementabout the expected decision to its members andon its social media outlets. The library’s statementwas made in response in order to provide thereasons for potentially removing the bookstorefrom the library’s space, as well as to express itsearnest desire that the Friends continue to supportthe library as it has done for almost 40 years,providing important funding and volunteer outletsfor the community. That will require a change infundraising focus, and the recruitment of newvolunteer leadership, which has dwindled. Thelibrary board is committed to assisting the Friendswith this change in direction. However, we willemphatically state again, that no final decision hasbeen made, and we expect robust discussion anddebate during open session at our June meeting.’Robert Burck’s assertion that the memorandumof understanding contains provisions ‘that wouldpermit the Friends to operate a used bookstoreutilizing space in the library building for salesand storage, and using library staff time to collectdonated books, dispose of or transfer non-saleablebooks, monitor the bookstore and conduct sales’is a rather generous interpretation of what the(draft) memorandum actually says: Under point 1.of the terms, it states that ‘the library is, in no way,obligated to provide space for book sales, storage,or access to the facility. (.) The library, subjectto alteration by mutual consent, will provideservices as follows: (.) v. Support of bookshopactivities, including opening and closing the shop.’Those are the only instances in which book salesor the bookshop are mentioned in the six-pagedocument. The provision ‘by mutual consent’adds insult to injury and is obviously not worththe paper it is written on, considering the libraryboard’s unilateral decision-making approa

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