Ann Arbor District Library:AADL Director Josie Parker Announces Retirement

Press release from the Ann Arbor District Library:

After nearly 22 years with the Ann Arbor District Library (AADL), Director Josie Parker announced her retirement effective February 28, 2022. Upon her retirement, Parker will have served as Library director for 20 years.

“It has been a joy and a privilege to serve the Ann Arbor community as Library Director for 20 years,” says Josie Parker. “I want to acknowledge the courage of all of the people who have served as elected Board members over these years. Without them, nothing was possible. The several hundred people who have worked with me as staff over two decades made the possible happen in amazing and astonishing ways. Lastly, but most importantly, all of the community members who responded to our efforts, challenged us to keep innovating and improving library services. I thank you all, and I will see you in the Library!”

The AADL Board of Trustees will conduct a national search for the next director beginning later this fall.

“The AADL Board of Trustees is enormously grateful for Josie’s incredible 22 years of service to our community,” says AADL Board of Trustees President Jim Leija. “Josie has been a generous and innovative leader in building the exemplary AADL that we know and love today. She’s fostered an incredible staff that delivers extraordinary programs, collections, customer service, and community engagement year after year. Josie’s warmth and compassion, her steadfast and intelligent leadership, and her unfailing belief in libraries as our greatest shared resource will be sorely missed. It has been a great honor to work alongside her.”

AADL has thrived under Parker’s leadership and has been named a Library Journal five-star Library for the last 13 years in a row—a designation based on library usage stats like circulation, door count, and event attendance. In fiscal year 2020, AADL’s libraries welcomed more than 1.2 million people through the doors, with library events drawing nearly 120,000 attendees.

During Parker’s tenure, AADL underwent a transformative expansion. Parker supervised the construction of three new branch libraries and completely reimagined a fourth branch at the Westgate Shopping Center. Malletts Creek Branch was constructed in 2004, Pittsfield Branch in 2006, Traverwood Branch in 2008, and Westgate reopened in its current location in 2016. Malletts Creek and Traverwood Branch each earned awards from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for design.

Parker was named an honorary affiliate member of AIA Michigan in 2010, a rare honor for a non-architect or designer, for her stewardship of AADL and its new libraries.

During her tenure, Parker also oversaw the transition of the Washtenaw Library for the Blind and Print Disabled from the county to the Ann Arbor District Library in 2008,

In an effort to preserve and showcase local history, in 2009, Parker inked a deal with The Ann Arbor News to store and digitize its vast collection of photos and articles in the AADL Archives. In 2013, AADL also partnered with the African American Cultural & Historical Museum of Washtenaw County (AACHM) to launch the Living Oral History Project—an ongoing collection of interviews, photos, and articles that serve as a road map illustrating what African Americans in the Ann Arbor area witnessed, experienced, and built in the community.

Parker also oversaw the evolution of AADL into what it is today:

Born in Laurel, Miss., Josie earned her Bachelor’s Degree in English from Auburn University and her Master of Information and Library Science from the University of Michigan. She worked at the Chelsea Library and Ypsilanti District Library before joining AADL in 1999 as the youth department manager. She served as the Library’s interim director in 2001 before accepting the permanent post in 2002.

Parker served on the boards of the Michigan Library Consortium, the Public Library Association, and the Michigan Library Association, where she served as president in 2008. Parker also remains an adjunct associate professor of information at the University of Michigan’s School of Information.

Richard

I want to, once again, take this opportunity to thank you very much for allowing me to participate in the library outreach program, and for giving due consideration to my unique situation, with respect to the returning of all of the overdue library materials!

I am requesting you, kindly, to please pass on this information to your successor, as the successor, as the Director of the Ann Arbor Public Library!

Sincerely, Love,
Amit Kshirsagar

Thank you very much and all good things for the next phase of your life's journey.

Rainey

This press release was produced by the Ann Arbor District Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.