Carbondale Reporter

Herrin City Library Board of Trustees met July 8.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

Present: Jones, McKeown, Maloney, Hickman, Guebert, Priest, Frost, Watson

Also Present: Library Director Susan Mullen

Absent: Sarver

The meeting was called to order at 6:30 PM by President Jones.

Visitor(s): None

Correspondence: None

Secretary’s Report: Priest moved to approve the minutes from June 2025. Frost seconded. Motion carried unanimously.

Treasurer’s Report:

Bills to be Paid: Guebert moved to approve the payment of $1,323.79 for expenses incurred from June 11 – June 30, 2025, and $3,290.53 for expenses incurred from July 1 – July 8, 2025. Watson seconded. Motion carried unanimously.

City Budget Report: Last month’s report shows that 22% of the budget has been spent, with 17% of the fiscal year completed, leaving a checking account balance of $59,771.70. Watson moved to approve the report. McKeown seconded. Motion carried unanimously.

Financial Balance Statement: McKeown moved to approve the Library balance report from the previous month. Priest seconded. Motion carried unanimously.

Librarian’s Report:

June 2025 had a 13.6% increase in circulation compared to June 2024. A total of 355 unique Borrowers Cards were used. Patrons placed a total of 446 Hold Requests. A total of 425 Hold Requests were filled (borrowed). We loaned 482 titles to other libraries and borrowed 701 titles from the other Heartland SHARE Libraries. Our OPAC was used remotely from home by a total of 1,447 patrons. We registered a total of 28 new borrowers, bringing us to 5,861 registered borrowers. A total of 99 new titles were added to the collection, making a total of 42,658 volumes in the collection. Traffic on the website was 1,123 visits. The Library Director attended the IHLS Director’s Chat on June 12 & 25. On June 6, HCL hosted guest speaker and author Dr Elyse Pineau. The next guest speaker will be July 19 with Jane Flynn, author and photographer, on her book Mennonites of Southern Illinois. Lawyer in the Library continues monthly and is always booked. For Summer Reading, we had the Herrin Fire Department, SIU Aviation, Free Again Raptors, and Animal Fear Factor, all with excellent attendance. In July, we will host a movie, a concert band, Wow! Science, Castle Perilous, and a Summer Reading Finale Foam Party. We are still receiving feedback for our Strategic Plan survey, and will keep it open until July 19, 2025 when the survey subscription runs through. We will have the stats on that for the August BOT meeting. We will review our Unattended & Unsupervised Children policy as part of our regular policy review schedule. The IPLAR was reviewed and approved at our last meeting and has been successfully submitted. We received our Per Capita Grant award letter dated 6-27-2025 in the amount of $18,219.20.

Assistant Director Report: On June 6, 2025, Assistant Director Jason Hedrick planned his first speaker event with Dr Elyse Pineau on “The Lived and Literary World of JRR Tolkien.” On June 25, Jason visited Integrity in Herrin for one of two Adult Reading Hours that are scheduled this summer. The residents were very appreciative. In the coming months, HCL will be hosting Daniel Overturf, an exhibiting photographer and professor emeritus of photography at SIUC, coauthor of A River Through Illinois. He will discuss his books and show his work.

Children’s Librarian’s Report: Four Summer Reading programs held in June. The Herrin Fire Department (6/5/25) visited the library to teach kids about fire safety and show the kids a fire truck and equipment (37 children, 26 adults). SIU Aviation Tour (6/12/25) where SIU Aviation hosted the event at the airport for kids to come and learn about aviation careers. Kids got a tour of the simulators, hangars, classrooms, and runway (27 children, 19 adults). Free Again Wildlife Rehabilitation (6/19/25) came to teach kids about local wildlife and how their organization rescues then releases these animals. Beverly Shofstall brought four owl species to show the kids (48 children, 29 adults). Animal Fear Factor (6/26/25) brought a variety of reptiles and amphibians to help the audience conquer their fears of wildlife in Southern Illinois. She brought frogs, turtles, lizards, and snakes for the audience to inspect, touch, and hold (38 children, 30 adults).

Committee Reports:

Friends Liaison (Maloney): none

History Room (Hickman, McKeown): none

Building and Grounds (Priest, Jones): none

Community Enrichment (Guebert & Sarver & Watson): none

Library Development and Technology (Watson): none

Special Gifts Committee (Frost): none

Old Business:

Strategic Plan: Survey Update

Continuing until July 19th when Survey Monkey subscription ends

Will have the results/data ready for our August meeting

Per Capita letter received

On June 27, 2025 we received a letter from Secretary of State and State Librarian Alexi Giannoulias that we will be awarded $18,219.20.

New Business:

Review & Approve Unattended & Unsupervised Children Policy – regular review schedule

BOT Reviewed. Susan made a minor update from the last iteration regarding wording on the last page.

Watson moved to approve the policy. Guebert seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

Adjournment: Maloney moved to adjourn at 6:56 PM.

https://herrincitylibrary.org/about-us/board-of-trustees/meeting-minutes/july-2025/