Carbondale Reporter

Herrin City Library Board of Trustees met Oct. 14.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

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

Also Present: Library Director Susan Mullen

Absent: Priest, Sarver

The meeting was called to order at 6:34 PM by President Jones.

Visitor(s): None

Correspondence: None

Secretary’s Report: Watson moved to approve the minutes from September 2025. McKeown seconded. Motion carried unanimously.

Treasurer’s Report:

1. Bills to be Paid: Frost moved to approve the payment of $1,960.30 for expenses incurred from September 10 – September 30, 2025, and $3,128.04 for expenses incurred from October 1 – October 15, 2025. Guebert seconded. Motion carried unanimously.
2. City Budget Report: Last month’s report shows that 45.7% of the budget has been spent, with 41.6% of the fiscal year completed, leaving a checking account balance of $60,543.16. Maloney moved to approve the report. Watson seconded. Motion carried unanimously.
3. Financial Balance Statement: McKeown moved to approve the Library Balance report from the previous month. Frost seconded. Motion carried unanimously.

Librarian’s Report:

September 2025 had a 1.4% increase in circulation compared to September 2024. A total of 317 unique Borrowers Cards were used. Patrons placed a total of 463 Hold Requests. A total of 478 Hold Requests were filled (borrowed). We loaned 474 titles to other libraries and borrowed 780 titles from the other Heartland SHARE Libraries. Our OPAC was used remotely from home by a total of 1,469 patrons. We registered a total of 24 new borrowers, bringing us to 4,601 registered borrowers. Traffic on the website was 2,572 visits. Susan attended the IHLS Director’s Chat on September 4, 11, & 25. On September 19, singer Matt Garrison presented Small Towns, Big Troubles.Our next event is Grave Dousing with Brian Bailey at the Herrin City Cemetery on October 31. The traveling tornado exhibit of “Stormy Weather” art by the Little Egypt Arts Association of Marion ended on September 30th. We continue to offer Lawyer in the Library once a month which always has a full docket. Cathay McCann hosted two story hours and one STEAM this month. Allison Albert created an amazing interactive children’s story experience in the Children’s Junior Department. The shelves are decorated to illustrate a story she wrote with a QR code linked to the story on our website. The Friends of the Library book sale took place September 27-October 2. HCL is participating in the IHLS Annual Library Crawl again this year in October. The Ghosts of Herrin Tour is coming up October 17 and 18. Tickets are sold out. The City of Herrin is blocking off the neighborhood and the Police Department will have officers present. We will continue to work on our Strategic Plan by reviewing the draft. We will continue our review of the PerCapita grant by reviewing and discussing Illinois Public Library Standards: chapters: Types of Public Libraries through Collection Management. We will approve our updated Privacy & Confidentiality Policy as part of our regular policy review schedule. We also need to approve the Building Maintenance Tax Levy and Trustee Terms for the upcoming year.

Assistant Director Report: In September, the gallery space continued the “Stormy Weather” art exhibit by LEAA of Marion to commemorate the 1925 Tri-State Tornado. The “Illinois Trails and Traces” exhibit by photographer Dan Overturf was also left on display until October 10th. Guest speaker Matt Garrison presented “Small Towns, Big Troubles” on September 19th and read from his novel in progress set partially in Herrin. Another Scrabble game night was held September 24th, and Jason is thinking about trying out different game night ideas. The Question of the Month (What is your favorite children’s book?) winner won Louie’s P&R cannolis. October’s question is “What is the scariest book you’ve ever read?” Coming up, the gallery space has begun a new exhibit by local artist Jonathan Lake. Another Lawyer in the Library event coming up October 21st, as well as another Scrabble Night on October 29th. There will also be a special Halloween Guest Speaker, Brian Bailey, who will lead grave dowsing at the Herrin Cemetery. Jason is also putting together a symposium on Buckminster Fuller’s life and work that will take place in December.

Children’s Librarian’s Report: There were two story hours and one STEAM program held in September. On September 4, Story Hour “Toys” had kids bring in their favorite toys for a show-and-tell. After reading stories, they made I-Spy bottles, filling bottles with mini-erasers and rice for an I-Spy Challenge toy. On September 18, Story Hour “Math Fun!” had the kids reading books about numbers, playing counting games, and sorting M&Ms. For a craft, they made counting pompom caterpillars. On September 25, STEAM program “Robotic Hand & Bat (T for Technology)” included a discussion on technology and making a simple “robotic” bat flap its wings. The kids also made a robotic hand out of cardboard, straws, and string.

Committee Reports:

• Friends Liaison (Maloney): The book sale held in September made $1,210.25. The Friends approved to pay the requested $1,228.12 from Susan’s Wish List. The next meeting is December 1st.
• 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: review draft plan
  • Sent home draft to proofread
  • Bring corrections to Nov meeting
• PerCapita Grant review: Illinois Public Library Standards: Types of Libs. – Collection Mgmt.
  • Reviewed the Summary to see where HCL is at on each of the standards
  • Some items Susan noted were that we are on our way to energy efficient lighting, and improving environmental efficiency. A capital improvement plan is another item we can work on.
  • In general, HCL meets all the “Core” requirements and most often the “Intermediate” and “Advanced” as well.

New Business:

• Review and approve CD rates for CD maturing 11/1/2025
  • Current rates from different banks were reviewed
  • Watson made a motion to approve rolling over the current CD at Banterra for 6 months, Frost seconded. Motion carried unanimously.
• Review and approve: Privacy & Confidentiality Policy: Policy Review Schedule
  • The Board reviewed the policy, including two new pieces added.
  • McKeown made a motion to approve the Privacy & Confidentiality Policy. Guebert seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
• Review and approve Building Maintenance Tax Levy
  • Guebert made a motion to approve the Building Maintenance Tax Levy. Watson seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
• Review Trustee Terms
  • Maloney, Priest, and Watson’s terms ending at the end of 2025
  • Maloney and Watson agreed to serve another 3 terms. Priest absent from meeting.

Adjournment: Watson moved to adjourn at 7:17 PM.

Next Meeting Date: November 11, 2025, at 6:30pm

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