HERRIN CITY LIBRARY
BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING
9 September 2025 Agenda
1. Call to Order at 6:30 pm
A. Roll Call of Trustees (Present and Absent)
B. Audience to Visitors
2. Secretary’s Report
A. Correspondence
B. Reading & Approval of the Minutes for 12 August 2025
3. Treasurer’s Report
A. Review & Approval of the Bills to be paid in September 2025
B. August 2025 City Budget Report for the Library
C. Financial Balance Statement for August 2025
4. Librarians’ Report for August 2025
A. Library Director’s Report – Susan Mullen
B. Children’s Librarian’s Report – Cathy McCann
C. Assistant Director’s Report – Jason Hedrick
5. Illinois Heartland Library System Report & Illinois Library Association (ILA) news
A. Status updates
6. Committee Reports
A. Building & Grounds – Priest & Jones
B. Community Enrichment – Guebert, Sarver & Watson
C. Library Development & Technology – Watson
D. Special Gifts Committee – Frost
E. Friends Liaison – Maloney
F. Herrin History Room – Hickman & McKeown
7. Old Business
A. Strategic Plan: Updated Goals
B. Any other Old Business
8. New Business
A. Begin PerCapita Grant review: Illinois Public Library Standards: Intro – Library Systems
B. Any other New Business
9. Closed Executive Session (if necessary)
10. Adjournment
Next Meeting Date = 14 October 2025, 6:30 pm
Herrin City Library
Board of Trustees Meeting
September 9, 2025
Present: Jones, Maloney, Hickman, Priest, Sarver, Frost, Watson
Also Present: Library Director Susan Mullen
Absent: McKeown, Guebert
The meeting was called to order at 6:26 PM by President Jones.
Visitor(s): None
Correspondence: None
Secretary’s Report: Frost moved to approve the minutes from August 2025. Priest seconded. Motion carried unanimously.
Treasurer’s Report:
- Bills to be Paid: Maloney moved to approve the payment of $3,748.92 for expenses incurred from August 13 – August 31, 2025, and $10,616.41 for expenses incurred from September 1 – September 9, 2025. Watson seconded. Motion carried unanimously.
- City Budget Report: Last month’s report shows that 36.8% of the budget has been spent, with 33.3% of the fiscal year completed, leaving a checking account balance of $85,038.43. Priest moved to approve the report. Sarver seconded. Motion carried unanimously.
- Financial Balance Statement: Watson moved to approve the Library balance report from the previous month. Frost seconded. Motion carried unanimously.
Librarian’s Report:
August 2025 had a 7.5% increase in circulation compared to August 2024. A total of 319 unique Borrowers Cards were used. Patrons placed a total of 505 Hold Requests. A total of 463 Hold Requests were filled (borrowed). We loaned 470 titles to other libraries and borrowed 817 titles from the other Heartland SHARE Libraries. Our OPAC was used remotely from home by a total of 1,372 patrons. We registered a total of 19 new borrowers, bringing us to 5,044 registered borrowers. Traffic on the website was 1,762 visits. Susan attended the IHLS Director’s Chat on August 7, 14, & 28, as well as Members Matters on August 21. On August 15, photographer and author Daniel Overturf presented his book, Illinois Trails and Traces. Jason Hedrick also coordinated a display of his artwork in the magazine area. We have on display a traveling exhibit “Stormy Weather” art by the Little Egypt Arts Association of Marion, commemorating the March 18, 2025 Tri-State Tornado. Cathy McCann hosted two story hours and one STEAM this month. We continue to offer Lawyer in the Library once a month which always has a full docket. The Friends of the Library book sale will be September 27- October 2. We will be participating in the IHLS Annual Library Crawl again this year during October. We successfully moved money from savings to checking on August 15 and also rolled over one CD at the Bank of Herrin and reinvested one CD at Farmers on August 20. We received our PerCapita Grant check in the amount of $18,219.20 on August 15. We will continue work on our Strategic Plan by drafting and finalizing goals. We will begin our review for the PerCapita grant by reviewing and discussing Illinois Public Library Standards: chapters: Introduction through Library Systems. Ghost Tour planning is ramping up and tickets are now available on our website. Lisa Carnaghi and Susan will be attending the City Council meeting on Monday, September 8 to coordinate with the City of Herrin for blocking off the neighborhood and with the Herrin Police Department for any safety concerns.
Assistant Director Report: On August 15, Daniel Overturf, photographer and co-author of Illinois Trails and Traces, was guest speaker. His artwork was also displayed in the gallery space and is available to view through October 10. The gallery space is also exhibiting the “Stormy Weather” art exhibit through the LEAA to commemorate the March 18, 1025 Tri-State Tornado. On August 20, residents of the Herrin Integrity facility spent an afternoon in the library where Jason read them the text of the Tornado exhibit and then had a reading of Shel Silverstein poems with slides. The residents were very appreciative and would like to schedule more visits. The “Lawyer in the Library” session on August 22 had a full docket plus a waiting list. This was the first set of consultations with Attorney Antonio Madrigal and everything went well. On August 27 from 4-6 pm we had a new program: game night! August and September’s game nights will be Scrabble. Next month’s question for our new “Question of the Month” is “What is your favorite children’s book?” Also new to the library this month is the “Word of the Day” at the circulation desk.
Children’s Librarian’s Report: There were two story hours and one STEAM program held in August. On August 7, Story Hour “School Bus” had the kids pretending to be bus drivers with a pop-up play bus, reading books about buses, and discussing what it would be like to ride a bus like the big kids. Then they made a bus craft where kids colored their family riding a bus with them. On August 21, Story Hour “Let’s Be Silly!” had the books reading silly books, Miss Cathy dressing up in a silly outfit, and the room filled with wacky things for the kids to find. Then the kids made funny monster hand puppets. On August 28, STEAM program “Mad Scientist Mixtures (S for Science)” included 3 hands-on science experiments as the kids learned about mixtures, solutions, emulsifiers, and colloids. The HHS Science Club joined to help the kids measure and follow steps correctly. It was a lot of messy fun!
Committee Reports:
- Friends Liaison (Maloney): No meeting in September. The next book sale is September 27 and 29. The next meeting is October 6th.
- History Room (Hickman, McKeown): none
- Building and Grounds (Priest, Jones): Priest and Jones met and toured the grounds on August 18. Everything looked fine.
- Community Enrichment (Guebert & Sarver & Watson): none
- Library Development and Technology (Watson): none
- Special Gifts Committee (Frost): none
Old Business:
- Strategic Plan: Updated Goals
- Reviewed survey results
- Reviewed goals and discussed if any changes need made
New Business:
- Begin PerCapita Grant review: Illinois Public Library Standards: Intro – Library Systems
- BOT Reviewed Chapters 1-4
- Ghost Tour Tickets!
- 144 tickets sold so far, 45%!
Adjournment: Watson moved to adjourn at 7:02 PM.
Next Meeting Date: October 14, 2025, at 6:30pm
Respectfully submitted,
Rebecca Maloney, Secretary