Riverside Regional Library 'healthy' in its 3-county region

This story is updated.

Jeff Trinkle, director of Riverside Regional Library, serving Cape Girardeau, Perry and Scott counties, told Cape Girardeau County commissioners Monday, April 17, the library system has a "healthy balance" in unrestricted funds as he presented its 2022 19-page annual report.

Revenue, according to an income and expense analysis, ran more than $32,000 ahead of expenditures last year with mostly double-digit gains in visitors recorded year-over-year at Riverside's six library sites in the three-county region.

The home branch in Jackson, which is Riverside's largest, saw a 3% increase in 2022 to 83,521 visits.

Other Riverside branches showed sharp hikes in patron usage last year:

• Perryville: up 26%, 31,714.
• Altenburg: up 16%, 4,656.
• Scott City: up 21%, 12,669.
• Benton: up 12%, 6,200.
• Oran: up 30%, 9,054.

Thanks to technology, a library "visit" may mean something different from only a few years ago, Trinkle said.

"We try to simulate our physical collections with digital ones, via e-books, e-magazines (and) some videos, so if (patrons) can't make it in during our hours of operation, they can be in their bedrooms at midnight and download these items at their leisure," said Trinkle, adding library cardholders need to show up physically once in a calendar year to renew their free cards. "If we never see you again, but you're using our materials, we're fine with that."

Financing

A Cape Girardeau County official clarified the Riverside Regional Library system received state aid gleaned via property tax revenue: $26,125.65 in real estate tax from Cape Girardeau County; $13,116.10 from Scott County; and $11,442.04 from Perry County.

Cooperation

Trinkle said Riverside is working with Cape Girardeau Public Library on developing a reciprocal borrowing agreement.

"What we want to do is open it up for everybody here in Cape County between the two libraries," he added, noting both library systems are working on finalizing logistics.

Trinkle, a native of Bloomington, Indiana, has worked in library science since 1984 and will retire from Riverside on Wednesday, Nov. 15.