Friends and Foundation update: book sale area moved during renovation; foundation raised more than $170,000 in FY25

At the July 8 meeting trustees summarized liaison reports from the Friends of the Urbana Free Library and the library Foundation.
The Friends plan to dismantle the permanent book sale area around mid-July and move sale inventory to a mobile book-sale cart during the renovation; they are temporarily pausing donations. Trustees said items will remain available for purchase from the mobile cart while the permanent space is altered.
The Urbana Free Library Foundation elected a new president following the board’s June meeting; Shannon Morber is now the foundation board president. The foundation closed FY25 with just over $170,000 in donations from nearly 300 donors and more than 400 individual gifts; trustees said roughly 40% of donors were new. A recent Giant Desk Concert attracted about 80 attendees, had sponsors from 28 businesses, sold 96 of 100 tickets and raised over $10,000.
Trustees said these partner activities support library programming and revenue during renovation and operations.