ok, thanks, I see it. It's a super brief mention for it being kind of the only thing they substantiated in the report. I think that's where the "they investigated themselves" is showing through. Anyone else doing an investigation would probably want to, like, draw attention to what they found.

Is it? The only part I see addressing the early closure is this:

>In response to the inquiry regarding where HCLS staff went after the Central Branch closed at 2:00 p.m. on October 7, 2022, the committee believes this is a legitimate area for further review of HCLS policies, and recommends that the Board do so.* The committee was informed by staff that HCLS followed its standard practice for early branch closures in this instance, giving staff the option of working at another branch for the remaining hours of the day or expending accumulated leave for the remaining portion of the day. However, the committee recommends a review by the Board of whether the same policy should apply both to Library events such as Evening in the Stacks and sanctioned events by outside organizations. The committee has identified no costs incurred by HCLS for this event, other than ongoing fixed costs of operating the Central Branch building such as utility costs, etc., but recommends that the Board further review whether employee leave was granted that would not otherwise have been granted, had the outside organization event not been held.
*In light of this recommendation, the Board intends to examine current HCLS policies with regard to early closure of HCLS facilities for events, and determine whether any modification to these policies is needed.

It looks like they're saying that the policy around employee leave for early closures for outside events will be examined.

They're not addressing if the early closure itself is an issue. Which is a bit frustrating because that's the part of this I think actually affects the community. I don't care if there's an event in the library after hours, but closing 4 hours early means the people the Central branch serves were denied access to regular library services for the sake of this event.

Is closing early for outisde events something HCLS does? (I only know of them doing it for Evening in the Stacks, but that's the library's own fund raiser, not an outside event).
HCLS's report doesn't really answer that question. It says:

>In response to the inquiry regarding other partnership events or gatherings held at HCLS facilities after normal operating hours, and/or which caused early branch closures, HCLS staff has provided the committee with the list of such events that is attached hereto as Exhibit B

But Exhibit B, is actually just "a list of organizations that have had access to branches before regular opening times or after regular closing times," which doesn't tell us if the library closed early to accommodate these organizations.

Please let me know if there's something I'm missing, because I'd really like to understand this.