The Carter County Imagination Library soon may have to reevaluate whether the cost of receiving returned Imagination Library books is worth it to the group.

CCIL Secretary Joyce White told the group the cost to receive the books continues to increase. The cost climbed to $150 from $90 after the group learned they could not use the library endorsement any longer, she said.

Around a year ago, the state Imagination Library organization told the CCIL that books with incorrect addresses no longer would be returned. The books would either be donated to a nonprofit organization not affiliated with the Imagination Library or the CCIL could pay to have the returned items sent to them.

The CCIL board decided to pay to have the books returned so they could collect the information on the labels so the addresses could be changed in the CCIL database. This would keep the organization from paying to ship books to children who would not be getting them.

The group had been receiving the books with a library designation attached, which meant the CCIL would pay either the library rate or the per pound rate for return shipping, depending on which was cheapest. The state Imagination Library told them later, however, that this no longer was allowed.

Now, White said, the board is must reconsider whether paying for the returned books was worth it. She believes she can get the changed addresses from the national address change database.

“The cost of getting the returned books has gone up significantly,” White said. “This is more money than we can afford to keep paying.”

In other business, CCIL has begun accepting nominations for inductees into the 2015 Carter County-Elizabethton Educators Hall of Fame.

The ceremony honors retired educators from the Carter County and Elizabethton City school systems.

Each year, two retired educators — one living and one deceased — from each system are inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Imagination Library Chairwoman Lilo Duncan urged board members to share the applications and encourage people who seemed interested to submit an application.

“When we started, we received a lot more nominations than we do now,” Duncan said. “It seems to have dropped off over the years. We need to get that back up.”

Duncan pointed out that once a teacher has been inducted, he or she cannot be chosen again. She did encourage people to reapply if a teacher who had been submitted before had not been chosen for the Hall of Fame.

“We start fresh each year,” Duncan said. “We don’t keep the applications from the year before. When the teachers are chosen, we only use the applications that were sent in that year.”

Past inductees from Carter County schools have been Margaret Broome, Kate Ensor, Janice Willette Ericson, Helen Finney, John Hyder, Newland Hyder, James G. “Buddy” Jones, Margaret Jones, Cathy Ogg, Jack Pearman, Edna Potter, James Potter, Glenda Ranshaw, Mary Rasar, Zola Shankle and Glen Tester.

Elizabethton city school inductees are Bill Armstrong, Frank Baker, Gertrude Bishop, Mary Emma Brown, Willie Church, Harry Fine, Sam Greenwell, Thomas J. Harville, Jobelle Hood, Melville Kelly, Anna Kinch, Charles Lipford, Donna Netherland, Reuben Pierce, Fannie Stover and Bertie Summerlin.

Applications will be accepted through March. Applications can be picked up at the Elizabethton/Carter County Public Library, www.eccpl.info and the library’s Facebook page.

The Educators Hall of Fame celebration will be held  April 25 at First Christian Church.