Minnesota Association of Library Friends

Hello, Library Friends,

Save the date: Tuesday, February 28, 2012.
Cost: Free for all Library Friends Members

Each year the Minnesota Library Association – MLA -- and Minnesota Educational Media Association – MEMO -- the organization of school librarians, co-sponsor Library Legislative Day at the Capitol.

The Friends of the Ely Library received a windfall in November 2011 in the form of a $100,000 gift from the Edward B. and Esther Nelson Estate.

Now's the chance to do your part in the legislative process. 

Goodbye and Hello

The MALF Board of Directors said goodbye to two long-serving and highly productive board members at its meeting on November 7 and will say hello to four new ones in 2012.

By Ann Treacy via Blandin on Broadband

Last week Pew Internet & American Life released a report on teens and social media. Some findings surprised me; others did not. To begin the report indicates that...

Fully 95% of all teens ages 12-17 are now online and 80% of those online teens are users of social media sites.

By Nick Dimassis, assistant director, East Regional Library System

The “Got the people, but not the skills” (October 26, Star Tribune) editorial stated that “a highly educated, appropriately skilled workforce is key to reinvigorating job creation,” and that although not in a “position to close the skills gap with a major surge in public spending,” Minnesota can “do more to make the most of its existing resources.”  One of those existing resources not mentioned?  Your public library.

2011 Evy Nordley Award winners Howie Burke (center) and Tom Zander (right) of the Friends of the Saint Michael - Albertville - Hanover Library with MALF Board President Chris Olson (left). The group won the award for their fundraising project "Building it. Together."

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Have you had success with a library marketing campaign? If so, share your story—and you could win $10,000 for your library.

One Friends committee Building It. Together.

Building It. Together. is the Evy Nordley award winning Friends project for 2011.

The Building it. Together. project came about as a new civic building, encompassing a library, senior center and city offices, was beginning construction in 2010.