Board Members

MaryAnn Bernat

Mary Ann Bernat is a retired school media specialist from Delano. She served as the president of the Friends of the Delano Public Library from 2002 to 2008. Bernat will help with program planning, fundraising and engaging school libraries with MALF.

Barbara Byers

Barb Byers has served as Co-President, Minnesota Association of Library Friends, 1998-2010 and will serve as Secretary, 2011. Her leadership and initiative in support of the Evy Nordley Award for Best Project By Friends of the Library and in conference planning were recognized by MALF in 2009. Helping citizens support their libraries began as a Librarian with Washington County Library 1971-1995. She was the library liaison with Friends of Washington County Library during a decade of growth in membership, fundraising, and library support by Friends. When MALF was founded, she also served as Washington County Library liaison to MALF.

A recipient of the President's Award from the Minnesota Library Association, she supports the work of MLA and its division of Library Trustees and Advocates. She has served as a citizen representative on the State Library Advisory Council. For the Minnesota Department of Children, Families & Learning, she consulted and compiled the publication Managing Small & One-Person Libraries: Career Renewal for Library Employees and related Training Resources.
Connecting young people and jazz, she has served on The Dakota Foundation for Jazz Education (www.dfje.com) Board of Directors since 1998. She also coordinates sending surplus hospital supplies to a medical clinic that she has visited in Malawi.

Edward Fagerlund

Ed Fagerlund is an economist (PhD) from Stillwater. He worked for the Minnesota Department of Commerce and taught economics at both University of St. Thomas (St. Paul) and Wichita University (Kansas). Fagerlund will help advise the board in matters of finance and is the new board treasurer.

Joan B. Larson

Larson has been involved with the Minnesota Association of Library Friends at various times for close to 20 years; however, her involvement with library friends began much earlier than that. Her first library position was as a branch librarian in Browning, Montana. This was in 1957. She had not been to college; she certainly did not have a library degree. In fact, she had not even worked in a library! Presumptuous? Yes, however, she had 3 wonderful years at that library and gives credit for her success to the Friends of the Browning Library for their sage and generous counsel. Subsequently Larson did go to college and did get her library degree. She spent over 15 years as an academic librarian at the University of Maine at Presque Isle where she also taught courses in the Library Technology program and at South Dakota State University in Brookings. In 1983, she accepted a position as director of Northern Lights Library Network where she worked until her retirement in 2001. Larson is a former president of MLA and has received awards for her service from both MLA and MEMO. She has continued to volunteer in library related organizations since her retirement. She is a member of the Board of Directors for both MALF and the Douglas County Library Friends and Foundation and has been co-chair of the Spotlight on Books conference for over 20 years.

Margaret "Margie" Schuster

As the Volunteer Services Manager for 15 years at Hennepin County Library in Minneapolis, MN, and the surrounding suburbs, Mrs. Schuster now manages a merged system that utilizes 1,200 volunteers and receives almost 90,000 hours of time from them annually. Moreover, Schuster served as liaison to 26 suburban Friends groups for 15 years, working with Library Administration to assure staff support for Friends and to align Friends and Library mission and priorities.

She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with degrees in Social Work and Corrections and a MEd program in Training and Organization Development. She served as a member of the ALTAFF/FOLUSA Board of Directors until 2009. Schuster has led advocacy efforts with Friends groups in Hennepin County and provides training on various Friends issues on behalf of ALTAFF. She currently is co-chair of the PLA Program Committee for ALTAFF.

Judith Schotzko

Judy Schotzko is a registered nurse specializing in psychiatric and mental health from Wabasha. She is the 2012 president of the Minnesota Library Trustees Association of MLA. Schotzko brings years of board experience focused on campaign finance, environmental and women’s political issues to the MALF board. Schotzko is also a retired attorney who practiced law in Blue Earth, Minnesota. She currently facilitates conferences for the District Court in Wabasha as an independent contractor and volunteers with the Red Cross.

Jan Siffing

In addition to serving on MALF's Board since Oct. 2007, she is an active member of he local Friends group and has been active in friends groups since she joined her first Friends of the Library group in LaCrescent, MN. She served as the children's librarian at Crucifixion Catholic School from 1996 until moving to Alexandria, MN, in 2002, whereafter she became a member of the Douglas County Friends and Foundation and has been President of that group since 2003. A graduate of Mankato State University she has continued to be active in her church and community organizations, serving where needed. Her greatest joys are spending time with her family, swinging the golf club and reading a good book.

Ruth Solie

Ruth Solie is the longtime director of the Northern Lights Library Network (she’s officially retired this month!) from Detroit Lakes. She helped establish Friends groups in school, academic and public libraries across the state. Solie understands the importance of citizen advocates and brings her ability to coordinate citizens who support libraries.

Carol Walsh

Carol Walsh has been a citizen board member of MALF since 2005, serving in several public relations/outreach roles. A resident of St. Paul, she is also a member of the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library and member of the Friends' advocacy committee. For the last five years she been involved in planning the Friends' annual, award-winning Untold Stories labor history series. The Untold Stories series presents programs and talks on local, regional and national labor history topics In recognition of labor history month each May. She is a former member of the Hennepin County Library Board and recipient of a Certificate of Merit from the Minnesota Library Association. She works for the state of Minnesota in the Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Janet Urbanowicz

Mrs. Urbanowicz has been a member of the MALF Board of Directors since 1997. From 1998 to the present, she has served as Co-President of the Board and editor of the MALF newsletter. In the mid-1990s, Urbanozicz served a term as Secretary of the Minnesota Library Association Board of Directors. Since then, she has coordinated volunteers statewide for the annual MLA conference and in 2002 she received a Certificate of Merit from MLA for her services in support of Minnesota libraries.

Until she retired at the end of 2007, Janet worked for nearly 24 years for The Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library as volunteer coordinator and assistant director. A library program she coordinated while there, titled Read to Me, won the Evy Nordley Award for Best Project by a Friends Group in 2003.

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