What are you doing with this traditionally slow week between Christmas and New Year’s Day? We’d wager that you’re spending at least a part of that time cozying up with a good book. If your “TBR” pile is getting a little low, check out a replay of MALF’s last webinar of the year. Warm Reads For Cold Nights: Year 3 debuted earlier this month.

ICYMI: As part of National Friends of Libraries Week 2204, United for Libraries announced two new, nationwide grant opportunities made available through financial support from publisher Penguin Random House. Both are tailored specifically to Friends and open to groups serving communities classified as both small and rural. One is a financial grant (up to $1,000) for Friends who can demonstrate “high need” and lay out an actionable game plan for how the Friends could use this seed money to address that need.

Saint Paul native F. Scott Fitzgerald’s magnum opus The Great Gatsby is often lauded as “The Great American Novel.” Gatsby marks its centennial publication anniversary in 2025, and The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library are not letting it go unheralded.

Thank you for your interest and involvement with MALF in calendar/membership year 2024. We hope you will renew today for calendar/membership year 2025. (If you’d like a refresher, please see our website for a detailed run-down of membership benefits and opportunities which MALF membership unlocks.)

October 20-26 26 marks National Friends of Libraries Week 2024. This annual celebration (est. 2005) is coordinated through United for Libraries, the library Friends and trustees arm of the national American Library Association. BIG NEWS: MALF is pleased to share that the Governor’s Office has also - for the first time - officially designated October 20-26 as Friends of Libraries Week in Minnesota!

Congratulations to the Friends of the Pelican Rapids Library, newly announced as winners of the 2024 Evy Nordley Award for Best Project. Synopsis – Even as adults, we've all dreamed of stepping into rich worlds from…

Are you attending the Minnesota Library Association conference on October 24-25? If you have some flex time while in Rochester, the MLA conference team would greatly appreciate if you could spare it for one or more volunteer shifts. Needs run a wide gamut: silent auction help, wayfinding assistance, room hosts, registration support, and set-up and tear-down support. Most shifts require only 50-60 minutes. Remember: Many hands make light work!

Thanks to the more than 100 of you who turned out (or for a virtual event, perhaps we should instead say tuned in) for MALF’s fall conference, Saturday Splash. We fit a remarkable amount of content into two hours and hope that you enjoyed hearing and learning from Friends colleagues – as well as from our tremendous keynote presenter, Kao Kalia Yang.

What do you call it when a Friends program creates a brand-new revenue stream, draws residents into the library for their first time, and costs the organizers $0 to implement? In the case of the Austin Friends of the Library and their 2023 fundraiser “Puttin’ in the Stacks,” it feels all-too-appropriate to term that rare achievement a true "hole in one."

In an average year, more than 6,000 people descend on Falcon Heights for this one-day celebration of the book, which is coordinated by Rain Taxi. It’s no wonder why. More than 70 presenting authors and nearly 100 exhibitors will offer a jam-packed day of booths, panels, and other programming geared towards readers (and aspiring writers) of all kinds.

We've all dreamed of stepping into rich worlds from children's literature: timeless environments like those found in Where the Wild Things Are, Harry Potter, and classic European fairy tales. Last August, library lovers in Otter Tail County enjoyed a rare chance to do exactly that – courtesy of the Friends of the Pelican Rapids Library and their aptly named ‘Once Upon a Time’ Tablescapes Luncheon & Silent Auction.

The Detroit Lakes Chamber of Commerce proudly boasts: "It's not just Mother Nature that puts on a show around here." That tagline is a reference both to Becker County’s natural amenities and to the area’s robust arts and culture scene. In addition to the “usual suspects” – like theaters and artist coalitions – Detroit Lakes owes its curb appeal to the equally creative volunteers behind the Detroit Lakes Public Library Foundation (DLPLF). Their latest venture is more than decorative and takes an unexpected form: a new, much-needed, and fantastically adorned drive-through book return.