In many parts of the country, public libraries are feeling their worst budget pinch of the post-COVID era. In this fiscal climate, every dollar raised can be a help. If your community is home to a Walmart or Sam’s Club, your local big box store may be in a position to help. Walmarts everywhere are participating in the Spark Good Local Grants program.

National Friends of Libraries Week 2026 is fast approaching: October 18-24. It’s the perfect opportunity to celebrate and fundraise before November ushers in the year’s busiest, most crowded time for fundraising. There’s no single right way to celebrate. National Friends of Libraries Week is what you make of it; every participating Friends group gets to decide how to observe the occasion.

When Illinois native Lynne Cosmano relocated to Alexandria in 1995, signing up for a Douglas County Library card was her first priority. That’s not surprising to those who know her. Libraries are practically in her blood. She boasts not just one, but two sisters plus a brother-in-law in the library profession. Lynne cannot recall when exactly she joined up with the Douglas County Friends of the Library, but it would have been soon afterward.

Thanks to the nearly 100 of you who took time out of a beautiful weekend morning to tune in to MALF’s fall Friends forum, Saturday Splash. All corners of the state were well represented via videoconference – and we had additional registrants from as far away as Virginia and Hawaii!

Friends volunteers responsible for used book sales often swap versions of the same gut-wrenching tale. Almost everyone has priced vintage titles or rare editions for only a fraction of their true worth, learning of this mistake only after it was too late. The Friends of the Bemidji Public Library have a safeguard against these missteps in the form of Mick Lee.