We asked – you answered! Over the past year, MALF has polled our members and webinar attendees with a simple question: What should MALF’s programming focus on next? Several issues rose to the fore, but topping that list is interest in a webinar or workshop centered around a truly classic fundraising strategy: Friends of the Library auctions. Our programming committee is now hard at work coordinating such a program...

Friends of the Library across the country have found great success coordinating author-centered fundraisers. Minnesota is a hotbed for such events! MALF’s first webinar of 2024 will showcase three standout author programs coordinated by Friends across our state.

Thanks to everyone who joined us this month for Warm Reads For Cold Nights: Minnesota Authors Recommend. It was a jam-packed hour with quality suggestions to match every reader profile. Our featured guests, Shannon Blackmer (Milkweed Editions) and Matt Smiley (University of Minnesota), shared hot-off-the-presses recommendations that ran a truly wide gamut: from Godzilla, to ethnobotany, to time-tested smokehouse techniques.

Icelanders indulge in a beloved winter tradition called Jólabókaflóð, which translates literally to "Christmas book flood." In the run-up to Yule, family and friends gift each other new books to fill the country's cold and notoriously long winter nights. As the next holiday season approaches, MALF wants to bring a little Jólabókaflóð spirit right here to Minnesota. Please join us on Thursday, November 16 (1:00-2:30 p.m. Central) for Warm Reads for Cold Nights: Minnesota Authors Recommend [Year 2].

Did you know that United for Libraries hosts an annual celebration of library supporters? It’s called National Friends of Libraries Week – and conveniently for those of us in Minnesota, it falls every October. It’s the perfect opportunity to celebrate and fundraise before November ushers in the year’s busiest, most crowded time for fundraising.

Last year, MALF’s programming reached more people than ever before. We’re eager to keep pace in 2023, but can only do so with YOUR help!

Thanks to everyone who joined MALF last week for our last webinar of the year – and most experimental webinar ever. Special gratitude goes to our guest speakers, Alison Aten and Riley Jo Davis (Minnesota Historical Press) and Ill Nippashi (Graywolf Press), for leading us off with a sneak peek at their impressive winter/spring catalogs.

Happy #GivingTuesday! If your Friends of the Library are running a campaign in conjunction with the nation’s unofficial “giving holiday,” we wish you well. But if you missed out on November’s prime giving holidays (Giving…

As the days grow shorter and colder, many of us indulge in the simple whim to hole up at home with a good book. MALF wants to make sure your “TBR” pile is well stocked with great Minnesota reads this winter. Please join us December 14 (12:00-1:00 p.m.) for our last webinar of 2022: Warm Books for Cold Days: Minnesota Authors Recommend. This free webinar will comprise three separate sections...

In case you missed it: United for Libraries hosted the Friends of the Austin (Minn.) Public Library last month for a fundraising webinar held in celebration of National Friends of Libraries Week. Board president Bethie Carlton profiled Flockin’ Flamingoes Fundraiser, a colorful and memorable project that won Austin MALF’s 2021 Evy Nordley Award.

What’s the difference between a challenged and a banned book – and more to the point, why are they dominating our headlines? Is there any precedent for it? Above all, what can Friends do to help their libraries navigate this climate? MALF’s summer webinar, "Living in Challenging Times: Book Banning Then and Now" will tackle these timely questions.