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In our decades of work with Friends, MALF’s board has picked up on an interesting disconnect. Most volunteer-run groups are fortunate to boast at least a few “standout” members – movers and shakers whose dedication, creativity and boundless energy help the organization overcome obstacles and adapt to meet new needs. What is lacking, in contrast, are good opportunities to acknowledge these outstanding contributors.
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. We hope you will join us over the lunch hour on Tuesday, January 23 to hear about...
William Lambert is well known to regulars at the Kasson Public Library, and so is his trusty GMC Sierra 1500 pickup. Both are central to the success of the Friends of Kasson Public Library’s biannual book sales. “Will manages the sales from start to finish – planning, scheduling, and staffing,” shared group treasurer John Talcott.
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.
What have you been up to lately? It’s not a rhetorical question. Minnesota’s impressive Friends of the Library community orchestrate scores of creative and successful programs each year – and MALF wants to hear about them! Our annual Evy Nordley Award for Best Project is the perfect way to learn about and share community highlights from 2023.
As excited as we are to greet the New Year, it brings with it a few changes that are bittersweet. MALF bids a fond farewell to four members of its board of directors: Sue Grove (Austin); Melissa Brechon (Little Canada); Marge McPeak (Tower); and Kathy Sacchetti (Tower).
Recent studies calculate the nationwide, averaged value of volunteer time at an eye-popping $31.80 – per hour. Let’s use that as the basis of a thought experiment. By our most cautious count, our member network here at the Minnesota Association of Library Friends boasts a collective reach of more than 19,000 library-lovers across our great state. If each of these Friends of the Library volunteered just one hour of time to their group in 2023, that would ladder up to an instant $604,200 investment in our libraries!
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].
Congratulations to Friends of the Babbitt Public Library, winners of the 2023 Evy Nordley Award for Best Project by Friends. Babbitt (pop. 1,380) is one of the smallest communities to ever earn MALF’s highest prize –– which goes to show that exemplary, innovative Friends work happens within groups and towns of all sizes!
A real-life legal case with a supernatural bent inspired lawyer-turned-novelist Allen Esken’s latest thriller, Saving Emma. Eskens told MALF all about this backstory, and much more, on September 30 when he joined Friends for our fourth annual Saturday Splash event.
Nestled at the eastern edge of the Iron Range, the small town of Babbitt usually doesn’t qualify as a mecca for commerce or the arts. The exception is a special weekend each June, when the Friends of Babbitt Public Library hosts its annual Up North Craft & Vendor Extravaganza. On Saturday, June 3, nearly two dozen handicraft vendors accepted an invite extended by The Friends to sell their wares in the Babbitt Municipal Gym!