With thanks to our supporters and music lovers, our first Live @ the Library concert was a remarkable success. The sold-out concert featured the outstanding jazz singer Jackie Ryan accompanied by the incredible jazz pianist Tamir Hendelman performing music about … Read More
I have a 40 year professional career as a librarian and I am appalled at the constraints placed on school librarians. Librarians face intense pressure from school boards and communities seeking to ban books exploring racial and LGBTQ themes. A … Read More
Happy New Year! In 2023 we will continue the reintroduction of FAL’s traditional programs, as well as the introduction of several new ones. We held our traditional Used Book Sale in October (our first since the start of the pandemic!) … Read More
With more than 14,000 books sold, our first Big Used Book Sale in almost three years was an overwhelming success! We raised close to $20,000, an impressive amount for a two-and-a-half-day event. The sale would not have been possible without … Read More
Join us as we restart pre-pandemic events: Buying books at the Big Used Book Sale, purchasing coffee and snacks at Dewey’s Friends Cafe in the Main Library, or attending a jazz concert. We are currently hard at work planning the … Read More
FAL’s dedicated volunteers are hard at work preparing for the October used book sale at the O’Club. Processing book donations is a large part of our work as they flow from car to sorting room to boxes to the warehouse … Read More
There was a terrific piece on CBS Sunday Morning – the 21st Century Public Library – about the exciting changes in public libraries throughout the country. One person referred to the library as the community living room and another said … Read More
The Books for Friends grand opening and our third Pop-Up Used Book Sale were very successful this past weekend! We sold record amounts of books, introduced the community to our outstanding new used bookstore in the Alameda Free Library, and … Read More
In the May newsletter I reported on attempts to ban or censor books in public and school libraries – a total of 729 books were banned in 2021. Most of these efforts are focused on books read by teens, so … Read More
We are witnessing censorship in many parts of the country. In Llano County, Texas, elected officials removed books because they disagreed with the ideas, closed library board meetings to the public, dissolved the library board, replacing them with political appointees, … Read More