Friends of the Library

10/30/2026

A few upcoming dates and reminders from the Friends of the Library!

Monday, November 2nd: Library Board Meet & Greet

If you or someone you know is interested in serving on the James Memorial Public Library Board, please consider filling out an application and attending the Meet & Greet with current board members!

Wednesday, November 4: Friends of the Library Meeting

Come join us! We're always happy to welcome new faces and hear new ideas. You can visit our website for membership forms and more information about our organization.

Dinner Sorted. Books Supported.

Don't forget about our upcoming November restaurant fundraisers benefiting Dolly Parton's Imagination Library!

November 16: Wendy's
November 30: Panera Bread

PLEASE read the fundraiser flyers! Each restaurant has specific instructions for making sure your purchase counts toward our fundraiser. And yes, you do need to show the flyer (on your phone is fine)!

We're hoping to make these fundraisers as successful as possible as we make one final fundraising push before opening enrollment for our local Imagination Library program.

10/28/2026

We have ONE empty square left on our current "We have friends to thank" board!
Who wants it?!

Don't worry, we'll happily add more squares. In fact, that's the goal! 😉

We're making one last big fundraising push before opening enrollment for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, and every donation helps us reach more local children!

Let's fill those squares and some mailboxes with books!

Donation and November fundraiser information in the comments!

10/27/2026

This is so cool! We're so proud of our schools and the hard work these students have put into this! Supporting creativity, the arts, and opportunities for students to share their work is so important.

We think JMPL needs a subscription! 👀

Creative Writing Club Releases First Literary Magazine! ✍️🐯❤️

St. James R-1 High School's Creative Writing Club has been hard at work creating the school’s first literary magazine, Plot Twist! The Halloween anthology "Once Upon a Midnight Dreary" was shared with students and staff!

From short stories to art and photography, every piece was created by our students. Through Critical Thinking and creative expression, these students are sharing a little piece of themselves with the world.

We can’t wait to see what the next edition of Plot Twist brings!

10/27/2026

James Memorial Public Library is hosting a Meet & Greet for prospective Library Board members, and we encourage interested community members to attend!

The Library Board currently has multiple vacancies, and this is a great opportunity for residents who care about the future of our public library to get involved!

If you live within the city limits of St. James and have a passion for public libraries and serving your community, please consider applying!

Monday, November 2nd
6:00 PM
James Memorial Public Library

Interested in serving?

We'll link the Library Board application in the comments! Simply print and complete the application, then submit it to Linda Cochran at City Hall, either in person or by email.

Our public library is an important community resource, and strong community involvement helps shape its future. We hope to see plenty of interested residents step forward!

Please share this post and help us spread the word!
You never know who might be interested in serving. 💜📚

10/26/2026

DINNER SORTED.
BOOKS SUPPORTED.

We're gearing up for our LAST BIG FUNDRAISING PUSH before opening enrollment for our local Dolly Parton's Imagination Library program, and we're hoping to make (nearly) every Monday in November a night of good food for a great cause!

Our goal is simple: Take a night off from cooking, support a local restaurant, and help us put more books into the hands and homes of local children!

We already have TWO fundraising nights scheduled and ready to go!

Monday, November 16: Wendy's

Monday, November 30: Panera Bread

IMPORTANT: Please be sure to read the flyers for each fundraiser! They contain specific instructions for making sure your purchase counts toward our fundraising total.

We're looking for restaurants or businesses willing to partner with us to fill those empty spots! We've already reached out to a few other restaurants and will update our calendar as soon as we hear back.

Do you know a restaurant that might be interested? Have a connection with a local business that would like to help? Maybe you ARE that business!

We'd love to hear from you! 💜

📧 [email protected]

10/25/2026

We now present to you… the Friends of the Library's "Bats on the Bus" STORY BUS! 🦇🚍

Our story bus was inspired by "The Bats on the Bus," a new picture book written by Alison Jackson and illustrated by Scott Magoon. It's a fun, halloween twist on the classic song The Wheels on the Bus, complete with beautiful illustrations!

Hundreds of people walked through our story bus tonight, and dozens of families stopped to sit down and read a book together. And that was exactly what we hoped for when we dreamed up this little project!

Well, that and spreading the word about Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, of course!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by our story bus tonight, shared a story, learned about the Imagination Library, or supported our efforts.

Seeing so many children and families enjoying books together made all the work of putting this together worthwhile.

After all, getting books into the hands of children is what we're all about! 📚

Thank you for spending part of your evening with the Friends of the Library!

10/24/2026

Okay, we're getting everything packed up and ready to head out to Trunk or Treat! 🦇🚍

We've been working hard on our setup, and we can't wait to show you what we've put together! We'll be taking plenty of pictures and sharing them this evening (or possibly tomorrow, depending on how exhausted we are by the end of the night 😅).

But before we head out, we have one more favor to ask!

We're working to raise as much money as possible for our local Dolly Parton's Imagination Library program before opening enrollment, so we can welcome as many local children into the program as possible right from the start!

Every donation helps us get closer to putting books into the mailboxes and homes of children in our community. Just $31.20 sponsors one child for an entire year of books!

So, if you can, share our posts, make a donation, spread the word, and come see us tonight at the PTO-Trunk or Treat at Maramec Spring Park!

We can't wait to see everyone, show off what we've been working on, and hopefully raise a little more money for our future readers and library lovers!

Donation link in the comments!

10/22/2026

Well, this was a fun surprise! 💜

We just found out that the Friends of the James Memorial Public Library is listed alongside some wonderful local nonprofit organizations on the Best of Phelps County nomination form!

If you feel so inclined to pop over and nominate us to help us make it to the voting round in November, we certainly wouldn't mind! 😉

We're grateful just to be included among so many organizations doing great things for our community!

Link in the comments!

10/21/2026

We love seeing so many of our Friends of the Library members pictured and mentioned in this post!

We really do have a special group of people who generously give their time, energy, and talents to so many different organizations, causes, and initiatives throughout our community.

We're proud to have such dedicated, community-minded people among our Friends! Their impact reaches far beyond the library, and we're so grateful for all the ways they help make our community a better place. 💜

10/21/2026

James Memorial Public Library is collecting candy donations for Booookfest!

If you'd like to help make this event a sweet success, you can drop off candy donations at the library anytime during regular business hours.

Thank you for supporting our local library and helping make Booookfest a fun event for our community!

Join us at James Memorial Library for our Halloween Book Fest on Halloween night from 5–8 PM! Stop by for a FREE book and LOTS of candy! We can’t wait to see all our little ghosts and goblins for a spooktacular Halloween! 🧡🖤🎃 📚🍬