Standout Friend
Nominate your Standout Friend with FOLIO's new award. Honor your outstanding friends member, based on your own criteria (number of volunteer hours, successful new project, number of new members they recruited, etc.). FOLIO will honor them at the next statewide meeting. The nomination deadline for 2025 has passed.
Winston Churchill once opined that: "You make your living by what you get - but you make your life through what you give." If judged by that yardstick, many Friends of the Library among us are leading an extremely rich lifestyle. Most of these "Standout Friends" remain unsung heroes. In 2023, the Friends of Libraries in Oklahoma (FOLIO) created an annual Stand Up for Standout Friends program as a chance to spotlight and celebrate volunteers who go above and beyond. We want YOU to help add a new class of Standout Friends!
The Best Friends Committee will use the following criteria for judging all entries:
- Narrative summary describing a major innovative/creative event or series of activities that impacted your library for the calendar year.
- A narrative describing the process used for increasing the involvement of patrons in the local library
- Quality of the narrative and the organization of materials presented in support of your entry.
The deadline for the award is August 31, 2026.
Stand Up for Standout Friends Award Application (only members can apply)
Seeds for Success: Pre-K Book Grants
FOLIO has long been committed to early childhood literacy. Illiteracy has a lifelong impact on people’s health, earning power, mental health, & quality of life. Did you know…?
- 58% of U.S. children ages 3-5 are not ready fully “healthy and ready to learn.” “Most young children who start [school] behind are more likely to stay or fall further behind.” – edsurge.com
- 60% of low-income families have no books in the home. Nearly 70% of fourth-graders read below grade level. –comfyliving.net/reading-statistics
- The average baby’s brain grows to about 80% of adult size by age 3 and 90% – nearly full grown – by age 5. –firstthingsfirst.org
- Raising a child in a home filled with books positively impacts her future academic growth and job attainment. A book-filled home encourages a culture of reading for enjoyment and talking about books. –Social Science Research
FOLIO is offering up to $500 grants for Friends of Libraries groups to give books to preschoolers, particularly those living in poverty. The deadline is December 31, 2026.
FOLIO is also offering grants to Friends of Libraries groups for free used picture books (50-100 books) to place in take-and-share book shelves or a Little Free Library® in day care centers, community centers, health centers, housing centers or related locations. The deadline is December 31, 2026.
To qualify for the grants, Friends groups must be members of FOLIO.
Best Friends (presented in the Spring)
FOLIO presents two awards of $1,000 each to Oklahoma friends groups that demonstrate exemplary success in support of their local library. To be eligible, the friends group must have paid membership dues for the year of the award. Further information and criteria are on the application.
The deadline for the 2025 application has passed.
2025 Best Friends Awardees:
- John Harkey Best Friends: Friends of the Pryor Creek Public Library
- Oklahoma Best Friends: Bartlesville Friends of the Library
Friends of Libraries Week Awards (announced in the Fall)
FOLIO offers two awards of $500 each for Oklahoma friends in recognition of activities celebrating National Friends of Libraries Week, held annually in October. To be eligible, the friends group must have paid membership dues to FOLIO. Further information and criteria are on the application.
The award is announced in the Fall, and presented to the awardees during the Spring Conference.
You can find Friends Week ideas at http://www.ala.org/united/events_conferences/folweek
The deadline for the application for October 2025's FOL week has passed.
2025 Friends of Libraries Week Awardees:
- Library serving fewer than 10,000: Talala Area Library Friends
- Library serving more than 10,000: Friends of the Helmerich Library
Jump-Start Grants (available year-round)
Recently the Seed Grant Award was renamed Jump-Start. As before, FOLIO offers grants of up to $425 each to help with forming, reorganizing, or revitalizing a friends group to support a local library. Grants can help with the possible legal expenses of incorporation the creation and duplication of promotional and communication materials.
Applications are due the first day of the month in September, December, March, or June. Friends groups applying for the grant should have at least three members and a checking account to receive the grant funds. To qualify, there must be an existing group with a bank account, officers, and plans for grant usage. A seed grant may be used to establish or revitalize a Friends group. 501c3 status is not required to get a seed grant; the grant funds may be used to help pay to apply for 501c3 status.
Organizational tools for friends groups: http://www.ala.org/united/friends/orgtools
Hall of Fame (presented in the Spring)
The FOLIO Hall of Fame Committee honors outstanding and dedicated service to Friends of Libraries in Oklahoma, Inc. Nominations are made and voted upon by FOLIO board members. Names are inscribed on a plaque in the foyer of the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, Oklahoma City.
In 2019, FOLIO created the FOLIO Hall of Fame Laurel Wreath Award in recognition and appreciation of exceptional and continuing leadership and service to FOLIO.