Friends of the Library

FOL New Logo

The Friends offer ‘Discount Days’ in the bookstore on Tuesdays, where customers can receive $1 off their purchase if they are a part of the category of the given week:

1^st Tuesday of each month – Members of the Friends of the Olathe Public Library
2^nd Tuesday of each month – Active or retired members of the military
3^rd Tuesday of each month – Educators/Homeschoolers
4^th Tuesday of each month – Seniors (age 55 and up)

The Friends of the Library welcomes donations throughout the year. For a list of accepted items and more details visit our Book Donation page.

Friends of the Olathe Public Library Receive Honor

The Friends have been honored with an Outstanding Friends Group Award from Friends of the Kansas Libraries. The organization was nominated for its work raising funds, hosting the Novel Tea event, and donating books to schools, senior centers and hospitals. In just the last three years, the Friends have given over $120,000 in grants to the Olathe Public Library for equipment, programs, and a Mobile Outreach Vehicle.

Friends Annual Novel Tea

The Friends of the Library are pleased to announce that the 2025 Novel Tea will take place on April 5 at the Indian Creek Library. The featured speaker will be Paula Lafferty, author of La Vie de Guinevere, an Arthurian fantasy where present-day Vera finds out she is the legendary Queen Guinevere from the seventh century. Tickets will go on sale March 1, 2025. The event will include tea and light refreshments, creative table settings and giveaways.

If you have questions about the Novel Tea, please email jclark@olathelibrary.org.

Support Your Library! Join the Friends!

The Friends of the Library work to gain community support for library activities through volunteer activities, programs and book sales.

$20 Family, $10 Adult, $7 Student/Senior Citizen (60+)

OPL Friends Membership Benefits

Receive $1 off of your total purchase at each book sale and book store discount days
Exclusive Friends tote bag for new members

Join anytime by:

Visiting the Friends Bookstore at the Indian Creek Library
Mailing completed membership form along with your payment to the library.
Purchasing a membership, on the spot, at any of the Friends of the Library Book Sales.

Membership is good for one year.

2024 Friends Membership Application

Friends Book Sales

Book Sale Schedule

Be a Friends of the Library Volunteer

The Friends of the Library would love to have your help. The Friends need volunteers to help sort donated materials, prepare materials for book sales and provide customer help during the sales. Volunteers are also needed to staff the Indian Creek Friends of the Library Bookstore.

Friends Volunteer Application

Curtis Gilmore Scholarship

The Friends established the scholarship in 2012 in memory of Curtis Gilmore, a library volunteer who passed away in the spring of his senior year in high school. The $1,000 scholarship is open to all graduating seniors who have completed a minimum of 100 volunteer hours at the library.

The Friends announced in April 2024 that Andy Gonzalez-Dotti and Jada Pratt had received $1,000 in scholarships.

Andy volunteers at the library because it gives him a chance to give back to the library he enjoyed as a child and because he likes to make people smile. What he got most out of volunteering is the satisfaction that he was able to make someone’s day just a little bit better.

Jada 2024 Scholarship Winner

Jada loves the adventure that books provide and began volunteering for the library in eighth grade. Volunteering taught her patience with children when helping with craft projects, the value of a smile and listening to others, and empathy and compassion. She states that the impact volunteering had on her is pivotal to the life she will live, changing her and her outlook.