About the Friends of the OSU Library

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Brief History

For over a decade the Friends have encouraged and provided support for the OSU Library and its mission to serve as the "intellectual commons" of the University. Your help has been vital to the Library in achieving and maintaining its reputation for quality resources, services, and gateways to information to meet the needs of OSU's diverse instructional, research, and outreach program. Your generosity will help us achieve our goals well into the next decade and beyond.

Find out more about the organization and how you can take part:

Publications from the Friends

The following is a list of selected accomplishments we are proud of:

The Edmon Low Library Endowment, an unrestricted endowment for library materials, has grown from an extremely modest fund to one with a balance of almost $1.1 million thanks to many gifts from the Friends organization and individual members of the Friends
The H. Louise Cobb and the Friends of the OSU Library Speaker Series brings nationally-known writers to campus including S.E. Hinton, Oliver Sacks, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Judith Viorst, William Buckley, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Tony Hillerman.
2002-2007-Provided necessary funds to allow the Edmon Low Library to offer 24-hour building access during finals week.
1995 to 2007-Provided anniversary gifts for 100 full-time Library employees.
1992 to 2007-Funded the Outstanding Library Employee Award.
1992 to 2007-Sponsored or co-sponsored special events. Events include computer training for the OSU Emeriti Association and senior citizens groups; the Brown Bag Lecture Series, which provides a venue for faculty to present current research; "character monologue" performances by Carol Headrick; "Poets for Habitat and Friends" readings; and a Regents Professor Lectureship.
2004-"That Was Then, This Is Now, 50 Years of Building Pride," a Friends-supported anniversary campaign, won the prestigious John Cotton Dana Award for the best public relations program at a college or university library.
1999 to 2002-Supported the Library's involvement in "Celebrate Students," a campus wide student appreciation program.
2001-With Stillwater National Bank, purchased another year's subscription to the Dow Jones News Retrieval Service, an on-line database heavily used by students and faculty. OSU is the only university or college in the state to provide free Internet access to this important database to its students and faculty.
2001-Have continued funding the purchase of USA Today Stillwater, NewsPress, and the Daily Oklahoman, 3 papers in high demand by OSU students.
Successfully met a 1:1 challenge grant for the Women's Archives at the OSU Library.
1999-Partnered with the OSU President's Office and the Student Government Association Speakers Board to underwrite the cost of the campus-wide celebration marking the acquisition of the Library's two millionth volume. Special guests at the event were Pulitzer prize-winning novelist N. Scott Momaday and Cherokee actor Wes Studi
1999-Spear-headed the Library's "Two Million and Counting" campaign, a special bookplate program to commemorate the acquisition of the Library's two millionth volume.
The Friends helped the Library secure and then successfully meet a $500,000 challenge grant from the Kerr Foundation of Oklahoma City.
Led by the Friends Executive Board members Peggy Helmerich and the late Ed Cobb, the Library was the first of the six campaign priority areas in OSU's enormously successful "Bringing Dreams to Life" comprehensive campaign to reach its fund-raising goal.
1997-"Plug into the World," a Friends-supported computer-training program, won the prestigious John Cotton Dana Award for the best public relations program at a college or university library.

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