About us

One of the many tasks the founding members of the Friends faced in 2005 was to design a logo. Since none of the early members were particularly artistic, they decided to hold a contest. The winning entry, shown at far left, was designed by Kira Burge, a high school senior who went on to study art and business at the University of Oregon. Kira designed the logo to represent the concepts of growth, learning, and connection. An article about Kira and the winning design appeared in a local newspaper in July 2005. The original logo was "freshened up" by a local graphic designer in 2017; that version is shown at near left. In 2022 we redesigned our website. Board member Linda Kilgore stepped up to design a new logo which is included in the header of each website page. Linda designed a family of logos in different sizes that we use on our letterhead, newsletter, brochures, and flyers as well as the website. We think the whimsical, colorful books and modern font set the tone for our organization's fun and friendly culture.

On Tuesday, the Friends held our annual meeting where we reviewed our business activities for last year and planned for this year. We’d like to share some of our accomplishments from last year with you. The Friends resumed business operations while the library is closed by holding our Board and committee meetings via Zoom. We suspended our online book sales in March, but due to some quick thinking and flexibility, our Amazon store was back open and selling in May. In fact, we sold 540 books and DVDs in 2020, which is not too far from our sales in previous years. We launched Bag 'O Books sales in the spring and fall, selling more than 160 total bags of books. This provided needed materials to the community and made progress on our mission of raising funds to support library programs. We accepted donations of books from the community from August through November in coordination with library staff and based on Washington County safety guidelines. This kept material coming in for the Friends and supported those of you who might be doing some purging at home. The Friends donated $500 to the library to support the Tween Reader program where local tweens can earn free books for reading aloud to a friend, family member, or family pet. For more information about this great program check out the Tween Readers page on the City's website. Big thanks to all who donated books, purchased bags of books, shopped our Amazon store, or joined the Friends.

Have you "liked" us on Facebook yet? The Friends recently formed a new committee to add posts to the social media site more often than we have in the past. You'll find all kinds of interesting and fun information about the Friends and about the Tualatin Public library. Some recent posts in just the last month: Fifty ways to love our library Guidelines for book donations Volunteer opening for online book sale shipper Announcement that our newsletter is out Presidents Day quiz An invitation to share: "what are you reading?" So, we invite you to "like" us on Facebook and join in the fun.