The Library is supported by tax money from the City of Fayetteville and the State of Arkansas. Additional funding is needed to help support the Library. Friends' funding provides programs and services that are not funded or are underfunded.

On-going support includes programming for children and teens and literary and lecture programs for adults. To date, the Friends of the Library have pledged a $232,000 donation to the Library's National Endowment for the Humanities grant.

In past years, Friends money has paid for:

• Summer Reading Program performers
• New books by the thousands
• New audiobooks
• New films on DVD and video
• New music CDs
• New children’s books and films
• Staff and volunteer appreciation
• Business research aids like Value-Line
• Medical, music and history reference sets
• New microfilm reader
• The Children’s Library listening center
• Shelves for large print books and videos