The Follett Corporation began in 1873 as a small bookstore in the Wheaton, Illinois, home of C.M. Barnes. Barnes soon moved the store to Chicago, which was rebuilding after the Great Fire. The store sold books to students and then began to sell them to other stores.

As the business grew, other employees were hired, among them C. W. Follett in 1901, who started as a stock clerk. After Barnes’ son, William (C.M. Barnes had passed away) moved to New York to launch another company with a gentleman named Noble, Follett purchased the Barnes family’s ownership interest (J. W. Wilcox also owned some). C.W. Follett soon owned the entire company.

During the 1920s and 1930s, C. W. Follett brought his four sons into the business. Eager for challenges, they pushed into a new field of publishing college library books, while the wholesaling of elementary and high school textbooks continued to grow.

In 1940 Garth Follett founded the Follett Library Book Company (which later became Follett Library Resources). FLBC was created to specialize in K-12 schools thus offering greater assistance to its customers. At first, FLBC’s main office was located in Chicago and the company had a bindery located in Batavia, Illinois. In 1974 both the bindery and the company were combined at a facility in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

In 1994 Follett Library Book Company became Follett Library Resources to reflect the expanding realm of products and services available to its customers. These products and services included an ever-increasing inventory of PreK-12 books, audiovisual materials, and electronic ordering - first via TITLEWAVE CD-ROM and then via TITLEWAVE Internet.

In November 1997 FLR’s tremendous growth necessitated the construction of a new 230,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility in McHenry, Illinois. Five years later, in July 2002, FLR expanded its McHenry facility to more than double its original size. Today the FLR building is situated on a beautiful 25-acre campus with more than 470,000 square feet of office and warehouse space dedicated to servicing the needs of our library and curriculum customers.

Currently, Follett Library Resources is the largest supplier of books, eBooks, and audiovisual materials to PreK-12 schools. We understand the needs of today’s PreK-12 students and educators and continually strive to provide the best products and services available.

> Click Here for pictures of our state-of-the-art warehouse.