Sarasota County Library System

Elsie Quirk Library

The Elsie Quirk Library was established on June 15, 1962. The 1,400 square feet (130 m²) library was established by Elsie Quirk after she visited a small community library while on vacation in North Carolina in 1961. When Quirk returned from vacation, she donated land at 101 Cocoanut Avenue in Englewood, along with $10,000.

The Friends of the Library was established in 1961, headed by Leah Lasbury, Josephine Cortez and President Lois Potter.[4] These women banded together and helped gather the rest of the funds and material needed to make their library dreams come true. The Lemon Bay Women's Club donated 3600 books to the Elsie Quirk Library. It was manned by many volunteers, including Quirk herself.

This library became a major part of the Englewood Community. In 2001 it was upgraded and has become the Elsie Quirk Public Library.

The Jacaranda Library was established on January 25, 1994, in Venice. In 1995, it changed its name to the Frances T. Bourne Jacaranda Library, dedicated to the former archivist in the U.S. State Department who helped raise funds to create the library.[5]

In 2004, the library received an addition to the building that doubled its size. The library's design incorporates the natural world; it features a pond filled with lilies, adjacent to a walking trail.[6]

The Fruitville Public Library was established in 2001 and serves Sarasota County and Lakewood Ranch residents. In 2003, a reading garden was opened to the public, along with a bookstore.

Gulf Gate Library

The Gulf Gate Library opened in 1977, originally located in a storefront on Gateway Avenue.[7] On December 5, 1983, the library opened its doors on Curtis Avenue.

After much wear and tear over the years, the Friends of the Gulf Gate Library raised funds to build a new library. The library shut down in 2013 and temporarily relocated for two years to the Sarasota Square Mall.[8]

The new library re-opened to the public on January 24, 2015, at its old location on Curtis Avenue. Upon its re-opening, the library received Reader's Digest's "Most Impressive" award for the state of Florida in their "The Most Impressive Library in Every State" article.[9]

In 1975, funds were raised to purchase a two-bedroom house was purchased on Tamiami Trail, which was enlarged to serve as a library. It was a free library, staffed only by volunteers, and operating with 5,000 donated books.[10] In 1992, the library outgrew the house and a new library building was built.

The Shannon Staub Library opened on October 17, 2017. The 23,321-square-foot facility serves as both a public library and the library for the technical college.[11]

The North Sarasota Library once offered a program that allows patrons to check out a person, just like checking out a library book. Through this program, local community members sit and talk with patrons for 20 minutes.[12]

This library is a small facility located within the Visitors Center of Historic Spanish Point in Osprey.[13] It is also a part of the Historic Spanish Point Museum covering prehistory, pioneer, Palmer, and plants. With an archaeological record that encompasses approximately 5,000 years of Florida prehistory, this National Register of Historic Places museum is referred to as one of the largest intact actively preserved archaeological sites of the prehistoric period on the Gulf Coast of Florida.[14]

Selby Library

The Selby Library was established in 1907, as the first library built in Sarasota County. It remains the county's largest. Started in 1907 using a small donation from the Sarasota Town Improvement Society, it began as a single room housing books mostly donated by John Hamilton Gillespie, Sarasota's first mayor.[15] It was located in the Stone Block Building on the southwest corner of Main Street and Pineapple Avenue.

In 1913, the Women's Club assumed operations. The library was moved to the club's headquarters, today the site of Florida Studio Theatre, where it remained from 1915 to 1931.[16] The Sarasota County School Board then donated a wing of a school building on Main Street when more space was needed to accommodate the library's growing collections. In 1940, the city assumed control of the library, and one year later moved it to the Chidsey Library on Tamiami Trail.[17]

In 1976, a new library was built on the bayfront and named the Selby Library in honor of the William G. and Marie Selby Foundation, whose donated funds made the new library possible. This permanent endowment was established by William Selby before his death in 1956.

The library moved from its bay front location to its new downtown location at Five Points Park in 1998, keeping its Selby name.[18]

The Venice Library was built in 1965. In 2012, mold was discovered in one of the library's meeting rooms in which the county underwent efforts to clean the building.[19] However, the problem persisted, and in 2014 mold returned to the meeting room. As a result, county officials closed down the meeting room as mold continued to spread throughout the library.[20]

In spring 2017, the original Venice Library was demolished and construction began in the fall for a new library. The William H. Jervey Jr. Venice Public Library opened on December 15, 2018.[21] This new building is a 24,000 square feet (2,200 m²) structure with 19,000 square feet (1,800 m²) of usable space with the implementation of glass to allow for natural light.[19]

The building is named after William H. Jervey, Jr. who donated $1 million towards the project. He was initially critical of the closing of the original library. Jervey also donated $250,000 as an estate gift to the entire Sarasota Public Library System.[22]