We’re dedicated to keeping Sarasota County Libraries on the leading edge of technology and community services.
Investing in Our Libraries
As part of our mission, the Library Foundation has undertaken numerous campaigns to supplement our libraries’ offerings. Below are just a few of the ways we’ve helped to expand our libraries’ services over the years.
Pop-Up Library
The Library Foundation granted $125,000 to the library system to fund Sarasota County’s first fully-equipped mobile Pop-Up library.
This customized outreach vehicle brings the library’s technology, books, and programs to communities with limited access to brick and mortar library branches.
Staffed with a full-time librarian and outreach specialist, the Pop-Up library provides:
Library card services
Mobile Wi-Fi
STEM-based makerspaces
Employment services
Programming for children, families, and senior citizens
Help us continue to broaden the reach of the library system and guarantee more resources for everyone in the community.
Digital Resources Campaign
Digital resources such as eBooks, online databases, audio books and internet access, are critical for keeping our community connected.
In 2018, the Library Foundation presented county commissioners with $212,000 donated by library lovers for new digital resources. These funds added 8,600 e-resources to the online collection, a 36% increase.
Additional digital materials reduce patron wait times and ensure our library resources are accessible even when libraries are closed. Online materials help people access digital books, magazines, and music, as well as provide job-seeking and continuing education resources. Yet digital materials are often 4 – 5 times more expensive than print materials and have to be re-purchased after a limited number of uses.
Join us today in expanding our libraries’ digital resources to ensure our community stays informed and connected.
Creation Stations
Creation Station visitors can learn how to program a robot, design and produce products on a 3-D printer, sew with a grandparent, create materials to start a small business, launch a podcast … and anything else their creative minds can imagine.
Designed to promote hands-on learning, Creation Stations are dedicated “makerspaces” in Sarasota County libraries where children, teens, and adults come together to imagine, design, and create with the help of a knowledgeable library staff member.
In 2017, we opened Creation Stations at the Selby Library and the Shannon Staub Library – and they were overwhelmingly successful. In partnership with the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation, which in 2018 provided the extraordinarily generous lead grant, and thanks to many committed Library Foundation donors, the Creation Stations were expanded to 10 library locations.
This transformative initiative helps Sarasota County libraries attract new users, support non-traditional learners, and opens the doors to new ways of thinking and potential new career opportunities.
If you’d like to inspire creativity, innovation, and a love of technology for all ages, join us today with a gift of support.
Creation Stations In Action
Children can design digital art at Creation Stations.
A 3-D printed robot printed at a Creation Station!
Open Lab in the Creation Station.
Playing with stop motion filming.
Paper quilting at a Creation Station.
A sewing class at a Creation Station.
A young person looking for a 3D print design.
Creation stations offer Osmo, an award-winning educational game system for kids.
The Children’s Literacy Endowment
Research conducted by the National Council for Family Literacy shows two primary indicators for the development of strong early literacy skills and later success in reading and learning in school:
The availability of reading materials in the home
How often a parent or caregiver reads to a child
To support parents as their child’s first teacher, and to ensure our most at-risk children have access to books in their homes, the Library Foundation has partnered with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, an early-literacy program that mails free books to children from birth to age 5.
Selected by early literacy experts, books are new, age appropriate, and diverse. Each child under age 5 in a household can participate, and best of all, the books stay with the child forever and are often the beginning of a child’s very own home library.
Please join us today in supporting early literacy for the youngest readers in our community.
AWE Early Literacy Stations
Young children are immersed in technology yet not all have access to it at home. The digital divide affects our most vulnerable children, putting them at a significant disadvantage. To thrive academically in today's digital world, it’s essential that children become familiar with computers and technology from an early age.
AWE Early Literacy Stations are all-in-one digital learning stations for young children. They feature a colorful keyboard and engage the young learner with a touchscreen and kid-sized mouse. Each unit is equipped with 54 educational software programs covering seven subject areas, including reading, math, music, science and art.
With AWE stations, preschoolers can explore computers to create art, compose music, tell and record stories, and even hear their stories read back to them. They can also engage in educational games that seamlessly connect with off-screen learning and playtime. Programs are available in both English and Spanish.
The Library Foundation is proud to partner with the Sarasota County Libraries in providing AWE Early Literacy Stations at nine libraries. Over 1,000 learning sessions for children ages 2 to 10 are supported each week.
Join us in maintaining access to AWE stations for the children
who visit our Sarasota County Libraries by making a gift today.
AWE Stations In Action
Want to See Our Impact in Action?
Head over to your local Sarasota County library branch!
To find a library near you, click here.
