Libraries need our help, now more than ever.
Join us in ensuring our libraries remain strong and well-resourced, so they can continue providing essential services to our community.
Libraries Need Our Help
Libraries are vital to the health of our community. Beyond just books, they offer access to technology, social connection, and a wealth of life-changing information.
As the Library Foundation for Sarasota County, our goal is to raise private donations to supplement public funding, keeping our libraries at the forefront of technology and services and ensuring that everyone in our community has the resources they need to thrive.
Public Funding for Sarasota County Libraries 2020-2023
How We Impact Change
Community Advocacy Team
Our Community Advocacy Team (CAT), composed of committed citizens and Library Foundation Board members, works to keep the Sarasota County Commissioners and the public informed about the value of our libraries and the critical need to secure their future. Click here for a copy of our 2024 position paper presented to the Board of County Commissioners.
The CAT strives to create a partnership with elected county officials and gives a voice to the community to advocate for adequate and sustained public support for our libraries.
Recent Advocacy Accomplishments
Increased involvement at the Board of County Commission meetings.
In 2024, members of the Community Advocacy Team regularly attended County Commission meetings when library topics were central to the agenda. These advocates played an important role in communicating the value of libraries and presenting accurate information about library resources and programming.
Launched a new Take Action online toolkit so the community has the resources to advocate for our libraries.
In the fall of 2023, the Library Foundation developed an online advocacy toolkit, providing library lovers with resources to contact elected officials, request advocacy materials, download digitals tools, and more.
Designation of county surtax funding for increased books and materials.
In response to Library Foundation advocacy efforts, the County Commission voted in 2022 to designate $1 million of anticipated surtax funding to increase the books and materials available in our libraries.
Increased statewide funding of libraries.
In 2022, members of the foundationโs Community Advocacy Team met with elected representatives in Tallahassee to encourage restoration of statewide library funding to previous levels. These efforts contributed to a $2 million funding increase.
Return of Sunday hours at Selby and Jacaranda libraries, including Creation Station programming.
At the request of the CAT, commissioners allocated $230,000 in the 2020 budget for this purpose. In January 2020 patrons were welcomed back on Sunday afternoons for the first time in nine years.
Increased spending on collections to help meet the need of our growing community.
At the request of Sarasota County Libraries and the CAT, the County Commission allocated an additional $150,000 for books and materials in 2019. In 2023, the CAT successfully advocated once again for increased materials funding, creating support for another $150,000 in the library's 2023-2024 budget.
Supported the libraryโs 2019 recommendation to eliminate library fines to ensure all residents can access materials from the library.
The elimination of fines increases the number of people using the libraries, reduces the staffing cost of collecting and managing fines, and encourages cardholders to return overdue items.
Successfully advocated for a county budget that avoided reduction in library services.
In 2018, the CAT advocated for a budget that avoided cuts to the library system. The County Commission adopted the budget championed by the CAT, ensuring adequate funds to keep all libraries open on Mondays.
๏ปฟ
Feel passionate about our public libraries?
Join us!
Let us know if youโd like to become a member of our Community Advocacy Team
by clicking on the button below or emailing hello@SarasotaLibraryFoundation.org.
Initiative Highlights
Creation Stations
Creation Station visitors can learn how to program a robot, design and produce products on the 3-D printer, digitize cherished family photos, write computer code, sew with a grandparent, create materials to start a small business, launch a podcast โฆ and anything else their creative minds can imagine.
The Childrenโs Literacy Endowment
To support parents as their childโs 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, a book-gifting program that mails free books to children from birth to age 5.