Lakewood Ranch Library prepares for opening day celebration in January

A team of 17 caring librarians and library assistants are carefully preparing for the community's first visit to the new Lakewood Ranch Library, and avid readers are invited to celebrate when doors open in January.

For months, staff has been preparing for opening day, but the realization of a public library in Lakewood Ranch is years in the making. Manatee County funded $17.6 million to build the library, and an additional $200,000 was donated by The Friends of the Lakewood Ranch Library and the Manatee Library Foundation.

Now staff is focused on the finishing touches for the facility, and preparing programs for the grand opening day celebration planned for Jan. 12.

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"I've been in really nice new libraries, and I've been in branches that have needed renovation very, very badly," Branch Supervisor Tiffany Mautino said. "They're both their own challenge. It has been a really, really long time since I had come in a place that was mine to put together."

"I had forgotten how nice it is to start your culture from scratch and start your collection from scratch," she said. "Have you ever tried to buy $800,000 worth of books? It's really intimidating. IT told me today that we are really close, the staff is down to making displays and doing those itty bitty things. We're getting closer and closer, but I still wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning going like, 'whoa.'"

To prepare for opening day, the team sorted and organized thousands of new books, wonder books, audiobooks, DVDs, and even a few ukuleles over five days. They have installed new computers, projectors and organized working spaces, and prepared games, and entertainment areas.

Staff lovingly organized a small table displaying some of their favorite books, including selections like Cattitude by Katie Abey, The Women of the Bible Speak by Shannon Bream, and Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto; along with classics like Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez, 1st to Die by James Patterson, and Holes by Louis Sachar.

There will be items available for use on-premises, such as sewing and embroidery equipment, a recording room, 3D printers, a scanning machine, and art equipment, as well as workshops to teach adults how to make use of them and improve upon their skills.

The library also features office and reading space, meetings space, and flex space that can be converted to multiple uses such as classroom space or for election-day polling.

"We have the collection, but we also have this beautiful space," Library Services Manager Tammy Parrott said, "So you can just come here and be here. No one is expecting you to buy a coffee, you don't have to buy a book. You can just be here. It's not just for kids. We really want people to continue to be active. I want it to be fun for adults."

Parrott said the library's staff have spent countless hours preparing adult workshops and youth programs to offer a variety of different activities for community members of all ages.

The library hired a dedicated youth librarian and a teen librarian to focus on story time planning, the summer reading program, and community outreach. The team is planning to offer the first full week of programming, including plenty of story time, in February.

On opening day, visitors can expect youth programming, library tours, and how-to-use demonstrations for workshop equipment and other festivities to celebrate the grand opening.

"There will be some special programming on opening weekend. We are still working on that," Parrott said.

Assistant Library Services Manager Lyn Begraft spent much of her career working as a children's librarian, so she is particularly fond of the children's room.

"There's a lot of places there for parents and caregivers to be with their children, and there's an outside area which is wonderful," Begraft said. "We are piloting a new program in the library system where we have re-organized our picture books into topics so it's easier for the children to find... We want to empower them to use the library."

For adults who are simply looking to get a little bit of work in during some downtime, Begraft is equally fond of the quiet reading room that offers privacy away from the common library areas.

"That's like our little oasis here," she said. "It's really quiet there."

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Lakewood Ranch Library prepares for opening day celebration in January