- March 28, 2025
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Lakewood Ranch Library, the library that some residents waited 25 years to be built, has now been open for over a year.
There are a few improvements that need to be made, and plans for the second floor have only just begun. But overall, residents say the branch is living up to its billing as a modern library and community hub.
Over 800 people were at the library Jan. 11 for the one-year anniversary festivities.
Branch Manager Tiffany Mautino said it took her back to the day of the ribbon cutting.
“Commissioner (George) Kruse talked about how this building was built and intended to be a community center. When I walked in for the anniversary event, that is absolutely what I saw.”
Mautino described what she saw. Aloha Ukelele was playing some oldies. Little kids were dancing, and adults were chatting. Others were just browsing through the books.
On an average day, Mautino said residents “come out in droves.” In its first seven months open, the library saw over 72,000 visitors. Even after a year, Lakewood Ranch is still issuing more new library cards each month than any other branch in the Manatee County Library System.
Programming started out slow so staff could get the basic operations down and get a feel for what residents were looking for in programs.
Now that the programming is in full swing, story time is offered four times a week and is at capacity every week.
The Summer Learning Program through the Manatee Library Foundation served 763 children, which far exceeded the expectation for its first year.
As an incentive to keep children reading through the summer, the program rewards them with free books. So many children signed up for the program that the foundation had to drop off a second load of books.
The programming for adults has been equally successful in its attendance and diversity of subjects. Community members regularly volunteer to teach free classes. Yoga, sewing and finance are among the most recent offers.
“Coming from another library system, I’ve never seen a response from a community like this,” Mautino said.
The first floor and the roof are being utilized now, but there’s still 25,000 square feet of unfinished space on the second floor.
Manatee County's staff members proposed a $6.9 million budget when the buildout was first brought to commissioners in June 2024 as part of the overall county budget for FY2025.
If Mautino gets the chance to see her vision through for the branch, the library will expand upstairs.
She’d like to model the second floor after the Central Library Branch downtown. The adult nonfiction collection would move upstairs to create a quieter space with study tables, study rooms and a reference desk.
Part of the service would be to add a reference librarian who can answer more in-depth questions and assist patrons with research.
The lack of smaller study rooms on the first floor is one area where, according to patron feedback, the library missed the mark.
The current first floor layout includes a large study room with a table and individual cubbies. The cubbies are modern and convenient with comfortable seating, laptop trays and charging outlets.
When the conference room is booked, Lorraine Lakes resident Paul Grant works in the study room.
“You can’t talk in that room,” he said. “So I’ll have to go out and take calls, and then I don’t have my laptop with me. It would be great if they had a couple offices you could rent on an hourly basis for calls and stuff like that.”
Grant is a software platform engineer for Caesars Sportsbook. He regularly works at the library to escape distractions at home.
Grant would also appreciate a stronger internet connection. He was using his phone’s hotspot Feb. 12 because it was faster than the library’s wifi, but he loves the facility and will continue to use it.
Additional uses for small study rooms include tutoring and testing. As a community service, librarians serve as proctors for exams, but most schools require testing to be conducted in an enclosed space, free from distractions.
The Friends of the Lakewood Ranch Library, the nonprofit that provides volunteers and financial support to the library, has its own small request for the second floor.
President Sue Ann Miller said the group desperately needs a prep and storage space for the donated books that are eventually sold in the nonprofit’s in-library bookstore.
The group only needs a small space, and the personal bonus would be that Miller could clean out her garage.
Currently, the donated books are split between Miller’s garage and Treasurer Steve Borkenhagen’s guest room. Each book has to be inspected and cleaned before being sold in the bookstore.
The process requires a lot of lugging books back and forth, and Miller said people get upset with the volunteers when they can’t take their book donations on the spot. Volunteers could use a space to streamline the process.
Manatee County needs more space, too.
“At one point, we were going to utilize (the second floor) for more office space,” Commissioner Jason Bearden said. “We have over 2,000 employees in this county, and we’re growing by 12,500 people a year. That requires more employees and more services.”
Veterans Service is at the top of the list for those departments needing office space out east. Bearden used Del Webb as an example of an East County community where veterans are living and could benefit from nearby services.
Bearden said the second floor is still in the early stages of being designed, but County Administrator Charlie Bishop is moving forward with the concept of “flex space” that would allow for individuals, groups and county staff to come and go.
Ultimately, the spine of every library is the book collection. While the children and teen collections are amply stocked, the adult collection and overall number of books is sparse compared to other libraries.
The original number of books, audiobooks and DVDs the county purchased for the library was 23,000. The Friends of the Lakewood Ranch Library ran a Stock the Shelves campaign and exceeded its goal of raising $410,000 to double the collection.
There are now approximately 46,000 items stocked on the shelves of the Lakewood Ranch Library. But to put that number into perspective, the Braden River Library is stocked with about 86,000 items.
“This library is designed more for open space, but we need more books,” Miller said.
Other issues were discovered as the library was used.
The drive-thru window was a great idea in theory, but in practice, it’s not working. The curb is too wide for patrons to pull up without having to either lean halfway out of the car window or exit the vehicle entirely.
The placement of the handicap curb ramp isn’t working either. Several people have fallen in front of the library from tripping over the high curb of the sidewalk.
The handicap parking is across from the front entrance, but the handicap curb ramp is to the far right of the building, near the Gold Star Memorial.
People are walking straight from their parking spot to the front door. Miller said that, in the case of walkers, it can be a struggle to get them onto the curb and several seniors had trouble trying.
Mautino said a ramp near the entrance was a part of the original plan, but there’s no timeline as to when the county will start or complete either the ramp or the drive-thru window adjustments.
Staff's estimated timeline to begin work on the second floor buildout is May.
