Politics & Government

Selby Library Teen Center Opens

The downtown library now has a dedicated area for teens

It looks a bit like an Apple Computer store. Lots of glass and modern touches. But it’s not. It’s the new area of the Selby downtown library devoted to teens.

The southeast corner of the library that once housed video and music media over the past six months was transformed into an area devoted to teen-age interests. Friday afternoon the wraps were literally taken off the $1.2 million renovation, as brown construction paper was ripped from the glass walls. 

The first teens in the audience rushed to the computers, while others browsed the books. The facility was made possible by the William and Marie Selby Foundation, the Rotary Club of Sarasota and the Quigley family in commemoration of a lost son.

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Totems Architecture drew the plans and Dooley-Mack did the construction. Nora Patterson, chair of the Sarasota County Commission, said, “Libraries are more than anything else our love of the pursuit of knowledge. They are sacred places.”

She said the county was “committed to maintaining the excellence of the library system.” 

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