In 1926, at the organizational meeting of the Woman's Club of Nokomis, after election of officers, the first order of business was a library. The women planned to sell library subscriptions for one dollar a year and asked their friends to donate books. Dr. Fred Albee donated $150 to buy books.
In Sarasota, when the women's Town Improvement Society disbanded in 1906, the members decided that the best use for the $40 in the treasury was to start a library. They sold subscriptions for one dollar a year. The subscription fees paid for books and the $40 paid for bookcases. J. Hamilton Gillespie donated a room over Badger's Drug Store on Main Street for the library. In 1913, the newly formed Woman's Club took over the library and moved it into their building when it opened in 1915.
In Englewood, the Mother's Club opened a community library in the Englewood School in 1922. The Mother's Club evolved into the Woman's Club, which operated the library in the Woman's Club building until 1962. This library dream actually resulted in two libraries, Englewood Charlotte Library and the Elsie Quirk Library in the part of Englewood in Sarasota County.
The North Port Woman's Club appointed a committee in 1973 to study the feasibility of a library. Fifteen charter members gave $100 to start the library. Two years later the library had 5,000 books and an annual budget of $40,000.
In 1977, these subscription libraries became the foundation of the Sarasota County Library System, which now has six libraries: Elsie Quirk Public Library in Englewood, Francis T. Bourne Jacaranda Public Library in Venice, Gulf Gate Public Library, North Port Public Library, Selby Public Library in Sarasota, and the Venice Public Library.