The founding of a community library in the Venice area took place when the Venice-Nokomis Woman’s Club, organized in 1926, took the establishment of a community library as its first project. At first, books donated by club members were kept on shelves in a store in Nokomis but after several moves were housed in the Methodist Church. In 1932, Wesley K. Higel, a churchman prominent in the community, built a clubhouse as a memorial to his wife "Mame" Higel on the grounds later occupied by the first Nokomis Elementary School. This building served the area as a cultural center and library for many years. After the sale of the building to the Sarasota County School Board, and prior to the erection of the current Woman’s Club on Harbor Drive, the books were housed in the old Venice City Hall. For a number of years the library was located in a wing of the Woman’s Club which had been a gift of Mrs. Louella Albee especially for this purpose.   When the library eventually outgrew its space at the Woman's Club in 1962, a group of Venice citizens headed by distinguished children’s author Walter Farley and his wife Rosemary formed a nonprofit corporation called the Friends of the Library of the Venice Area, Inc. The organization’s specific purpose was to build a new free public library for the rapidly growing area. After three years, with land from the city of Venice, contributions from individuals, organizations, businesses and foundations, plus a promise from the County to contribute to operating expenses, the organization had enough resources to start building an 8,000 square foot public library. The library opened its doors to the public at 300 S. Nokomis Ave. on Oct. 4, 1965. From the very beginning, the Friends determined to "foster sound long range support of the most outstanding public library service possible for the Venice area." The Friends have supported the library in that mission ever since, through advocacy, enhancement funding and volunteer hours. The Friends' contribution remains crucial to the quality of service at Venice Library. The founders were clear about the principles they would follow in this new library: it would be headed by a professional librarian with a Masters Degree in Library Science, they would strive to meet the national standards established by the American Library Association and they would be a model for other libraries of similar size in terms of equipment and technology. With financial support from Sarasota County, the Friends operated the library until 1977 when it became part of the Sarasota County Library System. In 1979, the Friends and the county together funded a 10,000 square foot addition and did a complete remodeling of the older section of the building. The Friends added another 800 square feet in 1984. A 6,000 square foot expansion, again funded half by the community and half by the county, was completed in 1993, and the Friends added a small storage room and remodeled the meeting room in 1997. This exemplary partnership of Sarasota County government and the Friends of the Library organization, based on a tradition of local support, has brought outstanding library service to the Venice community.