Libraries have always been more than just a place to get books—they are hubs of community connection. In an era where true “third places”—spaces where people can connect with others outside of work and home—are increasingly rare, libraries have stepped up to fill the void. The Lakewood Ranch Library, which celebrated its one-year anniversary on January 12, 2025, perfectly exemplifies this, blending traditional library services with innovative spaces and programs that meet the needs of a modern community. Tiffany Mautino is the branch manager of the Lakewood Ranch Library, but her work began long before the building opened to the public. Her involvement with the structure itself started in March of 2023 when the exterior of the building was nearly complete but the interior was mostly concrete walls and not much else. That August, Mautino began working out of the building so she could answer any questions the builders and architects had. “I started being able to be in here daily and see it take shape and see paint go on the walls and shelves start to go up, and that’s the really interesting part about this building project,” says Mautino. “I’ve been on renovation projects before, but all that work was done very quickly and put back in the building. This one you got to see in stages, which was really interesting.”

Mautino wasn’t the only one watching the space come together. Some libraries have Friends of the Library groups composed of people who support their local libraries. The Friends of Lakewood Ranch Library group formed seven years ago, long before the library itself existed. “Our mission is to advocate for the library, and we did a lot of advocating not just with the public but with the commissioners to get the library here,” says Sue Ann Miller, president of the Friends of Lakewood Ranch Library. “That’s one of our major accomplishments, as well as raising over $400,000 to double the opening day collection from 23,000 to 46,000 items here in the library. That’s a real credit to this community. They love their library and certainly support them.” Mautino and many of the Friends were on hand in September 2023 to witness the truck arrive with boxes upon boxes of books that would fill the empty shelves. “We were all waiting outside and cheering and acting fools, but it was pretty cool,” Mautino laughs. “That day we brought in probably about 42,000 items. I forget how many boxes we brought in. We got it all up on the shelf in, I think, a week and a half. My team doesn’t work slow and they like to be busy.”

Mautino hired most of her team in the summer of 2023 before the branch opened so they were able to go to other library branches and train with their staff before opening day. Instead of specifically looking for people with library experience, Mautino focused on hiring the best customer service people as well as people with translatable skills.

“We’re thrilled with the facility, we’re thrilled with the programs it offers, but we just find the staff here to be in some ways more than we could ever hope for,” Miller enthuses. “Everyone from Tiffany and the staff down to the housekeeping crew is a unique group of people that are employed here. They all bring additional talent, whether it’s people with languages or one of our library assistants who is very much into engineering and technology and can fix anything and run anything in the workshop. It’s an exceptional group of people and we’re very, very pleased to work with them.”

That team has helped elevate the programming that the library offers and turn the building into a true community center. The event calendar is packed with an incredibly diverse array of classes and activities, the vast majority of which are free (some are donation-based). Children’s playgroups, yoga and Zumba classes on the roof, arts and culture lectures given by area experts, genealogy courses, immersion conversational language groups, ukulele workshops—and that’s barely scratching the surface. There are also sewing classes that make use of the library’s Makerspace, which is equipped with machines like sewing machines and sergers as well as a 3D printer. These events and amenities are possible through the support of the staff, as well as the dedicated efforts of community volunteers made up of adults and students who donate their time and talents.

With all the Lakewood Ranch Library has to offer, there’s even more they would love to. The second floor of the library building remains unfinished, and Mautino and Miller have plenty of ideas of what can be done with that 25,000 feet of unused space. The Friends run a volunteer-staffed bookstore that supports their ongoing fundraising efforts and are in need of a place to sort and store books. There has been a huge demand among students for small, private study rooms which are desperately needed. And, like her team, Mautino is always thinking creatively.

“We definitely want space for study rooms, but I would also like to see that area as a shared workspace with county departments and organizations. Libraries have become spaces for communities, but also very much spaces for people to come and find resources for things like social services,” Mautino says. “I think it would be a really amazing thing if instead of just giving someone a phone number or address and asking them to go downtown, I could take them upstairs and connect them directly to the right person. A shared workspace would be an incredible benefit to the community.”