Plan Your Visit

The History Center is located in the Osprey Library at 337 N Tamiami Trail in Osprey.

Our hours of operation are:

• Monday:        10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Tuesday:       10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Wednesday:  10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Thursday:      10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Friday:            10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Saturday:       10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
• Sunday:          Closed

No appointment is required to visit the History Center, but we do recommend contacting the History Center at least three business days in advance of your visit to make sure the items you wish to use are available. Many collections are stored remotely and must be retrieved before your visit.

Before you visit, be sure to review the Reading Room Rules section of this guide, and determine whether any collection materials you want to see are stored offsite. Many of our collections are housed in a remote storage facility and must be retrieved before your visit. More specifically:

• These collections are stored entirely onsite at Osprey:
  • A-Z Reference File
  • City Directories (except Hill-Donnelly directories and telephone books)
  • Digital access to local historical newspapers.

• These collections are stored partially onsite and partially offsite:
  • Reference Library (900s and select others onsite)

•  These collections are stored entirely offsite and must be requested before your visit:
  • Archival Collections, including Photographs
  • Ephemera Collection
  • Historical and Archaeological Artifacts
  • Map Collection
  • Rare Books

Requesting offsite materials is easy! Contact the History Center at least three business days before your visit to ensure the materials you need will be ready for you. Staff members will pull material from offsite storage on Monday and Wednesday mornings before the History Center opens for business at 10:00am.

• For your request to be included in the Monday morning materials pull, it must be received before 4:00pm on the previous Friday.
• For your request to be included in the Wednesday morning materials pull, it must be received before 4:00pm on the preceding Tuesday.

Once the materials you requested have been brought to the History Center at Osprey, they will remain on hold for one week. You may request that the hold be extended if you have not completed your research. Because our Osprey facility has limited space, collection materials cannot be placed on hold indefinitely. Please contact Assistant Manager Leah Lapszynski by phone at 941-861-6090 or by email at llapszynski@scgov.net if you need to change your research plans.

Upon your arrival at the History Center/Osprey Library, you may park in any available space. Three spaces in the front row are designated "History Center Parking Only," but any space may be used.

Once inside the building, the door to the History Center area is just to the right of the front desk. When you open the door a chime will sound, and a staff member will greet you.

Please note that bags, food, drink, and a number of other materials may not be brought into the Research Room with you. We have lockers for you to store these items during your visit.

Our staff strive to make accessing our collections as easy as possible while also protecting them from damage or loss. Please help us preserve this trove of historical treasures by observing the following rules:

1. Upon arrival, please check in with a member of the staff and place any bags, briefcases, or coats in one of our secure lockers.
    
2. The following items are permitted in the reading room:
   
   
   • Pencils
   • Note cards
   • Loose blank paper
   • Spiral notebooks or pads of paper
   • Ring binders without material in the pockets
   • Light wraps, shawls, and sweaters
   • Cameras and cell phones (with flash turned off)
     
     
3. The following items are prohibited in the reading room:
   
   
   • Any form of ink or ink pens
   • Food, beverages, chewing gum, tobacco products, or e-cigarettes
   • Briefcases, bags, purses, envelopes, or other containers
   • Any material that might be confused with archival material in the collections
   • Personal flatbed scanners
     
     
4. When using collections:
   
   
   
   • Have only one box or volume off your cart at a time, and only one folder or item out of the box at a time.
   • Use a placeholder to mark the proper place to return the folder or item you are using.
   • You may indicate pages you wish to have copied or scanned either by using paper bookmarks provided by staff or by making a detailed list, including the MSS, box, and folder numbers for each item, along with a descriptive title so the staff can find it. Staff will perform all copying or scanning.
      
5. When you leave:
   
   
   • Check your belongings to ensure no collection material has become mixed in with your own items.
   • Alert a staff member that you have finished. Don’t forget to collect any belongings you have stored in our secure lockers!

The Sarasota County History Center's collections are public collections. Anyone may request copies of any photograph, map, audio recording, film recording, historical record, or other item that is not exempt from public disclosure under Chapter 119, Florida Statutes. Staff may also restrict the copying of other materials when the reproduction process would damage them.

• Visitors are free to take photographs of historical records, photos, or other materials with a smartphone, tablet, digital camera, or similar device, provided that the flash is turned off. Flatbed scanners may not be brought into the Research Room.

• Staff will make any photocopies or scans requiring more than the visitor's own hand-held equipment described above. Visitors should indicate the page(s) they want copied or scanned using paper bookmarks or a detailed list.

• Non-specific requests for copies or scans of photos (e.g. “photos of orange groves” or “records relating to the development of Casey Key”) will be treated as research requests. See the applicable section elsewhere on this page for details.
  
  
• For large requests requiring many photographs to be scanned, History Center staff can produce up to 20 scans per week.
  
  
• In most cases, requests for photocopies can be fulfilled during the visitor's time at the History Center. For larger requests, staff members may ask the patron to pick up the photocopies at a later date or to supply a mailing address where they can be sent.
  
  
• Sarasota County Government prohibits the use of thumb drives, external hard drives, and other USB storage media in County staff computers. Digital copies and scans will be delivered via the County's secure file transfer system. A link will be sent to the email address provided by the visitor. Visitors should download the files as soon as they receive them--the link will be deactivated after 30 days.

The Sarasota County History Center's collections are greatly enriched by donations of historical records, photographs, objects and other materials by members of the public. 

• View/Print Handout: Donating Materials to the Sarasota County History Center
• View/Print: Sarasota County History Center Collection Development Policy