Largo Public Library, Public library in Largo, Florida, United States.
Largo Public Library is a 90,300-square-foot public library next to Largo Central Park, opened on July 31, 2005. It holds a Children's Wing, a Teen Room, study rooms, computer stations, and an ideaLAB with a 3D printer, iPads, MacBook Pro laptops, and Lego Mindstorms EV3 kits.
The Woman's Club of Largo started the library in 1914, collecting books and furnishings under the downtown camphor tree; it opened on April 7, 1916, in a room of the wooden Town Hall with 560 books. A new building followed in 1968, a $1 million facility on five acres in 1977, and the current 90,300-square-foot building, funded by the "Penny for Pinellas" sales tax, opened on July 31, 2005.
The library's name changed to Largo Public Library in 2005, when the current building opened. A local legend holds that Jennie Danforth Judkins, the second librarian, read every book added to the collection before it went on the shelf. The library was named Florida Library Association Library of the Year in 2018.
A full-service drive-through window, added in January 2008, lets drivers return materials and pick up hold requests without leaving the car, which helps elderly visitors, parents with young children and people with limited mobility. Four self check-out stations with RFID technology stand on the first floor, and an automatic materials handler installed in 2013 checks in and sorts returns. The building sits next to Largo Central Park.
The library was the first in Pinellas County to use barcodes, in 1994, and later the first to adopt RFID check-in and check-out. When the 2005 building opened, four self check-out stations on the first floor used RFID, and a drive-through window added in January 2008 lets elderly and mobility-challenged patrons return items and collect holds from their cars.
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