The Sarasota Music Archive is connected to the Special Collections Department of the Selby Public Library. It is one of the leading reference collections in the field of music, containing an enviable cache of several hundred thousand recordings, tapes, sheet music, books, and memorabilia. Membership dues and private donations help to fund the archive. Originally established in 1980 by its founder, Mildred Petrie, the Archive was begun by a group of dedicated volunteers in a strip mall storefront. It soon grew large enough to move into its own building and eventually merged with the Selby Library in 2000.
The collection encompasses classical, opera, jazz, popular, folk, and international music, as well as video recordings. We have Edison wax cylinders, one or two-sided shellac disks, long-playing vinyl records, cassette tapes, 8-track tapes or compact discs and more. We are on the second floor of the Selby Public Library at 1331 First Street in downtown Sarasota. 941-861-1168