What you can find at the North Village Branch:
- Access to over 30,000 brand new titles, magazines and periodicals
- Over 1,400 DVDs for check out
- Over 1,500 CDs for check out including Playaways, the new portable all-in-one audiobooks
- Collection of materials in Spanish for both adults and children
- Large meeting room for public use
- Inviting, safe and nicely lit interiors, lively patterned carpets and comfortable furniture
- The “Living Room,” a cozy separate reading area
- Teen Center with six laptops for ages 8-16 and Children's Area with two PCs for younger children
- Coffee, tea and hot chocolate machine
- Fourteen public access computers for adults
- Express Check Area furnished with automated self-check equipment
- Tables and seating with nearby electrical outlets for laptop computer hook-ups
- Two glass sculptures by Kathleen Ash, Art in Public Places artist, entitled The Sea of Knowledge, displayed at the meeting room entrance, and Read More Books, a mobile of large laminated suspended glass letters, in the Living Room.
- Parking for sixty vehicles
- A very “Green” building complete with a rainwater harvesting system for irrigation, rooftop solar panels for electrical power generation and Xeriscape landscaping filled with native plants
About the North Village Branch
On August 2, 1971, the Austin Public Library officially opened its North Village Branch in storefront property within the North Village Shopping Center at 2135 W. Anderson Lane. The conveniently located 3,000-square-foot facility replaced an APL mobile station (trailer) that for some time had been busily checking out books from the shopping center parking lot.
The new branch took hold almost immediately. In its first five days of operation, the branch checked out over 5,000 books, and at year’s end, led all city branches in total items circulated for December. When formal dedication ceremonies were finally held for the branch on January 23, 1972, the event drew a crowd of over 300 people, which at the time, was the largest group to attend a branch opening in Austin.
The library moved only once in its 30-year history-in 1990-when it shifted a few doors down to a larger space within the Center, expanding to 5,000 square feet.
In the 1998 City of Austin Bond Election, voters approved funding ($6.89 million) for the land acquisition, design, and construction of the North Village Branch Replacement Project to better serve the growing populations of the north central Austin neighborhoods. Limbacher & Godfrey, Inc. were the consultant architects for the project and they designed the library in keeping with Green Building Program concepts. The facility was built by Jamail & Smith Construction. This 11,000-square-foot library located at 2505 Steck Avenue near the corner of Burnet Road and Steck Avenue replaced the 5,000-square-foot leased storefront facility in the North Star Home Shopping Center. The Grand Opening of the new North Village Branch was held on Saturday, May 30, 2009.
The City of Austin Art In Public Places program selected one of Austin’s best-known glass artists, Kathleen Ash, for the library’s public art project. She has created a window wall between the browsing area and the meeting room, using colorful laminated glass to depict children sailing on open books over an ocean of letters (or sea of knowledge) heading towards an island of discovery. Additionally, in the library’s “living room,” is Ash’s creation Read More Books, a mobile of large laminated glass letters suspended by cables. These letters, of translucent white glass which emulates parchment, are inscribed with quotes from literature.
The new North Village Branch was patterned after the “library for the future” model, a library design concept which borrows many of its characteristics from upscale bookstores. Today, as in years past, North Village Branch serves as a gathering place for families, a study hall for students, an activity center for children, and an educational and informational resource for its diverse community of citizens. Active and accessible, the branch is truly a gem of a library strategically located in the heart of North Austin.
