What you can find at the Twin Oaks Branch:
- Access to over 48,000 titles,magazines, periodicals, CD’s, and DVD’s.
- Public Internet computers and wireless access
- Meeting room space for public use
- Comfortable reading areas
- Children’s Programs
- Books in Spanish
About the Twin Oaks Branch
The Twin Oaks Branch opened on September 27, 1956 at 202 East Oltorf Street in a neighborhood shopping mall just east of South Congress Avenue. The little 300 square-foot facility was the first of a series of “shopping mall” branches launched by the Austin Public Library to make its services more accessible to the community. The branch has moved three times since it first opened, but interestingly enough, these moves have all taken place within the same shopping center! The branch is slated to move one more time. In the 1998 City of Austin Bond Election, voters approved the funds to acquire the necessary land to design and construct a 10,000 square foot replacement facility for the present 5,360 square foot lease space Twin Oaks Branch. By July 1, 2004, the City of Austin had successfully purchased the former South Austin Post Office at 1800 South Fifth Street to serve as the new site of the Twin Oaks Branch Library. Hatch Partnership Architects are the contractors to design this important replacement project.
Twin Oaks has always served a diverse, multi-ethnic community. Today, more than one-third of the surrounding community is Hispanic and many of the branch’s patrons speak Spanish as their primary language. There are six elementary schools in the Twin Oaks area, as well as two middle schools and one high school. As a result, the branch’s collections and services are closely geared toward the interest of young people. Twin Oaks also acts as an educational resource for area students from St. Edward?s University, the Texas School for the Deaf, and the Southern Careers Institute.
