What you can find at the Windsor Park Branch:
- Access to over 75,000 titles, magazines, periodicals, CD’s, and DVD’s.
- Public Internet computers, wireless access, and a limited number of electrical outlets and Ethernet ports
- Meeting room space for public use
- Reading Between the Lions sculpture by Paul Bond out front, which is a favorite of kids of all ages.
- Back-issues of periodicals available to check-out.
- Good selection of books in large-type and books in Spanish.
- Large collection of romance books shelved separately.
- Connected Youth Center providing programs and computers for youth from 8-17 years of age.
- Eclectic book club for adults meets monthly and readers vote on selections twice a year.
About the Windsor Park Branch
Although the Windsor Park Branch opened on July 15, 2000, the branch itself has a history in Northeast Austin that dates back nearly four decades. Library services to the area actually began in the late 1950s with bookmobile deliveries to the Windsor Village Shopping Center on Berkman Drive. This was followed in 1963 by the opening of the Windsor Village Station in a 2,000 square- foot retail site within the Center. But as the area grew, so did the need for a permanent, more spacious building.
A proposal to build one failed in the 1966 bond issue, and though funds were approved in 1982 (due largely to the lobbying efforts of the Windsor Park Neighborhood Association), the funds were used to build the University Hills Branch instead. Finally, in 1992, a bond issue passed, giving the go-ahead on 6 new branches and in July of 2000, APL celebrated the grand opening of its much anticipated Windsor Park Branch.
While certainly things have changed a bit since the first “incarnation” in 1963, much has also remained the same. The Windsor Park Branch of the Austin Public Library continues to serve as a gathering place for families, an activity center for children, a study hall for students, and an educational and informational resource for its community of citizens. It is a thriving, people-oriented, modern facility with a strong neighborhood following and a “neighborly” feeling.
