On Saturday, May 30, the building opened to the public to great fanfare. It’s a striking building and is very accessible by foot, bike, or car. Neighbors started arriving two hours in advance of the 10:00 ribbon-cutting to enjoy each others’ company along with live music, cold drinks, and delicious food from Boomerang’s.
John Gillum, Library Facilities Planning Manager, has described North Village as a library for the future. It’s built according to a bookstore model, with open, inviting areas for meeting, browsing, and relaxing. There’s a station for coffee, tea, and hot chocolate, and plenty of outlets for plugging in laptops. Sticking with the bookstore model, Gillum said, “Our collection is new and will be constantly refreshed. We’re putting books on the shelf that people want to come in and grab.”
Not only is the space warm and
inviting, it’s designed to comply with the Green Building Program
concepts. Said Gillum, “This is the greenest building we’ve ever
built, and we’ve been building green since 1989.” Some of the
green features of North Village include a rainwater harvesting
system, rooftop solar panels, and xeriscape landscaping.
Brenda Branch, Director of the city’s library system, welcomed the crowd and gave an overview of what we’d see inside: new magazines and periodicals, 30,000 books, 1,400 DVD’s, 1,500 CD’s, a large meeting room, a public “living room,” and 14 computers.
The CD collection includes a large number of Playaways, which were very intriguing to my six-year-old son. Playaways are preloaded and portable audiobooks; imagine a small MP3 player that contains the audiobook. They require little additional equipment; as Walter Minkel, Assistant Branch Manager, said, “If you have a pair of headphones, you’re set.” He also explained that this branch is moving away from being a total-book library and moving toward being a mixed-media library.
After a ribbon-cutting ceremony, which
included City Council Member Laura Morrison, the crowd streamed into
the new library and began to explore the welcoming, light-filled
space.
Austin’s Art in Public Places program had selected Kathleen Ash, a local glass artist, for the public art project at North Village. Visitors will be delighted to see the window wall that she created between the browsing area and the meeting room. She has used colorful laminated glass depicting children sailing on books, over an ocean of letters, heading toward an island of discovery. She also has an installation suspended by cables in the library’s living room. It’s worth a trip to the library just to see the art!
My four-year-old daughter’s eyes widened at the sight of the children’s section. It’s bright, welcoming, and full of colorful books right at eye-level for little ones. Aubrey Sanders, the Children’s Librarian, will be offering programs for kids throughout the summer. For more information about storytimes and the summer reading program, check out the website for the Austin Public Library at http://www.austinlibrary.com/calendar_plus.cfm. This site also contains information on youth programs at North Village and all of the city’s branch libraries.
If you haven’t visited North Village yet, I urge you to do so. But plan ahead. You’ll want to stay awhile!
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