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PAST NEWS ARCHIVE
July 18, 2001
Contact: Patricia Fraga, Austin Public Library, (512) 974-7528
Fax: (512) 974-7442

Milwood Branch to Hold Jubilee Celebration on July 21

The Milwood Branch of the Austin Public Library, located in Northwest Austin off Duval Road and Parmer Lane at 12500 Amherst Drive, will celebrate APL's 75th birthday on Saturday, July 21, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Additionally, Milwood will be celebrating its 4th birthday (officially on July 26). Today, the Milwood Branch of the Austin Public Library is a modern, service-minded facility with a large and very loyal neighborhood following. But then again, that's to be expected since Milwood was born out of community involvement. In fact, one might even say that the Milwood Branch is living proof of what a community can accomplish when it sets its "collective mind" to it.

This APL Jubilee event will feature music by The Studebakers-performing music from the 1930s and '40s. Good listening and dancing music along with refreshments will be part of the Jubilee festivities. Please join us as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of Austin Public Library at Milwood Branch.

Milwood Branch will simultaneously be celebrating its 2001 Summer Reading Program finale, featuring a puppet show, "Tikki Tikki Tembo," at 10:30 a.m. the same day.

These events are free and the public is invited to attend.

About the Branch
At the 1997 opening ceremonies, while addressing a crowd of over 1,000 guests, Mayor Kirk Watson referred to the new Milwood Branch as "a City success story" that came about through the Library's partnership with the community. The opening day festivities were set to the theme of an old-fashioned ice cream social and included a barbershop quartet, face painting, balloon sculpting, a lemonade stand, and of course, an ice cream station. Since the event was held on a steamy-hot day in July, the lemonade was definitely flowing and the ice cream was definitely dripping! After the ceremonial ribbon was cut, popular children's musician Joe McDermott sang songs indoors while the crowd moved and mingled about the new facility. According to Branch Manager Lexie Graham, it was a great day all the way around, plus over 2,000 items were checked out that very first day!

Among its many features, the Milwood Branch is outfitted with a large meeting room for 50 people, and a smaller meeting room for up to 10 people. The facility is situated on a beautiful wooded site of 7.5 acres, which gives the whole complex a shady park-like feeling. The grounds also feature an intriguing metal sculpture series of running children, which is located near a winding sidewalk leading from the building to the street. Entitled "Learning to Fly," the sculpture series was created by artist Lori Norwood and funded through the City's Art In Public Places program. Norwood used students from Summitt Elementary School as models for the sculpture.

Currently open 59 hours a week, Milwood maintains a collection of over 60,000 items, including books, books on tape, music CDs, videos, periodicals, and CD-ROMs. The branch has six computer stations that provide public access to the Internet and word processing, as well a database station that provides access to APL's online resources.

Visit the Library's Web site at http://www.cityofaustin.org/library/ for additional information about APL services.

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