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PAST NEWS ARCHIVE
September 12, 2001
Contact: Patricia Fraga, Austin Public Library, (512) 974-7528
Fax: (512) 974-7442

Manchaca Road Branch Jubilee Celebration to be held on October 17, 2001

On Wednesday, October 17, the Manchaca Road Branch of the Austin Public Library, 5500 Manchaca Road, will celebrate the Austin Public Library's 75th anniversary with help from their neighboring high school, Crockett. The entertainment will begin at 7:00 p.m. with a performance by the High School Orchestra String Quartet followed by the award-winning dance group the Tex-Anns. The Crockett High School Oral Interpretation Club, a traveling speech squad that competes in tournaments with other schools, will perform prose and poetry readings. To end the evening's celebration the High School Choir will delight the audience in song. All guests will be invited to make their own birthday hats and enjoy birthday cake.

Please join us in one or all of APL's Jubilee Celebrations. All activities are free and open to the public and made possible by the Austin Public Library Foundation.

About the Manchaca Road Branch
Although the Manchaca Road Branch currently stands as the largest branch in the Austin Public Library system at 14,500 square feet, this super-sized branch was originally built in 1974—not as a neighborhood branch, but as city-owned "regional branch" for South Austin and Southwest Travis County.

The full-service regional branch was intended not only to serve the "deep south" section of the city, but also to lend support to APL's growing network of neighborhood branches in South Austin (comprised at the time of the Twin Oaks, Southwood, and Montopolis branches). Plus, the branch was built with a bookmobile loading dock so that it might function as a "central depot" for APL's southern bookmobiles—thus furthering its role as a regional library.

Initial funding for the regional branch was provided through a 1960 city bond election which approved $350,000 for the Library. These funds were then earmarked in the City's Capital Improvements Program for the purchase of a site for the regional branch in South Austin. The site at the intersection of Manchaca Road and Stassney Lane was purchased in May of 1963, and although construction on the branch did not begin until 1973, once underway, the Manchaca Road Branch was completed in just one year.

Certainly, a great deal has changed since the Manchaca Road Branch first opened back in 1974. For instance, while originally designed to serve the 35,000 or so residents living south of the Colorado River and west of IH-35, the branch today serves a much smaller but more populated area of around 45,000 residents. That's a service increase of nearly 30%. And while the facility's size has remained the same over the years, the branch's collections have grown from 45,000 volumes in 1974 to over 80,000 today. Plus, what was once considered "remote and uncharted territory" is now a well-developed area, complete with three APL branches nearby: Pleasant Hill Branch (1987), Hampton Branch at Oak Hill (1997), and Southeast Austin Community Branch (1998).

Recent advancements in computer technology have affected branch operations as well. What began with just one public access computer-Internet station in the branch in 1996 has now grown to thirteen stations. Plus, since September 2000, the branch has served as one of the Michael and Susan Dell Wired for Youth Centers—a program that makes computers and computer training services available to young people under the age of eighteen. Currently, there are six WFY computers at Manchaca. Along with all this growth and change, the Manchaca Road Branch of the Austin Public Library continues to provide the citizens of South Austin with varied literature selections, helpful resources, wonderful programs, and good old-fashioned personal service.

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