catalog | locations | reference | youth | news | links

PAST NEWS ARCHIVE
December 11, 2001
Contact: Patricia Fraga, Austin Public Library, (512) 974-7528
Fax: (512) 974-7442

HoHoHo at Cepeda Branch

Tuesday, December 18, 2001 the Cepeda Branch of the Austin Public Library, 651 N. Pleasant Valley Road will transform itself into the North Pole with a visit from Santa Claus. Activities will begin at 6:00 p.m. with caroling, crafts for kids and photos with Santa. The Library will provide free Polaroid photos to the first 40 children. Personal cameras are welcomed. Join the Cepeda Branch staff as they bring a little holiday spirit into the library community. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

About Cepeda Branch
Although the Cepeda Branch is just a little over three years old—having opened on June 20, 1998—the branch itself has a history in East Austin that spans over 25 years.

The branch officially got its start back in 1975 as the Rosewood-Zaragoza Branch, located within the Rosewood-Zaragoza Recreation Center on Webberville Road. Then in 1978, having outgrown its space at the Center, the branch was moved to a shopping center on E. 7th Street and renamed Govalle. A few years later, the Govalle Branch was relocated to a leased site on E. Cesar Chavez, where it remained for the next 10 years.

Finally in 1992, after East Austin residents had campaigned for over a decade for a new branch facility in their area, a city bond issue passed which appropriated funds for building six new branches in Austin, including one for Govalle. The site on Pleasant Valley Road was soon chosen, and in the spring of 1997, groundbreaking ceremonies were carried out for the new branch. While initially the branch was to be named the Zaragoza Branch, the decision was made in 1997 to name the new facility the Cepeda Branch in honor of Eustasio Cepeda, the community leader for the Latino community in the 1930s and 1940s.

Currently, the Cepeda Branch houses a collection of over 50,000 items and is equipped with six public access computer-Internet stations. It is a modern, service-oriented facility with a large and loyal neighborhood following. The branch also stands as living proof of what a community can accomplish when it sets its "collective mind" to it.

###