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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 19, 2005
Contact:
, Austin Public Library, (512) 974-7528
Fax: (512) 974-7442
The Austin Public Library Hosts a Second Community Design
Input Meeting on the Replacement of the Twin Oaks Branch
On Wednesday, January 11, 2006 at 6:30 p.m. the Austin Public
Library will hold a second community design input meeting to provide recommendations as to what features should
be included in the design of the new community branch library. The community design review meeting will take
place at the Friends Monster Book Store, 1800 S. Fifth Street (former South Austin Post
Office). This is the second public meeting on this new library construction project. The first meeting was held
at the Twins Oaks Branch on November 17, and a third public meeting will be conducted once the architects and
the City of Austin have come up with a draft design plan for the branch library.
The Austin Public Library would like the community’s comments prior to the design
plans being drawn. Please plan to attend this important meeting in order to share your ideas with the project’s
design management team.
In the 1998 City of Austin Bond Election, voters approved the funds to acquire the
necessary land to design and construct a 10,000 square foot replacement facility for the present 5,360 square
foot lease space Twin Oaks Branch. By July 1, 2004, the City of Austin had successfully purchased the former
South Austin Post Office at 1800 South Fifth Street to serve as the new site of the Twin Oaks Branch Library.
Hatch Partnership Architects are being contracted to design this important replacement project. For more
information, contact: John W. Gillum, Library Facilities Planning Manager, at (512)974-7495 or email at
john.gillum@ci.austin.tx.us.
About the Twin Oaks Branch
The Twin Oaks Branch opened on September 27, 1956 at 202 East Oltorf Street in a
neighborhood shopping mall just east of South Congress Avenue. The little 300 square-foot facility was the first
of a series of “shopping mall’ branches launched by the Austin Public Library to make its services more
accessible to the community. The branch has moved three times since it first opened, but interestingly enough,
these moves have all taken place within the same shopping center!
Twin Oaks has always served a diverse, multi-ethnic community. Today, more than
one-third of the surrounding community is Hispanic and many of the branch’s patrons speak Spanish as their
primary language. There are six elementary schools in the Twin Oaks area, as well as two middle schools and one
high school. As a result, the branch’s collections and services are closely geared toward the interest of young
people. Twin Oaks also acts as an educational resource for area students from St. Edward’s University, the Texas
School for the Deaf, and the Southern Careers Institute.
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