On August 2, 1971, the Austin Public Library officially opened its North Village Branch in storefront property within the North Village Shopping Center. The conveniently located 3,000-square-foot facility replaced an APL mobile trailer that for some time had been busily checking out books from the shopping center parking lot. The library moved only once in its 30-year history, in 1990, when it shifted a few doors down to a larger space within the Center, expanding to 5,000 square feet. In the 1998 City of Austin Bond Election, voters approved funding for the land acquisition, design, and construction of the North Village Branch Replacement Project to better serve the growing populations of the north central Austin neighborhoods. The Grand Opening of the new North Village Branch was held on Saturday, May 30, 2009. The Branch was patterned after the “library for the future” model, a library design concept which borrows many of its characteristics from upscale bookstores. Today, the North Village Branch features one of the largest DVD collections in the APL system, an express area furnished with automated self-check equipment, a sizeable children’s area and teen center, lots of sunshine and natural light, a beverage station with coffee, tea, and hot chocolate for purchase, two listening stations programmed with selections from the Branch’s CD collection, and a very “green” building complete with a rainwater harvesting system for irrigation, rooftop solar panels for electrical power generation, and xeriscape landscaping incorporating native plants.
