A new plan for libraries calls for expansion

City Council approved a plan for Austin Public Library last Thursday that features a new set of strategic goals and calls for the expansion of libraries across the fast-growing city. 

In early 2022, a Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) started assessing both external and internal factors affecting Austin’s library community. 

“It was a process that involved a community survey responded to by over 5,000 Austinites, as well as some pop-up interactive feedback sessions that happened at libraries and other locations throughout the community,” said Baylor Johnson, APL’s public information and marketing program manager. “As for the facilities expansion, there was a series of meetings and workshops with both internal library staff and community stakeholders, as well as visits and assessments by the architecture consultant to all of our existing library facilities.”

The internal assessment led to the creation of a new vision, mission and set of strategic goals to guide APL through the next five years. The new vision is for APL to be “a model of equity, inclusion, access, and diversity,” and their mission is to “inspire all to discover, learn, and create.” 

The SPC created five strategic goals that aligned with its new mission statement: provide community-centric programs/services, design/develop spaces for community connections, foster stakeholder relationships, expand library access and engage library staff.

“A lot of the internal strategic goals had to do with work that the library staff can do to better connect with and serve the needs of our community,” Johnson said. “Libraries are so much more than books. They’re places where there’s programming and learning opportunities, career health, arts and crafts classes, language support – all sorts of things.”

Johnson said that much of the smaller branch libraries’ footprints has to be dedicated to shelves of materials, so there isn’t enough space for some of those unique services like there is in the downtown Central Library. 

“The vision for the facilities plan is for how our spaces can serve those different roles, not just in our downtown library but in all of the neighborhoods in Austin,” Johnson said.

Since Austin’s population is predicted to grow by at least 25 percent over the next two decades, one of APL’s most pressing challenges is to work to make these internal changes while also physically expanding to meet Austin’s growth.

Specifically, the plan recommends either expansion, relocation or replacement of at least half of the existing branch libraries, but also calls for four “net new” branches – one in each quadrant of the city. The new branches will be located toward the edges of Austin to support the population growth happening outside of the city center, where new library construction has not happened in years.

As the plan progresses, Council Member Vanessa Fuentes said she wants to make sure that APL continues to prioritize community outreach and transparency to identify each specific district’s needs. 

She spoke to the need for both in-person and online engagement, and how in her community in Southeast Austin, it will be extremely important for all surveys and events to be available in Spanish as well as English, because many of her constituents are immigrants.

“That’s another beautiful thing about our libraries,” Fuentes said, “they really are great equalizers. We have people from all walks of life, all different backgrounds, coming together at one centralized hub – so we just have to make sure that the engagement pieces match that.” 

Fuentes agreed with Johnson’s emphasis on the importance of libraries, adding that the library is truly the “nucleus” of her community.

“It’s where everyone goes,” Fuentes said, “not only to check out books and library resources, but also to convene as a meeting space, or to access our new telehealth kiosk … so I’m really excited about this new strategic plan.”

Photo by Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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