Austin to offer free library cards to people outside the city

People who live outside the city will soon no longer have to pay $120 for an Austin public library card.

City Council voted to remove the fees last week after the Library Commission recommended the change. In their recommendation, commissioners said Austin Public Library is committed to equity, which includes removing barriers that prevent access to the library’s resources and services.

In this case, it’s fees – another expense for families on top of rising housing costs and inflation on goods like food and gas.

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes, who helped champion the measure, said many people have been pushed outside the city because of rising costs, making them ineligible for a free library card.

“Right now our libraries truly serve as everything,” she said. “They are the community hubs. … It is where people go for shelter. They serve as a warming center or place to go for telemedicine, or you can get trained on how to use the internet. There are just so many programs and services.”

In 2017, the city began to offer all Austin ISD students a free library card regardless of where they lived. That program has expanded to students in other school districts like Manor and Del Valle over the last several years. But Fuentes said she kept hearing about the need from adults who wanted to access resources.

“If we truly want to extend services and benefits to those who have been marginalized, underserved … those who have been displaced out of the city,” Fuentes said, “and are having to live in the ETJ (extraterritorial jurisdiction) because they can no longer afford to live in the city, those are the individuals we had in mind with this expansion.”

The ETJ is unincorporated land within 5 miles of the Austin’s boundaries that is not within the city limits of another city. Austin’s ETJ extends into four counties, including Travis, Williamson, Hays and Bastrop. For more on ETJ boundaries, visit austintexas.gov.

Fuentes said expanding access to library cards would help more people get access to Austin’s enhanced library card program. An enhanced library card can be used as a form of ID, which can be helpful for people experiencing homelessness or migrants who wouldn’t otherwise be able to obtain an ID.

But to be eligible for an enhanced library card, the person must have a traditional one, she said.

City staff is expected to come back in March with an ordinance to make the change official.

This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting partnership with KUT.

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