June 2024 Monthly Adventure
While I've actually been to the Austin Central Library several times, I haven't really explored it since it's first year and that was only a brief visit because my job was doing a city tour with some new international students when I was in college. I decided it would be a good idea to expand on my suggestion from my Travel from Home post and actually go to a local library. Plus, it's starting to get very warm in Texas and I needed to find something primarily indoors to experience. This blog post is special because I'm writing as I explore the Austin Central Library -- something that I typically cannot do for any of my blog activities.
Getting to the Austin Central Library and Parking
I opted to drive myself to the Austin Central Library and park in the underground garage which is a public parking garage. Downtown Austin has a nice setup for public parking garages because there a digital signs that show you the current number of available spaces as you're looking for garage parking. The Austin Central Library parking garage also has better hourly rates than some other garages in the area. However, it's tight garage. I recommend having a smaller vehicle to make entering into the garage, parking, and exiting the garage as easy as possible. Either that or try to squeeze into nearby street parking if you happen to find a spot! Of course, the best options for the environment are walking, biking, or taking public transportation.
Exploring the Austin Central Library
Opened in 2017 and nestled between the Seaholm District and the 2nd Street Shopping District is the Austin Central Library. With incredible views of Lady Bird Lake and an overall beautiful, sustainable design reflective of the Austin landscape, it's six floors of books, technology, meeting spaces, and much more are available to public to make information and building community more accessible.
Ground Floor
The ground floor of the library is a lively space! If entering from the César Chavez Street entrance, you will find special event spaces upon entry. After getting into the lobby area, you will see tables, chairs, sitting areas with books, libraries helping people at the checkout desks, restrooms, and vending machines. The entrance on Second Street is just as eye-catching with a restaurant and gift shop to potentially pop into as you enter or leave the Austin Central Library with passport services around the corner. There's a few elevators to take you up to the different floors of the library. However, you can also take the beautiful staircase up and see the community events bulletin on the way to the staircase along with reading stairs to the left.
Third Floor
If you have been keeping up with my blog, you will notice that I do not feature activities specifically for children, but I try to highlight when certain things are suitable for kids. Libraries are designed to be enjoyed by everyone! As a kid, my mom would take me to our local library all the time and we would go at least once a week during the summer for the summer reading program. The Austin Central Library has dedicated the third floor to children, tweens and teens which have separate sections on either side of the library with relevant books and appropriate furniture for each age group. The hallway space between the sections is where the giant chess can be found along with some tables and chairs.
Fourth Floor
The fourth floor of the Austin Central Library includes Special Collections and a Reading Room. The Reading Room is a designated, closed off quiet space with large windows with a view of downtown. Special Collections includes things like periodicals and unique curations by the libraries. Austin is a city that really likes to "keep things weird" which really means keep things local.
One way the library is contributing to keeping things local is by curating the Austin Collections which features books about Austin and books written by authors from the Capital City. The Special Collections also features general books about Texas or written by authors from Texas. This includes relevant books for the current time period. For example, the first books I could see as I rounded the corner from the stairs were about Juneteenth which is a week away from the time this blog post is published. Juneteenth is a significant moment in Texas and United States history, and my family has stepped up our usual Juneteenth Celebration in recent years. I was excited to immediately notice a book that has been in the homes of my family members for many years titled Juneteenth Texas: Essays in African-American Folklore (1996) which features my grandfather! Such a nice way for me to kick off this Austin Central Library visit.
Fifth and Sixth Floors
Before going up to the fifth and sixth floors, I got a chance to catch up with one of my friends who was making a quick visit to the library. The fifth and sixth floors house the non-fiction and fiction books in addition to reference books. These floors are also where the digital makerspace is located with publicly accessible technology such as computers, printers, copy machines, and 3D printers are available to use. Scattered throughout the floors are a number of shared rooms that can be reserved for free to use as study or meeting space. My alumni group would typically reserve a large shared room on the sixth floor for our monthly meetings. These rooms are equipped with all the necessary screen projection and sound output technology to make collaborating as a group as easy as possible.
The sixth floor is particularly special because it is where you can find the rooftop garden of the Austin Central Library! It's a covered (with solar panels) outdoor space to keep visitors cool as they sit outside with plenty of foliage to bring additional nature to the sitting area. However, it can still get pretty toasty out there in the summer. I'm only checking out the rooftop garden for a few minutes because I prefer to be indoors. It's actually not too bad though with a warm southerly breeze to help keep the air flowing on an otherwise humid day. I simply couldn't miss the breathtaking view of Lady Bird Lake from this rooftop garden before leaving the Austin Central Library!
Wrap-Up
Recently, I have seen some brief discussion on social media about the importance of a "third place" and how those seemingly no longer exist. Many third places are shutting down which makes it all the more important to patron the ones that are around. The idea behind a third space is that it's a location that is not your home (first place) or workplace (second place). It is another space that is typically accessible to many people and can be enjoyed either solo or with a group but usually offers a social environment. Libraries have and always should be a viable option as a third place. It's a location where you can gain access to print and digital information, air conditioning on a hot summer day, warmth on cold days, focus on time you need spent alone, or gather with others all without having high costs associated with being there.
The Austin Public Library is absolutely stunning and very fitting to the vibe of the city. It is an LEED Platinum building designed by Lake | Flato that captures the value Austin has on nature and sustainability while also placing emphasis on advanced technology that the "Silicon Hills" is known for embracing over the past decade. While also functioning as a regular library, the Austin Central Library gives visitors a little bit of pretty much everything they would need to enjoy a full day here. I haven't even covered the different programming hosted by the library! The Austin Central Library is indicative of an interest by Austinites to have a great third space whether this be a place they frequent regularly or hardly at all. Libraries are a true third place and public good. I hope you get a chance to visit the Austin Central Library whenever you're in the city. In the meantime, you can alway check out your local library and see how you can make a fun day out of being there.
Off to the next adventure!
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