New Central Library on Ballot in Austin

-- Library Journal, 11/02/2006

Voters in several communities around the country will face ballot measures regarding libraries on November 7, and one of the most contested issues may be in Austin, TX, where a replacement for the 27-year-old John Henry Faulk Central Library of the Austin Public Library is at issue. "It wasn't designed for the functions it needs to have today," library director Brenda Branch told the Austin American-Statesman. If voters pass Proposition 6, it will provide $90 million for a 250,000-square-foot main library at a location downtown, while the Faulk building might be taken over by the neighboring Austin History Center, which needs more space. Proposition 6 is part of a larger $567 million bond package that would fund several other projects, and the Travis County Republican Party, which opposes five of the seven bond measures, has targeted the new library as "the Taj Mahal of libraries." Branch, however, told the newspaper that the library had been made smaller during the planning process, and would be smaller than central libraries in comparable systems. Indeed, the Faulk library was built to serve a population of 300,000—which has since doubled—so it doesn't have enough space for books, programs, or public access computers.