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July-August-September 2001 Monster Book Sale 2001 - Update Spotlight on Little Walnut Creek
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Spotlight on Little Walnut Creek
What's in a name? At Little Walnut Creek Branch, they're anything but "Little"... They're doing big things at Little Walnut Creek. Through partnerships, community participation, and good old-fashioned librarianship, Little Walnut Creek Branch has found innovative ways to bring special programs to the community. Picture a boy 13 years old standing in front of a computer classroom teaching a retired accountant how to build Web pages on the Internet. Take a look at Little Walnut, where the managing Librarian Stephanie Neely has partnered with Boy Scout Troop 97 to deliver a Web page design workshop. The class is held every fourth Saturday of the month and has been in operation since February. "The novel aspect of the course is that it is an inversion of the standard teaching model with boys from the scout troop teaching adults," says Steve Hardwick, Assistant Troop Leader. The boys benefit from getting the credits needed for community service to advance in the scout program. Additionally, they are able to leverage the computer skills they have learned in school. After completing the class, students are able to master the basic elements of Web page design. This is a win/win situation for the boys, the students, and the branch. What's so special about Little Walnut? The branch has done big things with so little. Stephanie Neely has made great strides in working with the community to build bridges. She is active with the North Austin Civic Association, and meets with and attends cultural functions with the Vietnamese community. As a result, the branch has a unique collection of Vietnamese books and videos for the customers of this cultural group. This year the branch received a $10,000 grant from the North Austin Civic Association to build its English as a Second Language collection. This collection will be in addition to the New Immigrants Center, a Library service that provides tools to learn English. The Center has Internet computer stations, TV/VCR, CDs, and audiocassettes to work from. In 1999 Little Walnut received a grant from the Austin Community Foundation to open a computer training center and offer free introductory computer classes to the community. The Center operates with volunteer tutors and offers 15 computer classes per month to the public. Instruction is offered to seniors, Spanish- and Vietnamese-speaking audiences; the instruction ranges from learning computer basics to Web design. About Little Walnut One of the 19 branch libraries of the Austin Public Library, Little Walnut Creek is one of the larger branches in the North Austin area. It was opened in 1979 and is now a very busy branch serving a diverse cultural clientele. Little Walnut is open seven days a week and averages 16,000 customers a month, circulates 14,000 individual items per month; signs up over 2,400 users of the Internet computer stations, and issues over 350 library cards to new users. The meeting room is occupied and in use most of the branch's operating hours. Visit the web site at http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/ for additional information about APL services.
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