Creative reconnect; Library taking part in national program to show off what it has to offer

Published 11:28 am Friday, September 9, 2016

Austin Public Library is looking for residents to get creative as a way to get reconnected with the library.

The library is participating in a week-long celebration called Outside the Lines by inviting the public to help create a collaborative art project by decorating 3-by-3-inch coasters.

“It’s kind of reintroducing the library to the community,” said Julie Wright, a technical services librarian.

Email newsletter signup

The coasters will be available for the public to pickup from Sept. 11 to 17 at various businesses. People can then decorate the coasters and return them to the library to be used in some form of decorative collage.

“People can do whatever they want,” Wright said. “We hope they use their imagination.”

0909.OutsidetheLines-4People can participate in the program regardless of their artistic talent, as Wright joked people can just draw stick figures if they want.

About 2,500 of the coasters will be available around town, and Wright was hoping to get more than 100 decorated and returned.

“The more we get the cooler it will be,” she said.

People can drop decorated coasters off at the library’s front desk or in the book return boxes. Wright hopes this is just the first year of an annual program.

“It’s something we’re hoping to be able to do every year and revamp,” she said.

Wright hopes the program will get people out to the library and help expose the public to all the programming, services and events the library offers.

“It’s a lot more than just the books,” she said.

For more and to find a list of businesses where coasters are available, visit http://austinpubliclibrary.org/OTL/