Celebrating 20 Years of the Austin Davis Public Library

Come share your memories of the Austin Davis Public Library!
(Formerly the Citrus Park-Keystone Branch)

Austin Davis Public Library

May 18th, 2013

10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The region was first serviced by the bookmobile until June 6, 1977, after library director Leo Meirose recommended to county commissioners that a library branch open at Fox's Corner Shopping Center on Mobley Road in Odessa.  This library was known as the Citrus Park-Keystone Branch Library, known for its quaint, neighborhood feel that catered to its rural community. Do you remember this storefront library?

After nearly 15 years of library service at this location, county commissioners continued to grapple on how to fund a new library building adequate for the rapidly growing region.

 It was not until 1991 that the Friends of the Citrus Park-Keystone Library's rally-cries for a full-service library brought the cause to the attention of M. Austin Davis, co-founder of the famed Winn-Dixie grocery chain. In response, W-D Charities, Inc. donated $1.1 million dollars for the construction of a new, 10,500 square-foot public library for the Citrus Park-Keystone region, which now bears Austin Davis's name. 

The Austin Davis Public Library, located at 17808 Wayne Rd. in Odessa, FL (just east of Gunn Hwy on Wayne Road) was dedicated May 23rd, 1993.  Read more about the library's history here!

Come share your personal history of the Citrus Park-Keystone Branch/Austin Davis Public Library!

The Library History Roadshow invites its community to bring their local library-related photos, memorabilia and memories to digitize for the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library History Archive on May 18th from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. 

There will be cake, compliments of the Friends of the Austin Davis Library, who are celebrating 20 years of the library!  Also, come see a historic Burgert Brothers photographic exhibit tailored just for this event. 

For more information about the Library History Roadshow, please call 813-273-3652.

National Bookmobile Day 2013

The National Bookmobile Day 2013 was April 17th. To help celebrate the occasion, the Library History Roadshow team followed both the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library Bookmobile and Cybermobile along their routes for the day. It was a beautiful day filled with great customer interactions! Check out some photos of the all-day event:

The Bookmobile Roadshow made stops at Acorn Trace Apartments, Rose Lake Estates, and Horizon Bay, while the Cybermobile Roadshow made a single stop at the Cordelia Hunt Community Center. At each location, video and audio recordings of Bookmobile and Cybermobile patrons were captured as they recalled their past experiences on-board the buses and with the mobile library staff, as well as spoke about the reasons that they keep coming back. Some of the people who took part in the Roadshow were newer to the mobile branches but were enthusiastic to share what they already enjoy about the service.

Because the mobile libraries visit several different stops throughout Hillsborough County, future ‘Roadshows’ are being planned at other stops. We encourage you to visit our mobile libraries and see what the buzz is all about!

Link to their schedules: Bookmobile | Cybermobile.

Video and audio memories will be available online starting January 1st, 2014 -- the kick-off of the Centennial Celebration of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library system.

A Brief History of Mobile Library Services in Hillsborough County

During the Depression, Works Projects Administration funds made the first bookmobile service possible.  In 1930, the Tampa Public Library began a "bookcar" service, delivering books to the community as a Traveling Branch. Soon after, it would become known as the Bookmobile.

In the 1950s, the bookmobile was known as the "Traveling Branch" and very popular among its users in neighborhoods like Sulphur Springs, Wellswood, Forest Hills, Ballast Point.

During the 1960s, the bookmobile served as a mobile neighborhood branch while library locations were being built or remodeled while also providing an extension of services to rural areas such as Wimauma, Riverview, Gibsonton, Thonotosassa, Odessa and Town N' Country.

The Cybermobile, a Spanish-language mobile library branch providing free library resources, services, computer classes, and programming throughout Hillsborough County was dedicated on May 11, 2006.  Its purpose is to bridge language and library usage gaps and to develop lifelong library users. Learn more about the Cybermobile.