Anna Paola Ferate-Soto reaches for the Lord of the Rings collection sold for $2 at Recycled Reads.<\/p>\n
Broadnax said he was able to cut away at the deficit in several places, including\u00a0overtime pay for Austin Police,<\/a>\u00a0staffing changes for\u00a0Austin Fire<\/a>\u00a0and ending some building leases.<\/p>\n Ending the lease for where Recycled Reads is located now would save the city $107,000 next year. But that doesn\u2019t mean the spirit of the store would cease to exist.<\/p>\n Baylor Johnson, a spokesperson for the Austin Public Library, said if the store closes next spring, the library would expand the Recycled Reads experience to branches throughout the system, instead of one centralized location.<\/p>\n A vast inventory<\/p>\n Wander the Recycled Reads aisles and find shelves filled with books, music, movies, board games and puzzles. There\u2019s everything from the\u00a0Lord of the Rings\u00a0trilogy to\u00a0The Scarlet Letter,\u00a0language books, cookbooks, crafting and home improvement books, to vintage sheet music, vinyl records, CDs and cassette tapes.<\/p>\n Most of it is sold for $2 or less.<\/p>\n The collection is a mix of unused materials that come from Austin Public Library branches and community donations. Ferate-Soto said that is what makes some of the materials distinct.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the time we get incredibly unique stuff,\u201d she said. \u201cProfessors that are retiring bring their materials, and they want to find a place where people will appreciate them. Or some people that have passed away. Their loved ones bring their library to us, and they hope that other people can partake in the richness that their loved ones left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n While there is plenty of stuff for sale at Recycled Reads, the staff also operates as a hybrid library with items to check out, including tools and equipment, a passport office, and a seed library.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a library where people come and buy affordable materials and materials they might not find anywhere else,\u201d said Ferate-Soto, who is also a librarian with Austin Public Library.<\/p>\n The money raised has helped purchase the Bookmobile, a library on wheels that provides access to materials in various places across the city, she said.<\/p>\n But not every book can find a home. So the bookstore works with Goodwill to move some inventory to local stores. Ultimately, if the books can\u2019t find a home, they go through a recycling process that keeps them out of landfills.<\/p>\n Expanding the program<\/p>\n Many of Austin\u2019s library branches already have a small section of used books and media for sale. Johnson said if the Burnet location of Recycled Reads closes, these small sections will grow and try to embrace what has made Recycled Reads so special.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re definitely working on developing processes to try to make sure that what has made Recycled Reads unique is replicable throughout the system,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cBut I think one of the benefits of trying to decentralize it is it means that more people will have access to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Additionally, he said all the staff and programming at the Burnet Road location would all be moved into other branches. The Yarborough branch is just a few blocks away.<\/p>\n But the change won\u2019t happen until the city council approves the budget. If adopted, Johnson expects sales to stop early next year, but said a timeline is still being worked out. The budget adoption is not expected to happen until August.<\/p>\n This story was produced as part of the\u00a0Austin Monitor\u2019s reporting partnership with KUT.\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0Austin Monitor\u2019s work is made possible by donations from the community. Though our reporting covers donors from time to time, we are careful to keep business and editorial efforts separate while maintaining transparency. A complete list of donors is available\u00a0here<\/a>, and our code of ethics is explained\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recycled Reads, the Austin Public Library used bookstore on Burnet Road, will close by next spring if the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[34116,34117,223,26189,88],"class_list":["post-42531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-austin-city-council","tag-austin-public-library","tag-books","tag-city-budget","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A VHS cassette player is stored on a book shelf surrounded by VHS tapes that are for sale.<\/p>\n
Anna Paola Ferate-Soto grabs a sports card for sale. Recycled Reads offers customers more than just books.<\/p>\n
Baylor Johnson, communications manager for Austin Public Library, poses for a photo at Recycled Reads.<\/p>\n