Music venues, old grocery store, and a historic bath house Thursday, February 16, 2023 (2-6pm)
Today, when I staffed the reference desk, I answered a phone call from a news reporter who inquired about whether we have photos of old music venues, and I told her that we do and that they are generally organized in our vertical files, although we also have some that have been digitized and available to download for free. I also helped a patron doing property research on an old grocery store that he purchased at 415 or 417 Robert T. Martinez. After doing a bit of research, I informed him that before 1989, Robert T. Martinez St. was Canadian Street; the name was changed to honor a slain police officer. I checked our house-building files to see whether he have any information on that building. I let the patron know that we did not have anything, but did show him the general file we have on grocery stores that he perused.
The next patron that came in was a local architect who is working on refurbishing an old public swimming pool bathhouse at Parque Zaragosa (see above photo) on the east side of Austin. She asked to see all the building and inspection permits we had using three potential addresses. I looked through all the permits that we have stored in the basement, but was unable to locate any for those addresses. As much as I wanted to find permits for this patron, we just don't have them! I did, however, help her find the above image of the bathhouse being constructed. Next, I answered a call from the cataloging librarian at our central library who wanted a list of all the periodicals we have on microfilm so that she can catalog them. I asked Jennifer who showed me a printout of the list of periodicals on microfilm and she asked me to check our drives to find it and email it to the cataloging librarian. I found a spreadsheet, and emailed it to the cataloging librarian. I ended the day by completing my timesheets.
Maria-Elena Cigarroa
Supervisor: Jennifer Hecker
General Schedule: Sundays (11-6); Thursdays (2:00-6:00); Fridays (12:30-5:30)