First Laura Bush Library Planned

Recognizing Laura Bush’s contributions to libraries, the Westbank Community Library in Austin, TX, plans to open a new branch next year—the first in the nation named solely after the First Lady.

Construction on the 14,000-square-foot Laura Bush Community Library will begin in early 2008. And it will be an environmentally friendly, state-of-the-art facility, complete with a drive-by book window and thousands of downloadable books. Library users can also enjoy hiking trails through oak groves on the scenic 10-acre site.

“As the First Lady of Texas, Mrs. Bush contributed directly to the growth of the existing Westbank Community Library, one of the most successful libraries in the state,” says James Bannerot, board president of the library system. “It is entirely appropriate, and indeed long overdue, that her efforts be remembered by the naming of the Laura Bush Community Library, the only one of America’s 117,467 libraries to be so named.”