On August 4, 2016 the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History (AARL), a special library of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System, reopened in its renovated and expanded 56,000-square-foot building. The approximately $20 million dollar project was part of Phase I of the Library Building Program. In November 2008, Fulton County voters overwhelmingly passed the Library Bond Referendum, which greatly enhances all of the county’s libraries. The Auburn Avenue Research Library added 10,000 square feet to the building. The renovation included a new auditorium which seats approximately 215 people.  

Architectural rendering by JWRA/Freelon, a joint venture comprised of J. W. Robinson & Associates and Freelon Group, Inc.

The Auburn Avenue Research Library originally opened in 1994 and grew exponentially over the following 20 years. AARL is the first public library in the Southeast to offer specialized reference and archival collections dedicated to the study and research of African American culture and history, as well as other peoples of African descent. In 2001 the library received a Governor's Award in the Humanities. The Library is organized into three divisions: Archives, Reference and Research, and Program.  

Eventually the Archives Division ran out of space for collections and began storing collections offsite with a vendor. The public programming space  also became cramped. The renovations incorporated the ideas of the staff and managers so now the collections have room to grow and the building can be utilized in a variety of ways. The managers of each division toured many local archival repositories and research libraries to determine layout and design ideas. The entire floor plan was adjusted to make the public programming areas central to the building. The first floor now features the auditorium and two smaller programming spaces along with a Children’s Gallery and the main Cary-McPheeters Gallery. The spaces are all modernized with video walls and art hanging systems. The new features for the Archives Division included in the renovation were a cold storage unit for visual materials, a decontamination room to stabilize new collections and a digitization lab with a large format scanner and audio visual conversion equipment.

The Archives Division now occupies the third and fourth floors of the building.  A portion of the archives stacks can be seen from the reading room. The renovation and floor plan adjustments have enabled all archival collections to be housed in the building and given space for future acquisitions.

Additionally, the Reference and Research, and Archives Division’s reading rooms are equipped with audiovisual rooms that allow patrons to view and listen to a variety of formats without having to touch the materials.

The renovation process necessitated for all collections and staff to vacate the building for the entirety of the project. The Reference and Research Division moved to the Central Library and operated on the first floor of the building throughout the duration. The Program Division moved to the Hammonds House Museum and continued public programming and exhibitions in collaboration with the Hammonds House Museum staff.  The Archives Division moved to the Georgia Archives in Morrow, Georgia and continued processing, acquiring and making collections available. With a splintered staff, each division worked to ensure that the mission of the library stayed intact. The staff met monthly at the Central Library during the renovation project.  

The renovation and expansion of the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History transforms the library into a unique, welcoming destination that promotes Africana history, cultures and legacies.  

Derek T. Mosley is the Archivist/Division Manager at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History. He previously worked as the Assistant Head of the Archives Research Center at the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library and the Director of the Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Derek earned his Master of Science (Archives Management) from Simmons College in Boston, MA and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Morehouse College. He has served in various leadership roles within the Society of American Archivist and the American Library Association.