Communication and coffee doesn't sound like typical library fare -- at least it wasn't 10 years ago or even five.

The library is no longer that place where you can sit next to someone and never speak or make eye contact and the only thing you hear is 'Shhhhhh.'

Its image is changing and the changes are deliberate according to librarian Maggie Snow.

"We want kids to think of the library as a comfortable place to hang out. We are not all librarians with our hair in a bun, either," Snow said, dispelling the myth.

Monday, Snow readied one of the conference rooms in the library for the teen 'Coffee House.' It has been a success thus far. Teens come and hang with their friends and meet new ones and have some fun.

They play 'Library Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' and the teens version of the popular 'Whose Line Is It Anyway' along with board games and a coffee house menu of Italian sodas, fizzy teas, coffee and bars provided by The Brickhouse.

Twenty or more teens have participated at the Monday event, held 3-4 times a year. It begins informally between 7-7:30 p.m. and is scheduled to end at 8:30. However, Snow said, we will go as late as 9 p.m. They have even closed as late as 10 p.m. when the kids were engrossed in one of the games.

"We will be trying to get an teen advisory group next month to plan events that they are interested in," she said.

On the other end of the library, Sandy Johnson who has worked at the library part time for one-and-a-half years, was busy taking in library cards from computer users in the library's computer lab. The lab was full Monday evening and there was a waiting list.

There are 11 computers in the lab and a two-hour time limit for use during which the computer room librarian will hold keep the user's library card until they are ready to leave.

"We have lots of first-timers," Johnson said. "And, we have all ages. Many seniors come in to learn how to use a computer because their children have given them one so they can keep in touch with e-mail."

"We tell them anything you mess up can be fixed. You can't be afraid of them (computers)," she said

Kids often come in to do homework, Johnson added, because they can simultaneously use the internet and word processor on the library computers.

Friendly users offer advice and help to those less familiar with browsing through the web sites.

The library will be offering internet classes from 6:30-7:30 p.m. and noon-1 p.m. on April 16 and Yahoo classes from 9:30-10:30 a.m. on April 23.

Call Ailene Dawson at 434-2235 or e-mail her at ailene.dawson@austindailyherald.com.