LJ Talks to Donna Nicely, Nashville Public Library Director

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 12/16/2008

• Mayor broached the idea
• Purchasing for high school libraries could start next year
• Might address challenges specific to Nashville

Donna Nicely, director of the Nashville Public Library (NPL), TN, acknowledges that it’s way too early to conclude how the proposed absorption of the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools libraries by NPL might work, but says initial talks are promising.

Less than a month after Nashville Mayor Karl Dean proposed the merger, public discussion in Nashville has died down, and it’s not clear whether the school system is on board with the idea. 

[Update December 17. Schools spokeswoman Olivia Brown says that the school board has not taken nor issued any further statements since its initial expression of skepticism: "At this point, I believe the plan is to form a committee to study the proposal to see if it is indeed a viable option. The results of the study will be brought to the Board for discussion before any action is taken."

But LJ caught up with Nicely to ask for a few more details about an unusual and potentially far-reaching proposal, one she says might help solve some challenges specific to Nashville.

What kind of progress has there been?

I think there’s been great progress. We’ve met with the acting superintendent and his assistant and the associate superintendent once. We had a very cordial meeting and mapped out some ideas. We’re constituting a working committee, with the idea we’d begin thinking about this first with procurement of materials. That is so straightforward…we can measure progress and effectiveness.

We’ve agreed to begin discussion on the other, larger issues as we go forward. I think we’re working through what we might do together. I felt great enthusiasm from the school staff, as well as my own staff, for making these libraries so strong, of making them visible and important and a beacon…there was real excitement about that idea. I believe we can get that done.

Any resistance from the school system?

I don’t know. I can speak of the people I met with. The meeting was very cordial. I think we’re getting ready to embark on a very exciting idea. Agreeing to tackle the larger issues in the future is a better way to approach this. Let’s do something together where we know we can make a real impact and then go from there. I’m not backing off that the mayor has asked us to—we’re not using the word ‘takeover,’ we’re using the word ‘enfold’ or ‘merge’—he did ask us to do that. I understand that charge. To me, we’re just getting started with a part of the project where we can definitely show some real progress, and then we’ll go from there.

Will there be a formal contract? 

There will be. The aim is to work for the next few months, figuring things out, then begin with the new fiscal year. I would hope we’re delivering new material by the end of 2009. And our aim is to bring all the high school libraries, 16, up to accreditation…it’s a certain number of books per student.

Are you concerned about your staff stretching to take on new roles?

We’ll have to have additional resources to make it work.

Do you know if any other public library and school district have done this?

We don’t think so, on this scale….There have been individual examples—we had a report from Ontario, Canada….We all talk about thinking of new ways of doing things in libraries. It seems to me we have the chance to strengthen all these libraries in the community, so people could not imagine their city without them.

What’s the next step after working on procurement?

I don’t know… there are enormous issues, but they are things we need to bring to table, take a good look, and see how we might work through them. This is the city of Nashville—with this particular situation. The mayor is concerned about the school system, and the school system is under state aegis; it’s not achieving the standards it needs.

Were you surprised when approached?

The mayor approached us, just wondered what we can do. We’re considered a very strong agency in the city. He’s a real library person. I’m always open to new ideas. 

We’ve just finished a strategic conversation with our own users. We asked: 'In the next five to ten years, what should we be doing, and what should we be doing if resources are reduced?' In that study, people over and over again said, ‘We’re concerned about our teens, what they’re doing after school, and we wished you worked more with the schools.’ Well, when this came along, I thought [that] there seems to be real potential for strengthening that.

What have you heard from colleagues in the library field?

Not much. I don’t know how popular this is going to make us. It’s breaking down some separations between schools and public libraries that we’ve all worked hard to maintain. But it’s a particular situation in Nashville. And these times call for unusual action.