Nashville Public Library

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Nashville Public Library
Nashville Public Library main branch.jpg
Main Library
Nashville Public Library
36°09′44″N86°46′54″W / 36.1621°N 86.7817°W / 36.1621; -86.7817
Location Nashville, Tennessee, United States
TypePublic library
Established1901
BranchesMain Library, 20 Branches, Metropolitan Government Archives of Davidson County, Talking Library
Access and use
Population served1.5 million (Davidson County)
Other information
Budget32,080,600 [1]
DirectorTerri Luke (Interim)
Employees366 [1]
Website https://library.nashville.org

Nashville Public Library (NPL) is the public library system serving Nashville, Tennessee and the metropolitan area of Davidson County. In 2010, the Nashville Public Library was the recipient of the National Medal for Museum and Library Service. [2] The library was named the Gale/ Library Journal 2017 Library of the Year. [3]

Contents

History

A succession of public libraries, known by a variety of names, served the people of Nashville. The early libraries were generally small, offered a narrow range of services, and operated on a fee schedule. In 1897, the Tennessee General Assembly authorized cities of a certain size to establish and maintain free public libraries and reading rooms. With this authority, in 1901 the Howard Library became Nashville’s first free circulating library. Also in 1901, Andrew Carnegie offered to donate $100,000 for a new library building if the city would take care of its maintenance. The city accepted those terms, and in 1904, the Carnegie Library Building was completed on Polk Avenue. Andrew Carnegie enabled the building and opening of an additional three branches between 1912 and 1919. Two buildings are still in use today, the North Branch and the East Branch.

The Carnegie Library Building was razed and replaced with the Ben West Public Library in 1963. The Main Library was housed in the Ben West building for 38 years. [4]

The new Main Library Building, designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, was opened in 2001. [5] Previously on the site for the Main Library was a downtown shopping mall called Church Street Center. [6]

Beginning in the 1940s, bookmobiles were used across Davidson County. Their extensive routes reached many residents, including those living in rural areas. [7] The first bookmobile was formed by the Library State Project in 1941. In 1947, the Nashville Public Library created its bookmobile known as "library-on-wheels". [8] It made weekly rounds throughout the county until the program ended in 2008. [7]

Segregation

In 1912, Andrew Carnegie offered another $50,000 to the Nashville City Council for the creation of two new library branches: one for white residents and the other for African-Americans. [9] At the time, Nashville's library only allowed African-Americans to check out books from bookmobiles. [10] Carnegie had previously donated $20,000 to construct the first library at Fisk University, known today as the Carnegie Academic Building. [9]

The Negro Branch of the Carnegie Library (later the Negro Branch of the Nashville Public Library) opened in 1916. [9] At the time, about a third of the city's population was African-American. [11] It was one of the few libraries in the South that rendered library services to African-Americans. [9] The library closed in 1949, years before Nashville desegregated its libraries. [11]

The Hadley Park Branch Library opened in 1952 and was built to serve the African-American community. It continues to serve a predominantly African-American population today. [12]

Branches

There are 20 library branches in the Nashville Public Library system. They are:

Programs and services

The Nashville Public Library features a variety of public programming. The library offers puppet shows in the Main Library as well as throughout the Nashville community. [14]

The library offers digital collections, e-book and audiobook downloads, language learning services, and computer classes. There are a variety of book clubs hosted throughout the library system.

In 2010, the Nashville Public Library began partnering with Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools to offer the students access to the public library materials. Called "Limitless Libraries," this program offers access to approximately 1.5 million information resources. [15]

The Main Library's Special Collections Division contains several archival and oral history collections highlighting Nashville history. Among them, the Civil Rights Room, documenting the Civil Rights Movement in Nashville, [16] and an oral history collection documenting the 2010 Tennessee floods in Nashville.

In 2017, NPL eliminated overdue fines in order to increase accessibility of book borrowing. [17]

Friends of the Library and Library Foundation

Friends of the Nashville Public Library is a non-profit that offers memberships and supports the library through book sales. The Friends of the Nashville Public Library offer support for the summer reading program as well other programs and collection development. [18]

The Nashville Public Library Foundation is a non-profit founded in 1997 to raise funds for the Nashville Public Library. Depending on private donors, the Nashville Public Library Foundation offers funds for various programs, services, and building improvements in the library system. [19] These include funding of the Bringing Books to Life pre-school literacy program, the Special Collections' Civil Rights Room, and $5 million in collection development funds. [20]

On December 2, 2015, The Nashville Public Library unveiled the new Kidman-Urban Puppet Stage in the children's section of the library, made possible by a donation from Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, long time supporters of the library. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fisk University</span> Historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee, US

Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its 40-acre (16 ha) campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brooklyn Public Library</span> Library system in Brooklyn, New York

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition</span> Exposition held in Nashville, Tennessee in 1897

The Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition was an exposition held in Nashville from May 1 – October 31, 1897 in what is now Centennial Park. A year late, it celebrated the 100th anniversary of Tennessee's entry into the union in 1796. President William McKinley officially opened the event from the White House, where he pressed a button that started the machinery building at the fair; he would visit in person a month later.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tampa Free Library</span> United States historic place

For other Carnegie Libraries, see Carnegie library (disambiguation)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fullerton Public Library</span> Public library system in California, USA

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memphis Public Library</span> Municipal library system in Tennessee, USA

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Monroe County Public Library (MCPL) serves the 138,000 citizens of Monroe County, Indiana, through the Main Library in downtown Bloomington, the Ellettsville Branch, and the Bookmobile. The library’s special services include the Learn and Play Space, a preschool discovery center; VITAL, an adult literacy program; CATS, a five-channel community access television network; the Indiana Room, a local history and genealogy collection and grants center (part of the Foundation Center’s Cooperating Collections National Network); and service to inmates at the Monroe County Correctional Center.

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Nashville, Tennessee, United States.

African Americans are the second largest census "race" category in the state of Tennessee after whites, making up 17% of the state's population in 2010. African Americans arrived in the region prior to statehood. They lived both as slaves and as free citizens with restricted rights up to the Civil War.

Tent City, also called Freedom Village, was an encampment outside of Memphis in Fayette County, Tennessee for African Americans who were evicted from their homes and blacklisted from buying amenities as retaliation for registering to vote during the Civil Rights Movement. It began in 1960 and lasted about two years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annie L. McPheeters</span> American librarian and activist

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Athens Regional Library System</span> Public library system in northeast, Georgia, U.S.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marian M. Hadley</span> Librarian

Marian M. Hadley was Nashville, Tennessee's first African American librarian, serving as the first librarian of the Nashville Negro Public Library, a branch of the Nashville Public Library for African American patrons. She went on to work at the Chicago Public Library for almost twenty years, building and promoting the library's collection of African American history and culture.

References

  1. 1 2 "Library-At a glance" (PDF). Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  2. "2010 National Medal for Museum and Library Service" (PDF). Office of Policy, Planning, Research. Retrieved November 7, 2011.
  3. Berry III, John N. "2017 Gale/LJ Library of the Year: Nashville Public Library, TN". Library Journal. Library Journal. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  4. "Library History". Nashville Public Library. Retrieved November 3, 2011.
  5. "Nashville Public Library Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP". Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  6. "Church Street Center". deadmalls.com. December 3, 2005. Retrieved March 31, 2012.
  7. 1 2 "Libraries Transform - the Past | Nashville Public Library". library.nashville.org. Retrieved April 12, 2024.
  8. "CONTENTdm". nashville.contentdm.oclc.org. Retrieved April 12, 2024.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Wynn, Linda (January 1, 1997). "The Negro Branch of the Carnegie Library". Nashville Conference on African American History and Culture.
  10. Lovett, Bobby L. (1999). The African-American history of Nashville, Tennessee, 1780-1930: elites and dilemmas. Black community studies. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. ISBN   978-1-55728-555-3.
  11. 1 2 Griffis, Matthew (November 17, 2019). "Negro Public Library, Nashville, Tennessee (1916-1949) •" . Retrieved April 18, 2024.
  12. "Hadley Park Branch | Nashville Public Library". library.nashville.org. Retrieved April 18, 2024.
  13. "Library Branches". Nashville Public Library. Retrieved November 9, 2011.
  14. Gonzalez |, Guy LeCharles. "PLA 2020: How the Award-Winning Nashville Public Library Makes the City Tick". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  15. "Metro Schools, Public Library Form Partnership to Expand Library Services for High Schools". Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County. Retrieved November 4, 2011.
  16. "Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library". US Civil Rights Trail. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  17. Dixon, Jennifer A. "Nashville, Salt Lake City, Columbus Eliminate Fines". Library Journal. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
  18. "Friends of the Library". Nashville Public Library. Archived from the original on October 6, 2006. Retrieved November 11, 2011.
  19. "Nashville Public Library Foundation" . Retrieved November 11, 2011.
  20. "Accomplishments". Archived from the original on February 6, 2011. Retrieved November 11, 2011.
  21. "Kidman-Urban Puppet Stage". www.tennessean.com.

Further reading