Tennessee: New Nashville Public Library Director is Big on Outreach
From The Tennessean:
Kent Oliver didn’t try to dazzle anyone when interviewing for the job of Nashville Public Library director.
But he was well-prepared.
Oliver, a bearded and bespectacled librarian with a voice made for public broadcasting, delivered a clear-eyed assessment of upcoming challenges: funding cuts meant the library hadn’t expanded its collection fast enough, had cut staffing deep enough to affect service, and wasn’t keeping its branch libraries properly maintained or open long enough.
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“We are one of the few places in our society that people can come to and people can come to get on a computer for free, and get some assistance, and apply for a job,” he said. “If that’s not a critical component in our society, I’m not sure what is.”
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Filed under: Funding, Libraries, News, Public Libraries, Reports
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.