Nashville Mayor Karl Dean is moving ahead with a plan to consolidate the city’s public libraries with those inside Metro Schools. But newly hired Schools Director Jesse Register isn’t in such a hurry to get it done.
Initially, members of the Metro School Board balked at the mayor for rolling out his consolidation plan without consulting them first. That was in November, before Jesse Register even interviewed for the superintendent job.
Register says he has met with everyone who would be involved in combining library management. He says he needs more specifics on how it would work.
“I think the devil’s in the details on this one because I do think we’ve got a lot of issues to raise, but the vision was on target.”
A consolidated library system would give Metro students access to much more material, and school libraries could become more open to their communities. Mayor Dean says it could also save the city some money in the long run.
Library director Donna Nicely is already planning to merge the procurement process in July. The school board hasn’t yet signed off on completely outsourcing its libraries.
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