Nashville Public Library Director Kent Oliver is retiring on July 22 from his post after a decade. Under his leadership, the library has taken a stance as a beacon for intellectual freedom by challenging state and nationwide efforts to ban books.
Oliver’s decision to step down comes after 51 years of working in public libraries. He toyed with the idea of retiring right before the COVID-19 pandemic but decided to stay to see the library through one of its most challenging times, he said. Now, he is leaving Nashville branches with a budget twice as large as when he started the job.
“I hope that I’ve created a culture of access to our programs,” Oliver said. “I really believe that a public library is, in fact, a public library and that, regardless of your background, or walk in life in a community, that everybody should feel comfortable coming into a library or getting online with us and using our services.”
That funding Oliver secured is essential for some of the library’s interactive programs — like the puppet shows for children, the teen makerspace and the community garden seed exchange.
Niq Tognoni, the coordinator for the library’s studio that opened in 2015, said Oliver took the lead in obtaining the funds for the space that offers workshops for teens.
“I came from the retail world where we’re always pushing stuff, and selling stuff and pushing credit cards,” Tognoni said. “I love working for the library because we have all these amazing things — anything you really need — knowledge, information, activities, a place to just hang out and cool down. And it’s just all for free. We’re not trying to sell anything here.”
Part of the appeal of the library, which was named the best public library in the U.S. and Canada in 2017, is intellectual freedom. That core value drove Oliver’s decision to start the “Freedom to Read” campaign in spring 2022, which distributed more than four thousand special edition “I read banned books” library cards.
“We say that if we don’t have a book in the library to offend everyone, we’re not doing our job,” Oliver said.
Marie Shields, one of the people who frequents the makerspace, just graduated high school. She said she appreciated the efforts the library had taken to preserve history, like the Civil Rights and Votes for Women rooms.
“There’s so many things that are kind of telling me I don’t get to learn about, like, my own history, or I don’t get to learn about people who look or sound like me.”
Besides maintaining free access to uncensored information, Oliver said the library’s biggest challenge moving forward will be repairing aging infrastructure.
“We have a number of branches that are mid-60s era, and they’d need to be replaced,” he said. “We also need to be building branches for a growing community in areas that do not have them, and that’s really important.”
Oliver said he hoped the next director would bring fresh ideas to engage patrons. His biggest advice for whoever takes on the mantle is to rely on the staff and work as a team.
Patricia Bashir, the children’s services manager, said she would miss having Oliver as a mentor who supported her ideas.
“He was a great director, and the next person is going to have some hard time filling in his shoes,” she said.
The Library Board has not found a replacement for Oliver.
“You really need leadership change every once in a while for an organization to remain healthy,” Oliver said, “and so, I think after being here 10 years, that’s probably a good time to leave.”
Cindy Abrams contributed to this report.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM