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A way to help get a new central library built

Gaining a new central library for Knoxville is one of the most important challenges facing our community. It grew, then lost, momentum in 2004, but as the year came to a close, a private pledge picked up the pace of the campaign once more.

Initiated by Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale and pushed along by Larry Frank, the Knox County Public Library system director, and his staff, the proposal for a new library attracted the attention of Charles Anderson, who has built Anderson News into the nation’s largest distributor of magazines and books. Anderson has pledged to raise $5 million toward the library’s projected cost of $45 million.

While we at Metro Pulse don’t wish to, and couldn’t, compete with Anderson’s generous offer, we do want to inaugurate our own drive to raise money for the library and to raise awareness of its need.

The Metro Pulse Main Library Fund is being created to collect contributions toward a state-of-the-art central library to replace the Lawson McGhee Library building that is no longer able to serve the system and its patrons. Brian Conley, publisher of Metro Pulse, has committed $25,000 to serve as a seed for our fund.

We are establishing an account at First Tennessee Bank to hold the contributions and are seeking a non-profit organization to serve as trustee of the account, so that the donations can be tax deductible. When the account is named and the trustee secured, we will publicize the way to submit contributions.

Our aim is to get the Knoxville area’s library-conscious citizens, young and old, to give what they feel they can in support of the replacement of the old main library. Just as important to us as the amount we raise is the number of contributors we attract. We want to establish a sound base of support, with many persons holding a stake, large or small, in the new library. From school children and their parents to regular library users and other people who feel Knoxville should have a fully usable 21st century library facility, we hope to collect donations in any amount, from kids’ nickels and dimes to dollars and more.

Libraries, it has been pointed out repeatedly, are the cornerstones of a civil society. They are institutions that are critical to our understanding of mankind and its history, helping us to avoid repeating the failures of the past and to project the successes of the future. They are as essential to the process of human learning as are our schools.

Only a fraction of the material in library collections is available in digital or computer-accessible form. While more is introduced every day, it is often available only to subscribers to a service that is too expensive for the average person to join. The Knox County Library system has been paying the way of its members into databases that are far too costly for most individuals to enter. Similarly, the books we want to read are often too expensive for us to purchase them all. The library allows us to read them for free.

Our library system and its many convenient branches have served our community well, but its core repository is overloaded, and its public areas are overcrowded. It was designed to serve a public not yet in possession of personal computers or compact disc and DVD players. Every new development in communications and data transfer technology stretches the library’s capacity to deliver the services its constituents want and need.

From a technical standpoint, Nashville’s recently established main library serves us as a model of modern library design and user friendliness. It is also an attractive feature of Nashville’s downtown and a compelling reason to go there, just to see it and see how it works.

Ours need not be quite so extravagant or large, but it should at least be more in keeping with our metropolitan area’s needs. It’s almost embarrassing to note that Maryville’s excellent new main library facility exceeds in size, and certainly in utility, the Lawson McGhee building on Clinch Avenue in downtown Knoxville.

Larry Frank, the Knox County library director, says that, after a period of discouragement when library planning money was removed from the county’s budget, his enthusiasm is returning, and he thinks it likely the new central library will be put back on track. Still, he remains stoic about the prospects. “Whether we get the new library or not, the need is there,” Frank says. And he is right.

What we are hoping is that the Metro Pulse Main Library Fund will both raise money and stimulate awareness of that need. There could hardly be a better purpose for us to make into a mission for 2005 and beyond.

We’ll be seeking your help in swelling this fund and in building public consciousness of the library as a community necessity. Please do help us with this. We’ll let you know as soon as possible just how.

December 23, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 52 © 2004 Metro Pulse