“A city with a great library is a great city”

The line above is emblazoned on a wall inside the Nashville library.

But the 10 words could be merely chiseled in the stone as another “memorable” phrase, waiting for journalists and well-wishers simply to repeat it with no attention to how it is applied.

In Nashville the community placed action behind the words.

Then-mayor Phil Bredesen envisioned a new central downtown facility that would maintain the traditional services provided by a library but also expand the structural walls to include public spaces, a center court for outdoor gatherings, and a creative center for children to explore, to participate, to read and to learn.

His vision stands on the site of a timeworn shopping area along Church Street. Entering the Nashville library, the implanted images of regimentation, order and discipline slide away. There are bright colors, natural lighting and a welcoming atmosphere from the first steps into the building to the reading and public areas spread throughout the facility.

There are more traditional underpinnings as well.

As library director Donna Nicely described the library: “We never forgot our roots, our history. You never forget that you are a library.”

So books, research assistants, periodicals and more than 500 computer terminals — with waiting lists — are readily available.

There also are large and smaller meeting rooms, places for the community to gather and share ideas and facilities for teens after school.

The branches that extend into metropolitan Nashville are crafted for specific communities — no cookie-cutter allowed. This means a fit for those being served and dollars that match those requirements.

One branch may have computers for use and for checking out materials; another may include more shelved books, reading areas.

Libraries should be “comforting, welcoming places,” Mrs. Nicely said. “It is a cultural place waiting to be defined.”

Her enthusiasm for reading is contagious.

In an era when much is written about the abandonment of written material for the ease of a computer keyboard and screen that provide instantaneous information from the comfort of a chair, Mrs. Nicely sees a continued and renewed interest in rich, printed text.

The computer and the Internet may open the door to a world of knowledge, but “we will see people saying, ‘Let me see the document.’” When the request is made, the library provides the answer — in print.

“We need to know about bringing people out,” and with the commitment visible in Nashville, there is little doubt that the 10 words that frame the doorway into a reading room that faces the state Capitol sum up a commitment for a great library and a great city.

Chattanooga and Hamilton County have a similar chiseled opportunity.