The City of Bartlett is considering switching management of its branch library, the last of the suburbs in Shelby County still connected to the Memphis Public Libraries.

On Tuesday, Dec. 12, the suburb’s Board of Mayor and Alderman held a special work session to hear pitches from the Memphis system and Avenu Insights & Analytics, managers of the Germantown Community Library.

The board will hold a public hearing and make its decision Jan. 9 regarding library management.

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Memphis Public Libraries has operated the Bartlett Library since 2004 when other suburbs, like Germantown and Collierville, chose private management, leaving the Memphis and Shelby County system. 

Bartlett pays MPL $94,000 annually to maintain its book collection.

“Over the course of the last fiscal year, they were not able to deliver (and are) about $36,000 short, which means that’s not putting books on shelves,” said Steve Sones, Bartlett chief administrative officer. “At this point, it is not an issue that’s been remedied.”

Chris Marszalek, MPL deputy director, blames the shortfall on challenges in their collection development area due to staff turnover.

“We had a bottleneck of purchasing that resulted in a delay in material getting out to locations,” he told the board. “We feel very confident that this issue will be solved over the next couple of months.”

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Keenon McCloy, MPL director of libraries, made the case for Bartlett to stay with Memphis as they sort out the problems.

“Overall, I’d say we’ve had an extremely great working relationship and a lot of success,” she said, touting the system’s 1.5 million books along with 75,000 e-books and audiobooks. “I agree with you that there are concerns about the amount of time that some of the books were turned around, but we do have a strategy and have got a consultant.”

Bartlett Library manager Nakia Armstrong noted Memphis Public Libraries is the only organization to win the National Medal for Museum and Library Services twice.

“Being partnered with Memphis Public Libraries comes with some advantages to Bartlett,” she said. “Seventy digital databases are available for cardholders. These include Ancestry.com, LinkedIn Learning, Peterson’s Test and Career Prep sites. These are valuable tools for Bartlett customers.”

Armstrong touted the fact that her library saw a 28% increase in visitors this year thanks in part to a 56% increase in programming.

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Avenu, which did not provide a cost for its management, has a 40-year history of managed services across the U.S. working with 80 jurisdictions. Avenu Insights has managed the Germantown library since 2021.

Dana Braccia, Avenu chief librarian and director of client success, pointed out that the per capita checkout rate and number of library visits were lower in Bartlett than national and local averages.

“We bring local and national experts and just an excitement for library vision,” she said. “We want for a city to be excited about the services they have for their citizens.”

She cited the successful summer-reading program in Germantown that includes 4,000 participants as just one of its 400 program offerings each year.

Avenu’s proposal also includes auditing services for nearby hotels and working with the city on a digitization plan for city records and documents.

“I’m disappointed in what MPL has done for Bartlett in comparison to what I see in Germantown. Avenu has so many programs for families as well as local citizen advisement as to what’s available in the inventory. They have tables of new books, while Bartlett’s new area is practically barren.”

Alderman Kevin Quinn

“It’s not that Memphis has not done a good job,” Alderman Jack Young said. “There are some areas that need improvement that we haven’t seen any improvement in. Based on that, we’ve chosen to go out and talk to another vendor.”

Alderman Kevin Quinn toured the Germantown library Wednesday.

“I’m disappointed in what MPL has done for Bartlett in comparison to what I see in Germantown,” he said. “Avenu has so many programs for families as well as local citizen advisement as to what’s available in the inventory. They have tables of new books, while Bartlett’s new area is practically barren.”