Downtown Library Cuts Hours-Flint Adam

Metro's new budget - full of cuts - goes into effect July 1.

One of the areas where you'll notice the changes is the Nashville downtown library.

Metro's budget woes - some of the worst in recent memory - are forcing the Nashville Public Library system to cut hours.

Beginning Wednesday, the downtown Nashville Public Library will be open 17 fewer hours each week.

Other branch libraries are getting a cut in hours, too.

Kirk Conaway calls Nashville's downtown public library a refuge.

He's there almost everyday.

"Usually afternoons for about an hour or so, just to read and figure out where my next step in life is kinda situation. I hate to hear that's not going to be the case on Mondays anymore."

Because on Mondays, the downtown library will now be closed.

It's part of a new schedule meant to save money.

Nashville Public Library director Donna Nicely says, "I think it really just speaks to the state of what's going on in America right now."

Nicely says with the start of Metro's new fiscal year, Wednesday, the downtown library is cutting around a quarter of its normal operating hours -- 17 hours, total.

It's closed Monday's and closing two hours earlier - at 6-pm - on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

It's another casualty of Metro's slimmer budget.

The Nashville Public Library system's budget was cut by 5.5%, that's about $1.2 million.

Nicely says the reduction in hours was the only way to make those numbers work.

"If we have to reduce the budget, that means we have to reduce the number of staff people. That means there are less people to have the libraries open - that's why we have to close."

It's a tough pill for the many people who depend on the library daily.

Jason Smith says, "That's a bummer. A lot of people come up here to study -- a lot of people don't really have a lot of places they go to."

Library officials stress that service desks and library programs -- especially those catered to kids -- won't be affected by the budget cut.

The same can't be said for daily routines, like Kirk Conaway's.

"This is a special place and I think the more it is open the better the community is off."

The Nashville Public Libraries in Bordeaux, Edmondson Pike, Green Hills, Hermitage, Madison, and the southeast branch in Antioch will remain open Mondays, though they'll open half an hour later at 10 am.

Other branch library hours will stay the same.Downtown Library Cuts Hours-Flint Adam