RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — For 48 years, Rita Shacklett has called the libraries across Rutherford County her home.

“I never thought about being anywhere else and I never thought about doing anything else,” she said.

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It was in October of 1975 when the Murfreesboro native began working for the library system.

“From the time I was a kid, all I ever wanted to do was be a librarian,” she said.

She slowly worked her way up over the years to the role of director in 2008.

“When I was in library school, I said I would never be a cataloger. I would never do reference and I would never be the director,” said Shacklett. “Now I’ve done them all.”

She’s seen the growth and technology evolve over the last four decades.

“We’ve added branches and we’ve moved buildings,” said Shacklett. “I was the first one to get to use the first computer that we had…a big IBM.”

There’s been plenty of challenges, too.

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It was her husband, city councilmember Bill Shacklett, who fought against a new decency ordinance the city soon enacted in July of 2022, which quickly began impacting the library system.

“There’s lot of things over the years that…probably at the time would have felt just as bad as this did,” said Shacklett.

Books began being challenged and taken off shelves, and changes had to be made to their library card system, which Shacklett admitted was hard on her and her staff.

“None of us knew what to do with any of it, so we were all floundering just trying to do the right thing and work within the law cause,” she said. “Whether we like it or not, that’s what the law is therefore, and we have to follow it.”

Now Shacklett has decided to step down and retire, saying it was her granddaughters that led her to this decision.

“So I thought, you know, it’s coming up on that fifth birthday for those girls and it felt right,” she said. “It felt right.”

And while she’s ready for someone new to lead, she’s grateful to have helped so many experience the joys of a public library.

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“Anything you need, we’re it,” said Shacklett. “That’s really cool to say….that you’re doing something that is something for everybody. We have something for everybody.”

Shacklett will officially retire at the end of February. She’s hoping whoever is selected as the library systems’ new director will look into helping the Eagleville Branch get a new building, and adding a new branch to the Blackman community in Murfreesboro.

A national search is underway where the Rutherford County Library Board will then work to select the system’s newest director.

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