Carol tenopir biography

Last spring, when the pandemic forced the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to go to fully online classes, the program affected the least of any on campus was the MS in information sciences.

Out of necessity, the program has pioneered remote learning for decades.

It educates information professionals to work in all varieties of libraries and other information intensive settings. “If you are going to be a top-level librarian or other information specialist, you need a master’s in information sciences,” explained Chancellor’s Professor Carol Tenopir, interim director of the School of Information Sciences.

“Many of those who decide to become information professionals are adults in their 30s working full time who can’t come to Knoxville.”

UT’s program is the only American Library Association–accredited master’s degree program in library and information sciences in Tennessee, and until recently there was no such program at all in Virginia.

To accommodate its far-flung students, the p