After 27 years as a pioneer of distance learning at UT, [Carol] Tenopir is preparing to retire at the end of July. She had planned to retire a year ago but agreed to serve for a year as interim director of the School of Information Sciences when the previous director, Diane Kelly, was named vice provost for academics.
As a frequent speaker at national and international conferences and the author of five books, 28 years of the “Online Databases” column for Library Journal, and more than 200 journal articles, Tenopir has been an important voice in the ever-evolving discipline of information sciences, information access and retrieval, electronic publishing, and the information industry. “Libraries are busier than ever as people seek resources they need in digital form,” said Tenopir, whose journey as a scholar has paralleled the innovations that have sparked dizzying change in the information world.
California, Hawaii, Illinois, and Tennessee
A native of Whittier, California, Tenopir went to the same high school and college—Whittier High and Whittier College—as her hometown’s most famous native, former President Richard M. Nixon. After getting her master’s degree at California State University, Fullerton, she worked for an information consulting firm in Southern California and then as an automation librarian at the University of Hawaii in the era of the mid-to-late-70s, when automation was just becoming viable.
After earning her PhD in library and information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Tenopir returned to the University of Hawaii as an Assistant Professor in the School of Library and Information Science. There she got her first taste of distance teaching broadcasting her classes via TV to the other Hawaiian islands.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
