In mid 2006, East Tennessee State University, Northeast State Community College, and the 9 public library systems in the Watauga Region implemented a shared Millennium integrated library technology platform. The combined system makes close to 2 million items available to patrons and has increased the capacity for intralibrary loan services. Through the shared Millennium catalog, patrons now have the ability to request materials and have them sent to any of the 20 participating library outlets. It has been an especially helpful partnership for ETSU, whose goal as a regional university was to allow their students the flexibility to pick up ETSU materials at their closest public library outlet. In FY 2007-2008, the courier transported 44,133 books.

For more information, check out the Watauga Regional Library website at: http://wrlibrary.org/
Or check out the catalog at: http://libraries.etsu.edu/

Due to the hard work of librarians statewide, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) has funded two projects for Tennessee in 2008-2009.

Both projects involve medical librarians; one will be targeting the needs of Public Library staff--working with the Tennessee State Library & Archives-- and the second will target non affiliated/rural physicians--working with the Tennessee Medical Association.

See the description of the projects below. If you have questions about either project you may contact Sandy Oelschlegel for more detail (865-305-6615).

Recently, Knoxville television personality Ken Schwall profiled the Preston Medical Library for the "Positively Schwall" segment. Enjoy this fun and lighthearted video while you learn more about the library, particularly their collection of works featuring the history of medicine.

Thanks to all the attendees and the participating vendors, DataFest 2008 was a huge success.  One hundred and eighty-eight librarians and staff came to see new electronic products, learn about searching TEL databases, and to network with colleagues. 

The Tennessee Resource Sharing Award is presented this year to Tracy Luna, Lending Supervisor at the University of Tennessee Libraries in Knoxville. A “veteran” of UT’s interlibrary loan department, Tracy has been key in making “One-Step Access To Library Materials,” one of Tenn-Share’s TEL Phase II initiatives, closer to a reality. [More...]