During the annual Fall Conference, Tenn-Share honors and presents awards to selected library staff/groups. There are three awards:
Tennessee Resource Sharing Award Deanna Nipp-Kientz Memorial Award TEL Trainer of the Year
Tennessee Resource Sharing Award
The Tennessee Resource Sharing Award may be presented annually to any person, institution or organization in Tennessee that has done outstanding work in promoting resource sharing within and among Tennessee Libraries and other information agencies.
The recipient will be recognized based on efforts to make available shared library and/or information resources that benefit the organizations involved and the patrons they serve, and that would not be available to them without cooperative efforts.
The award recipient will receive a plaque, and in their honor $100 will be given to a library or other institution of the recipient’s choice that provides resource sharing among Tennessee libraries, with the money being earmarked for resource-sharing services.
Previous recipients:
- 2021 No award presented
- 2020 No award presented
- 2019 Elizabeth Rivera, Lipscomb University, for her leadership in the collaboration between Lipscomb, Fisk University, and Meharry Medical College Archives
- 2018 Memphis Area Independent Schools Library Information Consortium
- 2017 Carolun Runyon, UT Chattanooga; and Mark Baggett, UT Knoxville
- 2016 Memphis Area Library Council
- 2015 No award presented
- 2014 Marion Bryant
- 2013 Charles “Chuck” Sherrill
- 2012 David Atkins
- 2011 Limitless Libraries
- 2010 Mary Ellen Pozzebon
- 2009 Peter Nerzak
- 2008 Tracy Luna
- 2007 No award presented
- 2006 Jennifer Cowan-Henderson
- 2005 Tricia Bengel
- 2004 Aubrey Mitchell
- 2003 Jack Stacy
- 2002 Cathy Evans
- 2001 Betsy Fisher and Willa Reister
- 2000 Jud Barry and Watauga Regional Library
- 1999 Annelle R. Huggins
- 1998 Linda Phillips
Deanna Nipp-Kientz Memorial Award
The Deanna Nipp-Kientz Memorial Award was first presented in 2012, in honor of Deanna Nipp-Kientz. Deanna Nipp-Kientz was Tenn-Share’s longtime Membership Records Coordinator and passed away in June 2012. Deanna set the highest possible bar for volunteerism in Tenn-Share, serving as the Membership Records Coordinator from the very first year that Tenn-Share collected membership dues. Her grace and diligence in dealing with missing, vague or incorrect information to be sure that all members were promptly served earned her the title of “Database Queen” at Tenn-Share’s 2002 Fall Conference.
The selection criteria is a volunteer who works hard for Tenn-Share but in a capacity that will not qualify them for the Tennessee Resource Sharing Award. The volunteer cannot be serving on the Tenn-Share Board at the time the award is presented.
Previous recipients
- 2021 No award presented
- 2020 No award presented
- 2019 Lori Warren, Chattanooga State Community College
- 2018 Mary Ellen Sloan, Middle Tennessee State University
- 2017 Elizabeth Kozlowski, Director, White House Public Library
- 2016 Courtney Fuson, Librarian of Electronic and Educational Resources at Belmont University
- 2015 Jim Nance, Reference and Research Educator Librarian and Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee at Martin
- 2014 Tracy Luna
- 2013 Leah Allison
- 2012 Jodie Gambill
TEL Trainer of the Year Award
The TEL Trainer of the Year is selected based on the number of training sessions, distance traveled, and number of attendees at those training sessions, during the fiscal year. To be eligible, TEL trainers must submit their training session information via the online TEL Workshop Reporting form. The final determination is made and the award is given by the Tennessee State Library and Archives during the Tenn-Share Fall Conference each year.
Previous recipients
- 2021 No award presented
- 2020 No award presented
- 2019 Shannon K. Bismark, Cleveland Bradley County Public Library
- 2018 Amanda Yother, Tennessee Tech University
- 2017 Debra Mattingly, Clinch River Regional Library
- 2016 Tabitha Wakefield, Macon County Junior High School
- 2015 University of Memphis Instructional Team: Joyce McKibben, Reference Collection Coordinator; Perveen Rustomfram, Government Publications Librarian; Bess Robinson, Head of Research and Instructional Services; and Pam Dennis, Learning Commons Coordinator
- 2014 Gayla Brewer
- 2013 Amanda Mason
- 2012 David Hajdik
- 2011 Nancy Trice
- 2010 Christina Chester-Fangman, Inga Filipo, Nancy Gibson, Sharon Johnson, Philenese Slaugher