Five APSU Librarians Recognized for Training People to Use the Tennessee Electronic Library

Nashville, TN – Five librarians from Austin Peay State University have received an award for their efforts in training people to use the Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL).

Christina Chester-Fangman, Inga Filippo, Nancy Gibson, Sharon Johnson and Philenese Slaughter were recently honored at the Tenn-Share fall conference. Tenn-Share is a nonprofit organization that promotes resource sharing among libraries and other information agencies throughout Tennessee.

TEL trainers are a dedicated group of volunteers who provide training across the state. Each year, the TEL Trainer Award is presented to the individual or group that logs the most miles or the most hours providing training about how to use TEL. This year, the team from Austin Peay was first in both categories.

The team was initially expected only to provide training for those who needed it in and around Clarksville. However, the team decided to expand its mission and serve a larger geographic area.

TEL is an online collection of more than 40 databases containing more than 400,000 magazines, books, journals, newspaper articles, essays, podcasts, videos, e-books and primary source materials. TEL provides information to Tennesseans free of charge via the Internet at: http://tntel.tnsos.org

“The Tennessee Electronic Library is one of our state’s best-kept secrets,” Secretary of State Tre Hargett said. “I hope to change that because TEL is really an amazing online resource for students, teachers or anyone who is trying to do research work. I am proud of these librarians from Austin Peay for volunteering their time to help more people understand how to tap into this resource.”