Tennessee professor makes online librarian master's program available in Appalachia

"Residents of rural Appalachia have consistently lower levels of computer ownership, education and access to information than the rest of the nation does," Bharat Mehra, an associate professor in University of Tennessee's School of Information Sciences told Megan Boehnke of the Knoxville News Sentinel. In response, Mehra is empowering rural libraries by offering an online-based rural librarian master's program with an information technology focus.

Mehra, right, applied and received a grant from the Laura Bush 21st Century Library Program following his exploratory study that showed a need for more resources for rural libraries in the region, Boehnke reports. The grant, totalling $567,660, teaches rural librarians how to conduct research online, market their libraries' programming, write grant applications, and create and use databases.

"We live in a very rural community, and Internet here is splotchy," Richard Haynes, director of the Harlan County Public Libraries system in Kentucky, told Boehnke. "We have areas that only have dial-up, and we have very little broadband reach into outlining communities. A lot of people are very dependent on libraries for that."

The Sevier County Public Library System, the Clinch-Powell Regional Library, the Watauga Regional Library and the Nolichucky Regional Library were regional partners in establishing the program. (Read more)