The Social Justice Framework in the Information Technology Rural Librarian Master’s Scholarship Program: Bridging the Rural Digital Divides

Bharat Mehra; Kimberly Black; Vandana Singh; Jenna Nolt; K. C. Williams; Susan Simmons; Nancy Renfro

Bharat Mehra School of Information Sciences, University of Tennessee, 451 Communications Building, 1345 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996
Kimberly Black School of Information Sciences, University of Tennessee, 451 Communications Building, 1345 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996
Vandana Singh School of Information Sciences, University of Tennessee, 451 Communications Building, 1345 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996.
Jenna Nolt School of Information Sciences, University of Tennessee, 451 Communications Building, 1345 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996.
K. C. Williams School of Information Sciences, University of Tennessee, 451 Communications Building, 1345 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996
Susan Simmons School of Information Sciences, University of Tennessee, 451 Communications Building, 1345 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996.
Nancy Renfro School of Information Sciences, University of Tennessee, 451 Communications Building, 1345 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996.

Abstract

This paper applies a social justice framework to reflect on the experiences in the Information Technology Rural Librarian Master’s Scholarship Program (ITRL) that has recently been funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program to the School of Information Sciences (SIS) at the University of Tennessee (UT). ITRL’s purpose is to recruit and train sixteen paraprofessionals working in the Southern and Central Appalachian (SCA) rural libraries to complete their master’s degree part-time from June 2010 – August 2012 in the UT’s SIS synchronous distance education program.