{"id":150397,"date":"2021-10-01T09:22:52","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T13:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sis.utk.edu\/?p=150397"},"modified":"2021-10-01T09:22:52","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T13:22:52","slug":"alum-ari-baker-steps-into-their-new-role-as-tenn-share-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2021\/10\/01\/alum-ari-baker-steps-into-their-new-role-as-tenn-share-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Alum Ari Baker Steps Into Their New Role as Tenn-Share Director"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"After working 13 years at the same place, Ari Baker decided it was time to see where else they could leverage their information sciences skills. Though Baker loved being a librarian at the Blount County Public Library<\/a>, they realized their entire career had been spent there. That\u2019s when they saw the job opening for the director of Tenn-Share.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really hard decision, I am still very passionate about public libraries\u2026 I was interested in doing something new and branching out but I didn\u2019t want to have to move. I wanted to stay in Blount County as I\u2019ve invested a lot in this community,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n

The Tenn-Share director position was a great fit in so many ways for them: not only does it allow them to work remotely from Blount County, they also get to travel all around the state meeting with librarians and other information professionals. To top it off, the position combines a lot of Baker\u2019s existing expertise in community organizing and librarianship, but also provides new opportunities for them to flex their grant writing and marketing skills.<\/p>\n

Baker is the only full-time employee of Tenn-Share, which is a non-profit buying consortium for libraries of all types in the state of Tennessee. A simplistic description of what the organization does is it buys in bulk for libraries who want the same items so they can get reduced rates. But historically there\u2019s a lot of flexibility in what Tenn-Share does for its members. For example, it was responsible for creating the Tennessee Electronic Librar<\/a>y<\/a>, which is now managed by the Tennessee State Library and Archives. It also currently operates the state\u2019s interlibrary loan service, Firefly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s whatever its membership needs it to be. In older history, it did workshops on how to get libraries on the internet, it has done advocacy work in the past, it\u2019s a space for libraries to show up and say, \u2018Hey, this is what I need and how can we work together to impact our communities.\u2019,\u201d Baker explained.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve met with the board and established initial goals for Tenn-Share moving forward, which include:<\/p>\n