ATG Interviews Carol Tenopir Chancellor’s Professor and Board of Visitors Professor, School of Information Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville by Tom Gilson (Associate Editor, Against the Grain) <gilsont@cofc.edu> and Katina Strauch (Editor, Against the Grain) <kstrauch@comcast.net> ATG: You were recently named the University of Tennessee’s Macebearer, which is the university’s highest faculty award, celebrating and honoring a distinguished career. As you look back on your achievements, are there particular contributions that make you most proud? CT: From the beginning of my academic career in the early 1980s I have tried to keep good relationships with the professional communities that employ our graduates (libraries, scholarly publishers, secondary publishers, government agencies, and others) that are responsible for the scholarly communication infrastructure. I listen to their concerns, focus my research on issues that are important to scholarly communication now and in the future, and, in turn, I think these organizations listen to findings from my research. Focusing on how researchers use information in their work has been central in all of this. This commitment to all participants in the scholarly communication ecosystem has driven the accomplishments in research, teaching, and service that I am most proud of. ATG: And obviously, you haven’t slowed down! What research projects are you currently working on? What other exciting projects are on the horizon? CT: My view of the information that researchers need to do their work has gradually expanded over the years, from A&I databases, to journal articles and other formal information sources, to less formal sources, to research data. Currently I am finishing up some decade-long research projects on how scientists’ and academic libraries’ practices and perceptions regarding research data have changed over the decade. I am also finishing the latest results that build on the multiple decades long work on the role of research information sources for work-related purposes that Donald W. King and I worked together on for many years. Don died in fall 2019 and I owe him a debt of gratitude for his mentorship and collaboration for so many years. Upcoming, I would like to continue with some of the work I did with my 50 Against the Grain / February 2020
How many assistants do you typically employ?
colleagues at CIBER (UK) a few years ago on how the nature of trust of various types of research information resources may be changing. ATG: We notice that you frequently work with other researchers. Can you talk about the value of collaboration in your research? CT: Before I became an academic I started my LIS career working in a consulting company. Collaboration between clients and staff and between staff members with different expertise was essential in juggling a variety of projects and finding the best way to proceed. This means that I got into the collaboration habit early on. Besides the fact that I just like to work with other people, in collaborations each person brings a different perspective and different strength that improves the project as a whole. As an academic I have the opportunity to work with teams of researchers and students from around the world and from many different disciplines. It just makes sense to work with researchers from Finland, for example, when I am studying how Finnish researchers use information, or with librarians when we are studying library research data services, or with engineers when we look at how to improve information instruction for engineering students. I have also been blessed with strong mentors over the years and I try to repay that by serving as a mentor to others. ATG: How do you and your collaborators decide on your next project?
CT: The fun thing about research is that one answer leads to many more questions and one project often leads to another. Because we look at current practices and future trends, every few years I feel the need to see how things have changed and to see if there are new trends or new behaviors in how researchers use and disseminate information. The world of scholarly publishing has changed in many ways over the four decades I have been doing research (and not changed in many other ways, such as scientists’ motivations for publishing), so there is always something new to look at or old issues to revisit. The number of assistants I employ depends on the scope of the project (national or international, for example, or short-term or long-term) and the funding available. I try to always have one funded research assistant who works with me on multiple projects and then we hire others for specific projects as funding allows. Several years ago, Don King and I established the Tenopir-King Research Excellence Fund in the UT Center for Information and Communication Studies. I want to thank those organizations and individuals who have helped this fund grow so I can employ a research assistant, typically a recent graduate from the School of Information Sciences who is interested in getting experience in research activities. ATG: More broadly, we wonder where you see the future of library research going? Are there specific issues that you see as most critical and worthy of exploration? CT: The research that I am most interested in that is relevant to libraries and librarians often involves the motivations and behaviors of the people who use information products and services, as well as the value and role of the library now and into the future. This means not only measuring behaviors now, but also figuring out ways to anticipate changes in the future based on technological and societal changes. Libraries and publishers continued on page 51
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