The year 1996 was an important milestone in public library development in Tennessee.
The ConnectTEN project was an ambitious partnership between Tennessee public libraries and the State Department of Education, made possible through the services of the Tennessee Office of Information Resources. All full-service public libraries and all school libraries were connected to the Internet, and fifty-five public libraries became the Tennessee Information infrastructure Access Point sites for the counties. Before 1996 there existed little connectivity in schools and public libraries. Today there exists near universal connectivity.

http://www.connect-tn.org/

Gleaves, Edwin S. "Fewer Than A Thousand Days To Go: Advances in Public Library Services in Tennessee in the Last Decade of the Twentieth Century." Tennessee Librarian (Fall, 1998): no2. 28-34.