Rebecca Howard’s (’19) interest in archives was first piqued while working at her university library. She was earning her undergraduate degree in history from Stockton University, and was working at the university’s library when it merged with the Noyes Museum of Art, which gave her an opportunity to be an archives assistant.

The 2019 ALISE Conference was in Knoxville the last week of September, and faculty, students and alumni made a strong showing in both participation and winning awards at the conference, which was co-chaired by SIS Director and Professor Diane Kelly and co-hosted by SIS.

Our award winners were:

• SIS Assistant Professor Brian Dobreski, who tied for third place in the

  Doctoral Student Poster competition for “Values in Knowledge Organization Standards: A Value Analysis of Resource Description and Access (RDA)”

• Alum LaVerne Gray (’19), who received second place for “In a Collective Voice: Uncovering the Black Feminist Information Community of

University of Tennessee College of Communication and Information doctoral student Kevin Mallary was diving into information science during his undergraduate and master’s programs in communication at Wake Forest University before he even knew what information science was. At the time, he was focusing his research on website accessibility for users with disabilities.

“When I go back and look at all the references I used, what I cited was literature from information sciences. I didn’t have a clue that [information sciences] was what I was actually studying,” he said.

Featured student: Clancy Anderson

Location: Bristol, Tenn.

Education: Training as a submarine nuclear reactor operator in the Navy, and an undergraduate degree in history from Eastern Connecticut State University

Former SIS Professor Bill Robinson was many things, to many students: exacting, funny, personable, tough, whimsical. All these qualities and more are what make up a big personality that has stuck in the memories of more than three decades of students.

This September, when he turns 80, we are taking the opportunity to recall the many wonderful experiences past students and faculty have had with the man they call Dr. Bill.

Crystal Sherline didn’t think she wanted to get a PhD; she was working as a library director of a small, rural library, and had already been through the rigorous PhD experience with a spouse.

“I had a couple of patrons I was very close to, who were older and worldly. They told me, ‘You need to go do a PhD.’ I contemplated for a couple of years, but I’m a lifetime learner,” Sherline said.

When Dick Kawooya first traveled from Uganda to the United States in 2001 to study library science, he had only expected to stay for one year. Now, Kawooya is an associate professor and just finished a year as interim director of the School of Library and Information Science College of Information and Communications at the University of South Carolina.

Part of his Kawooya’s journey includes graduating with a doctoral degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville College of Communication and Information, with an emphasis in information sciences.