SIS Associate Professor Rachel Fleming-May was a public and academic librarian before she decided to pursue her doctorate in information sciences, and that experience has informed what she researches and how she teaches. In both, she “tends to focus on finding better ways to do the things I did as a practitioner with maybe not a lot of theoretical knowledge.”

After a lot of hard work and planning, the inaugural IDEA (Innovation, Disruption, Enquiry, Access) Institute on Artificial Intelligence was successfully launched and completed this July at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

“It exceeded all our expectations and was the first nationwide event, as far as we know, to train people in aspects of AI in library and information environments. We had different types of positions and organizations, from web developers to data scientists and engineers,” she said.

Assistant Professor Brian Dobreski has just wrapped up his second year at the School of Information Sciences, and despite one of those years being in a pandemic, he’s still managed to produce exceptional research that earned him the SIS 2021 Bonnie Carroll and Roy Cooper Faculty Enrichment Award.

In the last couple of years, Dobreski has continued work on a knowledge organization project to better label archival photos of sideshow performers, and he’s started new work on defining what personhood means in relation to works created by artificial intelligence.

Associate Professor Vandana Singh wants her research to be a catalyst for change in the real world and therefore she pursues research topics that appeal to practitioners and advance the field of research. She has published about seventy journal articles and conference proceedings and that body of research has been recognized this year with the College of Communication and Information Faculty Research Award for 2021.

Joy M. Doan has joined the School of Information Sciences this spring as an assistant professor of practice for the master’s program, and brings with her a wealth of experience as an administrator, practitioner, special subject librarian, and as an instructor.

Her most recent position was as head of the Marta and Austin Weeks Music Library at the University of Miami, which she said challenged her to tap into many areas of library and information sciences.

Clinical Assistant Professor Ericka Patillo has been both an administrator and teacher of information sciences, and will be serving in both capacities at SIS as she takes on the role of Director of Graduate Studies. 

“I think my combined experiences have equipped me for moving out of the practice and into an arena where I can make contributions to the information professions broadly writ,” she said.

Jiangen He said his new position at SIS is ideal for him, both in the description and location, and he couldn’t be more thrilled to start in the fall.

“I learned a lot about the research footprint of the different [SIS] faculty members and I feel there is some connection between my research and the faculty members’ research,” he said. “At the same time, I feel my research is a little bit different than the existing research contributed by faculty members, and that I can give new contributions, but there are connections.”