Kelly Passek loads books into packages to be delivered to students via Wing drone delivery. Photo courtesy of Wing.

Imagine a middle school student looking out their front door to see a drone hovering above them, a long tether attached to a box extending from the small flying machine – when the box is released, the child opens it and inside is a library book from their middle school librarian. This small sci-fi adventure is playing out right now in the Christiansburg, Virginia area, after middle school librarian and SIS alum Kelly Passek (’11) brought the idea to fruition.

Director of Voices Out Loud and Research Librarian Donna Braquet 

Voices Out Loud is an archives and oral history project started by UT Research Librarian Donna Braquet, who felt like there needed to be a resource chronicling the history of LGBTQ+ people in East Tennessee. Various pieces make up the collection, including three projects SIS students have worked on over the past year.

Dear UTK School of Information Sciences Students, Alumni and Friends,

We know that SIS students, alumni, and friends, particularly African-American students, alumni, and friends, are hurting right now. We are hurting with you. Many of you are suffering due to the recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, which sadly join a long list of extrajudicial killings of African-American men and women. Our hearts go out to you, and to all those who have suffered from the discrimination, bias, and brutality that are deeply woven into the fabric of our country.

Meredith Goins (’00), an SIS alum, doctoral student, and a new SIS lecturer, was recently recognized by the Tennessee Library Association with the TLA Honor Award. This award is given to people who have made significant contributions to librarianship at either a state or national level.

SIS alum Wendy Cornelisen (‘07) is a big picture, out-of-the-box kind of person. This mindset is why her career trajectory took her from a reference librarian position all the way to her current job as Georgia’s assistant state librarian for library innovation and collaboration – and it’s also why she is the recipient of the 2020 SIS Innovator’s Award.

SIS Associate Professor Awa Zhu was awarded the 2020 SIS Bonnie Carroll and Roy Cooper Faculty Enrichment Award for the cumulative research she has done over the past two years.

“I was so excited. I don’t have a lot of publications, so I was very surprised, and [SIS Director Diane Kelly] said that the award committee praised my publication quality,” she said

Zhu’s recognized research includes a reworked chapter from her dissertation published in “Information & Culture” that discusses the early information searching system LexisNexis and the users’ role in shaping and developing that technology

Fayetteville Public Library has long been the Arkansas city’s center, a hot spot for learning, special events, and other communal gatherings. In 2005, it won the Library of the Year award sponsored by Library Journal and Thompson/Gale Publishers – the smallest library ever to earn that accolade, said the library’s current director, SIS alum David Johnson (‘93). Johnson is the recipient of the 2020 SIS Distinguished Alumni Award, and he is receiving it in part due to his work at the library.

We know that everyone’s lives have been impacted by this pandemic, and just as we have adjusted our work and support for students here at the School of Information Sciences, many of our alumni have had to drastically change everyday operations. We reached out to some of our alums to see how they and their organizations were handling the changes, and providing stability and continued access to resources in this time of uncertainty. Here is what they told us:

Hilary Jasmin

Research and Learning Services Librarian

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Memphis, Tenn.