Kelsey Badger came into the School of Information Sciences master’s program with the honor of being accepted into the Collaborative Analysis Liaison Librarians (CALL) program, and she will continue that tradition of excellence with the honor of being named a University of Tennessee, Knoxville Volunteer of Distinction: Extraordinary Professional Promise. She’s also already accepted a position at the Ohio State University as a research data librarian, which she will start after she graduates from SIS this May.

SIS Clinical Associate Professor Carolyn Hank nominated Badger for the award, stating that she has exceptional work ethic and outstanding academic … Read more “MSIS Student Kelsey Badger Named Volunteer of Distinction: Extraordinary Professional Promise”

“What my research is really aiming to do is to provide fundamental knowledge to library and information professionals about blockchain technology and NFTs. We want to shed a light on how this technology can provide an opportunity for music collections in … Read more “Student Elisha Jewell and Assistant Professor of Practice Joy Marie Doan Research How NFTs Can Benefit Libraries”

Makayla Lerner is the first undergraduate School of Information Sciences student to complete a practicum, and just this last week she won first place in the College of Communication and Information’s 44^th Annual Research Symposium’s Research Poster Kaleidoscope contest. The research she presented in her poster stemmed from the practicum and undergraduate research assistantship work she has been doing with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture’s Extension programs.

Lerner has participated in three projects with UTIA that all have a focus on broadband internet in rural communities—hence the title of her poster, which aggregated research from all three … Read more “BSIS Student Makayla Lerner Wins CCI Poster Competition with Research on Rural Communities Adopting Broadband”

It’s easy to forget history, but even more so if no one preserves it. Sarah Calise, an archivist and a student in the School of Information Sciences master’s program, is someone who specializes in preservation. So when they saw the history of Nashville’s LGBTQ+ community slowly slipping away, they also saw an opportunity to make a lasting difference. Now they are at the helm of a significant digital archives project called Nashville Queer History, and they are writing the first book ever about that history.

This project came to fruition when Calise was given a big project assignment in … Read more “MSIS Student Sarah Calise Founds Nashville Queer History Digital Archive, Lands Deal to Write First Book on Nashville’s LGBTQ+ History”

At the end of this month, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will be well-represented at the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) in Salt Lake City. It is at this conference that SIS Professor and Director Abebe Rorissa will move into the position of ASIS&T President-Elect Nov. 2, but many others from the SIS community are also presenting their work or participating in panels and workshops. They include:

• Associate Professor Xiaohua “Awa” Zhu is co-leading the 17th Annual Social Informatics Research Symposium and the 3rd Annual Information Ethics and Policy Workshop: Sociotechnical Perspectives on Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (SIG-SI

Winberry was helping with Potnis’s research on managing innovations in public libraries, along with two other MSIS students, Bonnie Finn and Courtney Hunt. Out of that project the group published two research articles, and Winberry was still working on a literature review Potnis had asked him to conduct on the subject.… Read more “Paper by PhD Student Joseph Winberry & Associate Professor Devendra Potnis Wins ALISE Award”

Two years into his career at the IGT Lab, Mix was bumped up into the position of GIS director, which … Read more “MSIS Student Charlie Mix is Putting Conservation on the Map”

Being in the MSIS program and part of the Collaborative Analysis Liaison Librarians cohort has opened up an entire new world of possibilities within the realm of information sciences for student Claire Jordan.

“I thought I had a niche, specific focus, and then I learned about the CALL program and then I got here and all the opportunities opened up, and it’s so much more diverse than I realized,” she said.

One such opportunity Jordan has received is the Research Experience for Master’s Students at the University of Michigan – an intensive summer program that pairs students with faculty mentors … Read more “MSIS Student Claire Jordan to Conduct Fellowship Research on Misuse of Scientific Information”

When he was growing up, Joseph Winberry (’19) spent a lot of time around his grandparents and their friends in a retirement community – he found himself drawn to older people, and it stuck. It was just a fluke, he said, that he eventually was hired for a job at the Knoxville-Knox County Office on Aging (OOA). But that coincidence brought him full circle to serve a population he had grown up around.

While he was working at the OOA, Winberry began realizing that aging isn’t a one-note experience.

“It really helped me realize the inequities and injustices that older … Read more “MSIS Alum and Current CCI PhD Student Joseph Winberry (’19) Awarded Marva Rudolph Scholarship”

Eight new MSIS master’s students are joining the second cohort of the Collaborative Analysis Liaison Librarians (CALL) instructional project this fall semester, bringing the number of CALL participants to 12. The program was created with funding awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ (IMLS) Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian grant program. SIS Associate Professor Wade Bishop is principal investigator, with SIS and Chancellor’s Professor Suzie Allard as co-investigator.

“The first cohort laid a great foundation of research in liaison librarianship through an expanded review of the literature and job analyses to prepare future science liaison librarians. In the … Read more “New Students Join Science Liaison CALL Project”