October 22, 2020 By Hillary Tune

MSIS Student Spotlight: Adam Hembree Pursues Interest in Public Librarianship and Archives Pathways

Featured student: Adam Hembree

Location: Knoxville, TN

Education: Bachelor’s in Spanish and interdisciplinary studies, Christopher Newport University, Newport News, Virginia; Master’s degree in applied linguistics from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia.

Career/Background: After I did my undergrad, I worked my way up at Rosetta Stone to being an area manager in Hampton Roads, Virginia,where I’m from, and it got me really interested in linguistics and language learning – I was already interested in that, but that solidified it. I went back to school for linguistics and I ended up doing a concentration in TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other … Read more “MSIS Student Spotlight: Adam Hembree Pursues Interest in Public Librarianship and Archives Pathways”

October 12, 2020 By Hillary Tune

SIS Alum, Staff, and Lecturer – Dan Greene is All Three!

Dan Greene’s (’03) current life is immersed in information sciences: he’s an alum of SIS, he is the SIS technology coordinator, and he’s also an SIS lecturer. But information sciences wasn’t even on his radar when he was an undergraduate at East Tennessee State University. There, he switched majors so many times he almost lost count before he finally did graduate with a degree in history. But there were always two other fields that kept pulling at him throughout the years: computer science and librarianship.

In fact, it all started at his high school library one day when a librarian … Read more “SIS Alum, Staff, and Lecturer – Dan Greene is All Three!”

October 9, 2020 By Hillary Tune

SIS Faculty & Students Contribute at Fall Conferences, Including ALISE & ASIS&T

There are several fall conferences coming up soon, and SIS has faculty and graduate students participating in presentations, panels, and more. All of these conferences are virtual this year. Here is a round-up of their contributions.

Professor Dania Bilal has several roles in the upcoming Association for Information Science & Technology Annual Meeting Oct. 22-Nov. 1, which are:

Presenting a paper at the ASIS&T SIG USE Symposium, “ Theory use in youth information behavior and interaction research, 1999-2019”
Chairing the paper session on Health and Technology.
Acting as an invited mentor for the Doctoral Colloquium.

Associate Professor Wade Bishop… Read more “SIS Faculty & Students Contribute at Fall Conferences, Including ALISE & ASIS&T”

October 7, 2020 By Hillary Tune

Alum Laura Creekmore Puts the Data Behind E-commerce

For every single product you search for while shopping online, there are layers of data that led you to it. Granular data that has been dug up, categorized, standardized, and recorded by teams of people – people like Laura Creekmore (’17).

Creekmore is vice president of content operations at Chicago-based Syndigo, and leads a team that takes any product a client wants to sell and captures all of the information about that product, including taxonomy and category attributes. The sudden bump in online shopping caused by COVID-19 has only increased her team’s workload, and revealed the relevance and impact of … Read more “Alum Laura Creekmore Puts the Data Behind E-commerce”

October 1, 2020 By Hillary Tune

Student Kathleen Smith Awarded Tennessee School Library Association Scholarship

Being an educator has been an amazing and fulfilling career for Kathleen Smith, who currently works at Bearden Middle School in Knoxville teaching eighth grade English. But she’s known for a while there was going to be a next step in her career, and that was to become a school librarian.

“When I was first teaching, I had a colleague and good friend who was taking information science classes at UT in the evenings, and she told me about the program. She made her move into the library and we kept in touch and she told me, ‘You would love … Read more “Student Kathleen Smith Awarded Tennessee School Library Association Scholarship”

By Hillary Tune

CCI Scripps Convergence Lab Provides a Safe, Quiet Space for Students

So much has changed for students at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in the past few months – just as it has around the world, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But some things have stayed relatively the same, just with a few tweaks, and the decade-old Scripps Convergence Lab in room 402 of the Communication Building is one of those things.

“I think it is really important to maintain a sense of normalcy and order during this time,” John McNair, the IT director for the college, said as to why he has kept the lab open despite usage of it … Read more “CCI Scripps Convergence Lab Provides a Safe, Quiet Space for Students”

Announcements

September 25, 2020 By Hillary Tune

SIS Associate Professor Devendra Potnis Honored by ASIS&T as SIG Member of the Year

Anyone reviewing SIS Associate Professor Devendra Potnis’s research and service work throughout his career can see he has a deep passion for helping people at an international level, as well as a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Whether it’s helping low-income populations in India become digitally literate, exploring how social media can be used as a tool to fight government corruption, or assisting international researchers in getting their work published, Potnis seeks to level the playing field for those who are at a disadvantage.

In that vein, he is being recognized by the Association for Information Science … Read more “SIS Associate Professor Devendra Potnis Honored by ASIS&T as SIG Member of the Year”

Diversity & Inclusion

September 17, 2020 By Hillary Tune

Madison Langseth (’15) Brings Science, Data, and Information Sciences Together at USGS

Madison Langseth (’15) was first drawn to the idea of connecting people to information when she was volunteering for the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, teaching chemistry and physics to middle and high school students. There, she helped reopen the school’s library, and it was one of the most impactful projects she did during those years.

“Just getting those students access to information, it was my favorite thing I did there. Most of them didn’t have books at home and it was just incredible how excited they were to sit and read a book at the library,” she said. “That’s … Read more “Madison Langseth (’15) Brings Science, Data, and Information Sciences Together at USGS”

September 15, 2020 By Hillary Tune

Master’s Pathways Prepare Students for Careers in Information

Because the Master of Science in Information Sciences program prepares students for employment in so many settings – including scientific, corporate, academic, nonprofit, and more – it’s important to understand the many ways in which information sciences skills are applied.

Several years ago, the School of Information Sciences faculty decided to create “Career Pathways” to make it easier for prospective and current master’s students to understand the varying opportunities within the field. The Career Pathways went live in fall 2016.

The SIS pathways were carefully curated by individual faculty, each one taking into consideration their own experiences and … Read more “Master’s Pathways Prepare Students for Careers in Information”

Featured Story

September 10, 2020 By Hillary Tune

Faculty Spotlight: Clinical Assistant Professor Ericka Patillo Will Lead Graduate Studies

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.

Patillo earned both her doctorate and her master’s degrees in library science from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a bachelor’s degree in music history from Old Dominion University. She comes to SIS … Read more “Faculty Spotlight: Clinical Assistant Professor Ericka Patillo Will Lead Graduate Studies”

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

School of Information Sciences
College of Communication and Information