Moving the University of Tennessee Volunteer spirit forward, The School of Information Sciences encourages research that promotes the generation of new knowledge, services and technology, all while strengthening instructional and public service programs. Below are a several selected research programs highlighting these principles:
- CA2CA@SCA-RL – Rural Library Professionals’ Role in Community Engagement
- This program examined how rural librarians in the Southern and Central Appalachian region can effectively become leaders of community outreach and engagement.
- Collaborative Analysis Liaison Librarians
- The CALL Project will develop librarians and information professionals to be active participants in the research process rather than just supporters, to work directly with science professionals and researchers, and take on leadership duties to build bridges between libraries and scientists.
- Experience Assessment – Building User Experience & Assessment Capabilities in Libraries and Information Centers
- This program facilitates student use of state of the art user experience and assessment technologies, such as eye trackers, heatmapping, and session recording for the purpose of feedback.
- DCERC – Digital Curation Education in Research Centers
- This joint project between the University of Tennessee Knoxville and the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana works to educate master’s and doctoral students in Information and Library Sciences via real-world experience in scientific data repositories and research centers.
- ITRL Grant Program – Information Technology Rural Librarian Program
- The ITRL grant program facilitated a group of masters students in learning how to best implement information technology and distance education techniques into rural librarianship in the Southern and Central Appalachian region.
- ITRL2 – Information Technology Rural Librarian Program 2
- Using the refinements established by the first ITRL program, this program repeated the previous one with a stronger focus on how to combat the information poverty and other challenges faced by the SCA population.
- ILS Research – Open Source Integrated Library Systems
- This research project sought to compare the maintenance effort required for open-source ILSs to the effort required for off-the-shelf, proprietary ILSs, in order to better inform librarians about the hidden, ongoing costs associated with one of their most useful tools.
- Minerva Project
- This project will study Russian disinformation campaigns in three former Soviet republics as part of a $1.6 million Minerva research grant awarded through the United States Department of Defense.
- PLSB-TN – Public LIbraries in Small Business Economic Development – Tennessee
- This program looked at how public libraries can facilitate small business development in Tennessee, and how to improve their approach in order to stimulate economic diversity in the region.
- Project MISSLE
- This program focuses on developing interdisciplinary graduate coursework, which trains students to serve as mobile technology consultants for libraries.
- SciData – SciData Program
- SciData is a grant which focuses on MSIS students who are interested in scientific data curation and management.
- ScienceLinks2 – ScienceLinks2
- ScienceLinks2 is a program to prepare the next generation of educators who will be preparing the librarians and information professionals and the future.
- La SCALA – Latino Scholars Cambio Leadership Academy
- La SCALA focused on promoting PhD-level education of latino students in STEM applications of library and information sciences fields.
- LAMBDA – Library Anchor Models for Bridging Diversity Achievements
- LAMBDA exists to further the education of MSIS students who are interested in helping homeless, LGBTQA+ youth.