The University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s School of Information Sciences in the College of Communication and Information has received two grants which total more than $850,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to train information science experts.

Ed Cortez, professor and former director of the School of Information Sciences (SIS) in the College of Communication and Information, has been appointed chair of the American Libraries Association (ALA) Committee on Education.

Cortez will take office in June 2016 after the ALA annual conference.

Before coming to UT, Cortez served as a professor and administrator at the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Library Anchor Models for Bridging Diversity Achievements (LAMBDA) brings together the University of Tennessee’s School of Information Sciences and the Center for Literacy, Education & Employment with the San Diego County Libraries and other public libraries in California and Tennessee to provide education, training, workshops, and support materials to support library staff members who serve LGBTQ homeless youth.

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Center for Information and Communication Studies has received funding for projects to support rural librarians and increase Hispanic participation in teaching library science.

The grants were announced by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)as two of the 32 Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian grants totaling $10.3 million.

With the U.S. Government approval of educational exchange travel to Cuba, Dr. Ed Cortez from the School of Information Sciences joined a Special Libraries Research Delegation on a late October trip to the island nation. Cubans have been able to achieve notable success in information storage and retrieval systems over the years. The U.S. researchers were on a mission to understand the special challenges and the innovative solutions employed by the Cubans. Dr. Cortez was specifically interested in understanding the education of these information professions and the support they received.

Dr. Cortez and SIS staff attended the recent REFORMA Annual Conference in Denver Colorado from September 14 to 18.  REFORMA is the national association created in 1971 to promote library and information sciences to Latinos and the Spanish speaking communities.  Sessions at this conference mainly concentrated on two key areas:  how libraries can better serve their Latino communities and how universities can recruit Latinos into librarianship.