SIS News Archive

Alumni and friends of the University of Tennessee's School of Information Sciences are invited to join the SIS Alumni Board's yearly Homecoming Brunch on Sunday, November 9, from noon - 1:30 p.m. at the UT Visitors’ Center* in Knoxville.

Come and meet the school’s new alumni board members and catch up with your former classmates and favorite faculty members. Spouses, significant others, friends and family are always welcome to join us. And as we’ve all grown to expect, Dr Cortez promises to tell a fanciful story about one or two faculty members that you won't want to miss!

The University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences is pleased to announce that its Center for Children’s and Young Adult Literature has been selected as one of the sponsors of the venerated May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture next April 18, 2009, at the Children's Defense Fund Haley Farm in Clinton, Tenn.

The School of Information Sciences invites you to hear Dr. Dietmar Wolfram speak on Indexing Consistency Across Multiple Indexers/Taggers on October 14, from 12:30 - 2 p.m. Dr. Wolfram will present an empirical study of measuring information representation for retrieval by traditional indexing approach and by new social tagging practices.

The School of Information Sciences invites you to hear Dr. Carol Kuhlthau present the annual Thomson Scientific Lazerow Memorial Lecture to be held on October 8, from 7:00 - 8:00 pm in the UT Hodges Library Auditorium. Her talk, “Guided Inquiry:  Application of Information Seeking Research in pre K-12 Education in the 21st Century,” will present a dynamic, integrated approach to teaching curriculum content, information literacy, and strategies for learning.

The School of Information Sciences is pleased to announce that our renovated and newly named Dewey’s Den & Commons (DDC) is open for student use. While designing the lab, SIS technology coordinator Cindy Lancaster ensured that the technology and the furniture in the new lab blended together to become not only accessible to everyone but attractive, and even inspiring. The DDC is designed to support student social networking and collaborative learning.

The University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences is pleased to announce that the John Tyson Minority Scholarship is now a fully endowed scholarship fund that will begin offering a qualified student a partial scholarship starting fall 2009.

Last month, an anonymous donor made good on a promise to match $10,000 that has been raised by school supporters since last summer. Our school would like to thank the many graduates and donors who stepped forward to make this matching program a success. The school has had a vibrant response from our graduates and friends since the matching proposal appeared in the fall 2007 newsletter, and we could not have endowed this important scholarship without this support.

The University of Tennessee School of Information Sciences is pleased to announce that it has hired two new faculty members. Both incoming assistant professors, Dr. Cindy C. Welch and Dr. Vandana Singh, are recent graduates of the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.

Welch will serve as the Youth Services Specialist and will coordinate the school library media track, which was left open after the retirement of Dr. Jinx Watson.

The School of Information Sciences will sponsor a retirement party for Dr. Robinson on May 3 from 2 - 4 pm at the UT Visitor's Center, formerly the University Club.

The University of Tennessee’s School of Information Sciences Alumni Board recognized Pat Powell with the Distinguished Alumni Award for 2008.

Alumni Board President Chrissie Anderson Peters presented this honor to Powell, Senior Vice-President of Business Development at Information International Associates (IIa), at the school’s Alumni & Friends Day on March 8.

Three faculty candidates are visiting the School of Information this
month and interviewing for the faculty position that replaces Dr. Bill Robinson. Below are the links to and schedules of each candidate's presentations.

The School of Information Sciences invites you to hear Dr. Ismail Abdullahi speak on “LIS Education in a Diverse and Global World” on March 5 from 12:00 – 1:00 pm in Communication Bldg. Room 420 on the UT campus. The presentation will be webcast.

An article coauthored by School of Information Sciences Professor Dania Bilal on children’s information seeking is the single most requested article from the leading information science journal, Information Processing & Management (IPM) -- for the second time.

Three faculty candidates are visiting the School of Information this month and interviewing for the faculty position that replaces Dr. Bob Sandusky. Below are the links to and schedules of each candidate's presentations.

The School of Information Sciences invites you to hear Dr. Julie Todaro speak on “21st Century Libraries” on February 20 from 12:00 – 1:00 pm in the Lindsay Young Auditorium at John C. Hodges Library on the UT campus. Dr. Todaro is the President of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).

In her presentation, which will also be webcast, Dr. Todaro will focus on today’s world where - whether we like it or not – libraries exist in a "flat" and ever evolving "dog-year change" environment where we strive to be cutting edge, struggle to avoid bleeding edge, and position ourselves to be competitive while we balance the traditional with the new. Please join us for this important research forum.

The School of Information Sciences is pleased to announce a new scholarship to honor Dr. Bill Robinson’s life and work. The SIS Alumni Board proposed the scholarship after hearing of Dr. Robinson’s retirement. The William C. Robinson or “Dr. Bill” Scholarship is now looking for contributors to help endow the scholarship which will help support academically-gifted students to become librarians and information professionals.

Dr. Carol Tenopir has been awarded the prestigious Contributions to Information Science and Technology Award by the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.

SIS faculty played an integral leadership role at this year’s annual conference of the American Society for Information Sciences and Technology (ASIST) held October 19-25 in Milwaukee. ASIST is the world’s leading research society for information scientists working in academia and industry.

As a Board of Director for ASIST, Suzie Allard had a wide variety of responsibilities, including attending some 17 sessions, and acting as liasion for the board with multiple committees including Membership and Rules and Bylaws.

The School of Information Sciences invites you to hear Dr. Tefko Saracevic present the annual Thomson Scientific Lazerow Memorial Lecture to be held on September 19, 2007, from 11:30 - 12:30 pm in the Lindsay Young Auditorium at John C. Hodges Library on campus.*
Link to streaming video of the event (requires Windows Media Player to view).

Legendary information scientist Dr. Eugene Garfield will be a special guest at the lecture.

What makes information or information objects relevant? What is the nature of relevance? What do people look for in order to infer relevance?

Dr. Saracevic will trace the evolution of thinking on relevance in information science in the past three decades. He will provide an updated framework for research agenda in today's changing information environment.