SIS to Host Retirement Party for Dr. Bill Robinson May 3

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.

Please join us! RSVP to Linda Sherman at lsherman@utk.edu or (865) 974-7916 to attend.
Please also contribute your remembrances of “Dr. Bill,” which the school will compile into a memory book on his life and work and be presented to Dr. Robinson. Please submit your memories to Joel Southern at jsouthern@utk.edu, or post them on a student-created blog. Feel free to send in correspondence, memorabilia, or other materials—all formats are welcome.

Dr. Bill Robinson Scholarship Fund

SIS is pleased to announce a new scholarship to honor Dr. Bill Robinson’s life and work. 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.

SIS is looking for partners—at any level—who are willing to make a leadership gift to launch this scholarship off the ground. This is an exciting opportunity for any donor who would like to be recognized for his or her contribution—for years to come. Anyone making a contribution to the Robinson Scholarship by July 1 will be identified as a “charter donor” and recognized on a School plaque. Dr. Robinson will retire at the end of spring term 2008.

To be among the first supporters of this scholarship, send a check to the UT School of Information Sciences, 1345 Circle Park Dr., Suite 451, Knoxville, TN 37996, or contact the CCI Development Director, Karen Rohr, for more information: krohr1@utk.edu or (865) 974-7074.

Dr. Bill Robinson to Retire May 2008

Associate Professor Bill Robinson will retire at the end of spring term 2008. Dr. Robinson was recruited to the University of Tennessee in 1972 by founding director of the Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences Gary Purcell. He has served as assistant director since 2005 and has also served as acting director of the School of Information Sciences.

Over his 35 year tenure at SIS, Dr. Robinson has taught hundreds of students and some 10 courses, including required courses in Research Methods and the Development and Management of Collections. He has authored some 45 articles with an emphasis on Tennessee librarianship, book publishing, and government publications.

His subject specialties lie in social sciences and reference services, although, over the years, Dr. Robinson has become a “gap filler,” teaching a broad variety of courses. Dr. Purcell asked him to be the school’s “book person,” and so to this end, he developed and taught classes in the history of the book, book publishing, collection development—and later, academic libraries, government information, and reader’s guidance.

Dr. Robinson was awarded the Tennessee Library Association’s Frances Neel Cheney Award for “contributions to the world of librarianship and books through the encouragement of the love of books and reading” in 1999. He received UT Libraries’ Outstanding Service Award in 2001, and the College of Communication and Information Outstanding Teaching Award in 2005–2006.

Dr. Robinson graduated Magna Cum Laude from Claremont Men’s College in 1961, and then attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, jointly administered by Tufts and Harvard Universities, where he received a master’s degree in international relations in 1962. He received his M.S.L.S. at the University of Southern California in 1965.

Dr. Robinson was awarded a Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in 1973. His dissertation was on “Subject Dispersion in Political Science: An analysis of references appearing in the journal literature, 1910-1960” for which he was awarded the Berner-Nash Award for the outstanding doctoral thesis of the year. Dr. Robinson originally planned to become a Foreign Service Officer.