SIS Announces 2009 Alumni Awards

In front of some 75 alumni and friends, the School of Information Sciences Alumni Board announced its Distinguished Alumnus for 2009, along with its inaugural Innovator’s Award, at the School’s Alumni & Friends Day on March 7 at the UT Hoskins Library.

Dr. Mike Pemberton (’75) was honored with the School’s Distinguished Alumni award for 2009, and James Staub (’04) was honored with the inaugural Innovator’s Award.

SIS alumni voted for the Innovator’s Award, which honors an alumnus or alumna who graduated at least two years earlier and who demonstrates innovation in the field of information sciences through cutting edge activities, forward thinking, leading trends, or reinventing a traditional service.

SIS alumni also voted for the Distinguished Alumni award, which honors an alumnus or alumna who graduated at least ten years previously and who demonstrates a meritorious career based on service, teaching, and/or scholarship.

The Distinguished Alumnus for 2009, Dr. Mike Pemberton, is a professor at SIS, where he has taught since 1977. His nomination letter noted how he has been instrumental to the school’s success and in the success of countless students. Dr. Pemberton’s level of scholarship throughout his career has been impressive, and the awards bestowed on him by the industry’s top organizations make him a natural candidate for this award.

Dr. Pemberton single-handedly created the Records Management Office at the University of Tennessee which now serves 300 UT departments and has saved the university over $20 million in direct and indirect costs. Dr. Pemberton also founded the Center for Information Studies in 1989 and served as its director the first year of its operation. In 1998, the same year that he became one of the few academics to become a Certified Records Manager, he was inducted as a Fellow of ARMA International, the 21st person inducted and the third academic so honored. For ten years, he served as the Executive Editor for the Information Management Journal, which is distributed to 11,000 ARMA Interna¬tional subscribers in 37 countries and has served on the editorial boards of two international journals.

Dr. Pemberton’s level of scholarship throughout his career has been impressive. He has published 80 articles, proceedings papers, and books and 65 reviews of books, videos, and websites. He has made 100 pre¬sentations, seminars, and panel discussions, chaired a dozen seminars, and spoken internationally. His book, Why Records Management? was pub¬lished in 2004 to successful reviews, and he became the first two-time winner of ARMA’s Britt Literary Award for the best article in Records Management Quarterly.

Innovator’s Award

SIS alumni Susan Earl and Tricia Bengel nominated James Staub for the Innovator’s Award. In their letter, they praise Staub who they say “consistently shows innovation in every project he participates in throughout the state.  From creatively saving money for TLA by creating his own wireless networks in conference centers to bringing levity to the Tenn-Share Learn & Discover Online learning, everyone who works with James can be assured that he will do his work competently and with tremendous humor and fun.

As current president of GODORT, James is working with Tenn-Share to combine the two annual conferences.  By doing so, the goals of the two organizations, government documents and resource sharing will both be spotlighted with a focus on serving our patrons in the best ways with free resources – something all of us need to concentrate on in this time of economic hard times.

James also supports TLA by serving on the TLA Board as the Public Relations Co-Chair, assisting in promoting the TLA Conference.  His consistent leadership in offering training for the TLA Staff Development Workshop this year is another example of his understanding the importance of statewide resources and how important it is for each of us to be leaders in sharing information.

Not only is James well-known statewide, he has led the State Library forward by helping to spearhead a nationwide online chat service for government information questions.  Additionally, James was one of the founding members of http://freegovinfo.info, a blog to ‘to raise public awareness of the importance of government information and create a community with various stakeholders to facilitate an open and critical dialogue.’”

Last year, the SIS Alumni Board saw the need to initiate new awards to recognize dynamic alumni who might not be eligible for the Distinguished Alumni Award. The Board then inaugurated the Innovator’s Award and the Director’s Award, and decided to change the criteria of the distinguished alumni award. The Board has since decided that the Director’s Award would best be folded into the Distinguished Friend award.