Fall 2026 Awards & Recognitions
The University of Tennessee Libraries celebrates and honors UT Libraries staff and faculty for their many achievements.
Maggie Albro earned the Systematic Review Services Specialization, Level II, from the Medical Library Association.
Maggie Albro, Michelle Brannen, Connie Inman, and Louisa Trott have hand-made items on display in an exhibit titled “Fashioning Ourselves: The Power of Clothing and Adornment” at UT’s McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture.
Jen Bartlett was elected to a two-year term on the Oral History Association’s Committee on Committees.
Michelle Brannen is co-chairing an effort by the Association of Creative Technologies in Academic Libraries (ACTAL) to establish a new peer-reviewed journal.
Niki Cobb earned the Systematic Review Services Specialization, Level I, from the Medical Library Association.
Molly Cross was named to the 2026-2027 cohort of Faculty Fellows with the Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
“Jargon Blaster,” an interactive, gamified tutorial designed by Elijah Dies to help learners understand library and academic jargon, was selected as a Featured Online Learning Object by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).
Melanie Dixson was appointed to a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Health Sciences Library Association.
Elyssa Gould and Samantha Ward were selected to participate in the University of Tennessee System’s 2027 Leadership Institute.
Meredith Hale began a two-year term on the Core Committee Recognizing Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction (a program of the American Library Association), which each year selects a list of notable titles published during the preceding calendar year.
Nathalie Hristov was appointed chair of the International Association of Music Libraries' Project Group on AI-Enhanced Tools, Ethics, and Oversight in Music Libraries.
Thura Mack was honored as a 2026–2027 Professor of Excellence by the UT Office of the Provost.
Anchalee (Joy) Panigabutra-Roberts was declared a “Champion of Discovery” by the UT Knoxville Faculty Senate’s Rocky Top Originals awards.
Christine Reynolds of the Libraries’ department of Acquisitions and Continuing Resources this year completed her sixtieth year with the UT Libraries.
Allison Sharp was elected Member-at-Large of the Tennessee Library Association's Academic Libraries Roundtable.
Publications & Presentations
Jen Bartlett was co-presenter of "Historical Research Encounter: Students, Faculty, City Government on Housing Segregation” at the Engagement Scholarship Consortium International Conference.
Michelle Brannen presented “It’s All About Flow: Why Do We Keep Rearranging the Makerspace?” to the Association of Creative Technologies in Academic Libraries (ACTAL) Virtual Conference.
Kat Brooks, Luke McDonald, and Elyssa Gould presented “The Life of a Turnaway: Following a Resource from Denial to Use” at the 2026 Electronic Resources and Libraries Conference.
Olivia Chin, Mikayla Wood, Sidney Gavel, Alexander Harriman, and Luke McDonald, “Can ChatGPT Accurately Evaluate the Quality of Open Access Library and Information Science Journals?,” Practical Academic Librarianship, Vol. 16, No. 2 (2026).
Olivia Chin and Luke McDonald, “Make It Make Cents,” Journal of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education, Vol. 4, No. 2 (2026) (Proceedings of the All Things Open Conference).
Jeanine Fletcher et al., “Investigating the Influence of Animal-Assisted Services and Service Dogs on Moral Injury in Military Veterans: A Scoping Review,” Human-Animal Interactions Vol. 14, No. 1 (2026).
Elyssa Gould et al., virtual presentation to the CHORUS Forum: Accessibility — How is it going?
Meredith Hale coauthored a poster presentation, “Weaving in Resilience: Determining Capacity and Resisting Pressures in Digital Humanities,” at the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) Conference.
Nathalie Hristov presented “From Fragmentation to Collaboration: A Data-Driven Approach to Music E-Resource Purchasing Agreements and Licensing in Tennessee” at the 2026 International Association of Music Libraries Congress in Thessaloniki, Greece. For the congress, Hristov also organized and moderated a panel on Perspectives Across Music Library Workflows Using AI.
Luke McDonald and Elyssa Gould, “Determining the True Cost of E-resources: A Case Study,” Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, Vol. 38, No. 4 (2026).
Jennifer Mezick, Elyssa Gould, and Amber Roundtree, “The State of Communication in Academic Libraries: An Exploratory Study,” Technical Services Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 3 (2026).
Calantha Tillotson, “Your Voice Matters: Building Belonging through Collaborative Discussion Based Programming,” presented at the Tennessee Library Association Annual Conference, April 2026.
Calantha Tillotson and C. Urquita Cortez, “The Art of Saying No: Establishing and Maintaining Healthy Workplace Culture,” presented at the Tennessee Library Association Annual Conference, April 2026.
Calantha Tillotson and C. Urquita Cortez, “The art of saying no: How to [gracefully] establish and maintain faculty relationships,” in A. Dye-Reeves & E. Watson (Eds.), How to Work with Academic Faculty: Partnerships, Collaborations, and Services (ACRL Publications, 2026).
Erin Elizabeth Whitaker and Grace Therrell presented “The Life Raft: Analog Information Literacy in the AI Ocean” at the 2026 LOEX Conference.
Jeanine Williamson, “Think Like an LLM: Testing Three AI Citation Verification Prompts,” Library Hi Tech News (2026).
Jeanine Williamson and Steven Milewski, “AI-Inferred Personality Profiles of Occupations: Implications for Career Counselling and AI Literacy,” Canadian Journal of Career Development, Vol 25, No. 2 (2026).