BIG IDEAS demand reliable information. The University Libraries supports scholarship, research, and learning at UT by acquiring, organizing, preserving, and facilitating access to the world’s knowledge. The wide-ranging expertise of our librarians might surprise you.

This semester we begin a series of profiles of UT Knoxville librarians. Watch for a new profile each week.

As a member of the Libraries’ Learning, Research, and Engagement team, Allison Sharp focuses much of her time on library instruction, programming activities, and services that contribute to student success.

Allison enjoys teaching research skills in the conventional classroom setting, but she is equally enthusiastic about programs, such as DeStress for Success, that chiefly aim to engage students in the college experience. She is motivated by the desire to help students feel comfortable and competent as library users and researchers at the University of Tennessee.

Allison connects well with students from diverse backgrounds. She has developed strong relationships with international programs at the university and has proven herself to be an invaluable instructor and mentor to international students.

As librarian for the Africana Studies Program and the School of Information Sciences, she provides research assistance, instruction, and collection development for those disciplines.

Allison holds a bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and a master’s in library and information science from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. She is pursuing a PhD in communication and information at UT.