Key Issues in STEM Specific Information Education: Lessons Learned at the University of Tennessee, USA

Scientific grand challenges include environmental issues such as sustainable energy and climate change (United States Global Change Research Program, 2009) that affect society in terms of citizen’s health and equitable resource management. Each year, researchers produce immense quantities of data about these issues (Lynch, 2008, 2009) which is difficult for scientists, policy makers and the general public to navigate. Managing science data is a key aspect of helping society address these challenges (Hey et al., 2009) and the library and information science profession and discipline is well-positioned to fill this role. This paper focuses on the three key challenges related to providing science information and science data education programs: (1) striking the appropriate balance between multidisciplinary and subject expertise; (2) providing experiences for students that allow them to begin the “socialization process” of entering the science domains; and (3) promoting diversity of the professionals engaged in the science domains. Traditionally women and minorities are underrepresented in the science professions, and this is also a problem among science information professionals. The paper outlines five education programs at The University of Tennessee (UT) that focus on using the interdisciplinary expertise of information science to provide a foundation for the professional and research skills that are essential to engaging the sciences, particularly the earth systems sciences, in the data-intensive world. The paper then shares how these five programs have addressed the challenges and the lessons learned from these efforts.