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<\/p>\nSIS welcomed two visiting scholars this fall, Professor Tao Yang (left) and Associate Professor Wei Wei Zhang (right). Visiting scholars pursue their research while here, and also observe SIS faculty and students during their stays. It is an opportunity for them to learn about educational practices and enjoy United States college traditions.<\/p>\n
Yang is a professor and director of the planning and research department at South China Normal College in Guangzhou, China. He and SIS Associate Professor Awa Zhu were in a master\u2019s program together in China, and she is his sponsor for his year-long visit here. The two once co-authored a paper together about some of the differences between Chinese and American students.<\/p>\n
Yang is studying library science, and his research specifically looks at user behavior in libraries.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI want to cooperate with the [SIS] professors, do qualitative research, and deepen my research in the library user study,\u201d he said. \u201cMy main focus is academic libraries, but I also want to learn something about the public libraries. The public libraries in our country, especially in Guangzhou, are developing very fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the first time he\u2019s ever been to the United States, and he\u2019s spent some time exploring parts of Knoxville during his stay, and he hopes to take a trip to the Smoky Mountains soon. He and Zhang both attended the College of Communication & Information\u2019s 50thGala event recently, which made an impact on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gala was very good, there were so many alumni. The most important thing I saw is that the college is very good to students. They place the students first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Zhang is an associate professor at Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, and is visiting through this December. Her sponsor is SIS Professor Peiling Wang, whose work Zhang found while doing searches for scholars with similar research interests as her own.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had common interests, so I contacted her. We both research information studies and information behavior, online academic resources, and how to evaluate those academic information resources,\u201d Zhang said.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s also sat in on several of the SIS faculty members\u2019 classes, and said she definitely sees how the classes and students are different in the United States than in China. Yang and Zhang also had the opportunity to present their work to SIS faculty<\/p>\n
\u201cI really like to share my academic research and teaching experience with peers internationally. Also, I like to introduce my university to the faculty here and welcome them to visit China and our university,\u201d Zhang said. \u201cWe talked after the presentation about the research I conducted and I really had a good time here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zhang has made the most out of her first visit to the United States, and took several weeks to travel the entire East Coast, from Niagara Falls, New York, to Key West, Florida, with her family. She said it was a very busy and exciting trip.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just the visiting scholars who benefit from these host arrangements \u2013 it is also an advantage to SIS faculty, who get an opportunity to work with others from outside of the school and the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very excited about the opportunity to host Professor Yang and Associate Professor Zhang.\u00a0They both bring with them years of experience teaching and doing research in the information sciences. We look forward to learning from them, and also sharing some of our own local traditions,\u201d said SIS Director Diane Kelly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SIS welcomed two visiting scholars this fall, Professor Tao Yang (left) and Associate Professor Wei Wei Zhang (right). Visiting scholars pursue their research while here, and also observe SIS faculty and students during their stays. It is an opportunity for them to learn about educational practices and enjoy United States college traditions. Yang is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements","category-featured-story"],"yoast_head":"\n