The iSchool Alumni Association (ISAA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its annual awards.
Carole Palmer
Distinguished Alumnus Award: Recognizing an alumnus who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of library and information science
For 30 years, Professor Emeritus Carole Palmer (PhD '96) has been a leading LIS educator and researcher, especially known for her work in data curation, digital research collections, and scientific and scholarly information. Currently she is a professor and associate dean for research at the Information School at the University of Washington.
After receiving her bachelor's degree from Southern Illinois University (SIU), she worked as a librarian at the Women's Center at Vanderbilt University while earning her MLS. She worked at libraries at SIU and Northern Illinois University before coming to the iSchool, where, after earning her PhD, she went on to teach for 18 years. During her tenure at the iSchool, she was the founding director of the Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship, and in 2013 she received the Thomson Reuters Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award from the Association for Information Science & Technology.
Her research is aimed at advancing data services, especially for interdisciplinary inquiry. As an educator, she has been a leader and role model in professional workforce development in data curation—several of her doctoral advisees have themselves pursued careers as LIS educators.
She has received numerous grants for her research, most recently for the Data Services for Indigenous Scholarship and Sovereignty project, which supports responsible stewardship of Indigenous research data in libraries and other data repositories.
Allen Renear
Distinguished Service Award: Recognizing an individual who has served the ISAA or the iSchool in an exceptional way
Allen Renear, longtime iSchool professor and former dean, has been a member of the iSchool faculty for 25 years, joining as a faculty member in 2001 and currently serving as special advisor for strategic initiatives.
In 2008 he became the iSchool's first associate dean for research, then served as dean from 2012 to 2019: a period of rapid growth and transformation for the iSchool. Under Renear's leadership, the iSchool initiated new degrees, changed its name to reflect the full scope of its curriculum and research activities, developed a new robust financial foundation, reorganized its administration, made critical hires in strategic areas, and articulated an important vision of the role of the information sciences at the university and beyond.
Following four years of service at the campus level from 2019 to 2023 as special advisor for strategic initiatives in the Office of the Provost, he returned to the iSchool as a full-time professor. His research focuses on the development of formal ontologies for scientific and cultural objects and the application of those ontologies in information system design, scientific publishing, and data curation in the sciences and humanities.
William (Billy) Tringali
Leadership Award: Honoring an alumnus who has graduated in the past 10 years and has shown leadership in the field of information science
A leader in the promotion of scholarly studies of anime and manga, Billy Tringali (MSLIS '19) has also been a strong advocate for open access to ensure that published research is accessible. While he was an iSchool student, he founded the open access Journal of Anime and Manga Studies, which explores anime as an art form and examines the deeper meanings, understandings, and/or cultural significance of anime, manga, cosplay, and their fandoms. He still serves as editor in chief of the journal, which to date has received more than 285,000 downloads.
Tringali is also coordinator of JAMS@AX Symposium, an academic conference that takes place inside of Anime Expo. Tringali's research ranges across popular culture, focusing mainly on anime and manga studies, vampires, cosplay, and fan studies. He has been a keynote or featured speaker at industry conventions, expos, and academic conferences, including New York Comic Con and Anime Expo. For this work, Library Journal named Tringali to its list of Movers and Shakers in 2025. He serves as the subject librarian for undergraduate health services, kinesiology, science, and tourism management at Indiana University Indianapolis.