The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Libraries welcomes two librarians to post-graduate internships this month. Sojourna Cunningham and Ingrid Ruffin will be the UT Libraries’ fifth team of Diversity Librarian Residents, a program initiated in 2002. During a two-year internship, residents have the opportunity to work in several areas of the library and take part in a variety of initiatives and projects.

Sojourna Cunningham has a BA in History and English Literature from the University of Pittsburgh and a Masters in Library Science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. While at UNC, she received the prestigious Carolina Academic Library Associate Award. She has worked in several library settings: academic library, public library, and for-profit technical institute. At UT, she plans to combine her interests in information literacy and emerging technologies to study the benefits of the learning commons.

Ingrid Ruffin has a BA and MA in English, as well as the Master of Library and Information Studies, from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. While in the MLIS program she was an Academic and Cultural Enrichment Scholar. Her prior position at a small liberal arts college allowed her to sample many aspects of librarianship. She has a particular interest in providing library services to underserved groups, especially veterans (a group that commands her personal affection).

The Diversity Librarian Residency program attracts recent library school graduates to a challenging career in academic librarianship. Residents gain rich and varied work experiences at UT, while advancing the Libraries’ and University’s diversity goals.

Both interns bring prior international and intercultural experience to their new positions. As an undergraduate, Cunningham spent a Semester at Sea, doing community service in ten countries across Asia, Africa, and South America. Ruffin served nine years in the United States Air Force.