news & notes: october 2017

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign launched its most ambitious philanthropic campaign ever on Friday, October 13. The launch included a festival on the Main Quad during the day and an evening celebration at the State Farm Center. Ann Campion Riley (MS '77), vice provost for libraries and university librarian at the University of Missouri, spoke at the launch event. As the University celebrates its sesquicentennial, the campaign's mission is to support continued excellence for another 150 years. Read more.

In September, alumna Sarah Lindenbaum (MS '13) attended a Paul McCartney concert in Newark, New Jersey, and was surprised to find herself onstage! In her words, "Who says librarians don't have fun?" Lindenbaum is a visiting assistant professor and outreach librarian at Illinois Wesleyan University.

An interest in global education took Tracy Hubbard (MS '05) to India this summer. Hubbard, a library media specialist at the Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies in Evanston, Skokie (IL) District 65, spent July in India as a fellow with Teachers for a Global Classroom. Read more.

The iSchool is conducting a brief survey intended to identify core skills and knowledge areas for the MS in library and information science program. We are interested in which skills and knowledge areas you perceive to be most needed in the field now, and in the near future. Your responses will help us as we review and continue to revise and improve our curriculum to ensure our graduates are well prepared for the job market. Your responses are important. The survey should take about 5 minutes to complete. Please access the survey and respond by Friday, November 17.

*This survey is being shared broadly by email as well. Please respond only once and indicate that you are responding at the invitation of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Thank you for your participation,
Nicole A. Cooke, MS/LIS Program Director
Linda C. Smith, Executive Associate Dean

The Alpha Chapter of Beta Phi Mu will host its annual initiation ceremony on Saturday, November 4, at 11:00 a.m., which will be followed by a luncheon at noon and a talk by Patricia Hruby Powell (MS '94). Powell, an author, storyteller, and dancer, will share her presentation titled, “A Vision of Hope: How Children’s Diverse Books Could Change the World.” Read more.

The iSchool will participate in the Illinois School Library Media Association Conference on October 19-21 in Springfield, Illinois. Visit us at Booth #39 in the Exhibit Hall! We will also hold a reception on Friday, October 20, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in Room B7 of the Bank of Springfield Center. All current students and iSchool alumni are welcome to attend. Light appetizers will be served and a cash bar will be available. Read more.

Chancellor Jones has introduced Noteworthy, a monthly e-newsletter that shares campus news, successes, stories, and other timely information. Alumni should have received the first issue via their preferred email address. Read more.

Doctoral student Shadi Rezapour received a scholarship to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) in Orlando, Florida, on October 4-6. The GHC Student Scholarship, awarded by AnitaB.org, is very competitive and covers all expenses related to attending the conference. Read more.

The iSchool hosted its third Welcome Weekend on September 22-24. Approximately 80 Leep students participated and enjoyed the opportunity to meet with faculty, staff, alumni, and their fellow students. The weekend also offered workshops to help students become familiar with the many resources available to optimize their studies.

The iSchool received a record number of applications for fall admissions. Almost 650 applications were submitted across the MS/LIS and MS/IM programs. This growth can be attributed to increased recruitment efforts, including new email campaigns. The School is poised to build off this success by expanding in-person and virtual recruitment efforts.

The School was a Gold Sponsor of the 2017 Grace Hopper Celebration in Orlando. The celebration welcomed over 18,000 women in technology for a multiday conference of presentations, poster sessions, and networking. During the conference, 24 prospective students visited our School’s booth, and current students as well as alumni also stopped by and shared their experiences.

The iSchool celebrated Banned Books Week (September 24-30) with students, faculty, and staff posing at a photo booth with their favorite banned books. The American Library Association Student Chapter ran the booth, and The Center for Children’s Books provided the books. Karla Lucht, graduate studies advisor and coordinator of continuing education, poses with a copy of Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi.

Assistant Professor and MS/LIS Program Director Nicole A. Cooke presented her research on October 3 as part of the Digital Dialogues series at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. She discussed examples of segregation in LIS, highlighting The Carnegie Scholars, a group of thirty graduate students who attended the University of Illinois in the early 1970s. Read more.

iSchool faculty and students presented talks and posters at Data Science Day, which was held on October 10 and sponsored by the Illinois Data Science Initiative (iDSI). Sessions focused on the application of data science in research fields such as agriculture, education, finance, health, and the humanities. Speakers included Professor Robert Brunner, co-chair of the iDSI steering committee, and Assistant Professor and PhD Program Director Jana Diesner.

Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe (MS '94), faculty affiliate and editor of Library Trends, and her colleagues from Simmons College have been awarded a National Forum grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Hinchliffe is professor and coordinator for information literacy services at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. Read more.

Senior Lecturer Maria Bonn and colleagues in Kansas and North Carolina have received a grant from IMLS to fund their project exploring the need for and components of an open educational resource (OER) for teaching library students and professionals about scholarly communication. Read more.

iSchool researchers present at DML 2017

Illinois leads $25 million alliance to develop Internet of Battlefield Things

Ludäscher and collaborators present work and tools on data quality, provenance at TDWG

iSchool faculty ranked as excellent for Summer 2017

DLF Forum Fellows include iSchool student, alumni

Visit our newsroom page to see the latest School news.

Visit our class notes page to see more.

iSchool at ISLMA
October 19-21, Springfield, Illinois
Visit us at Booth #39!

iSchool Reception at ISLMA
October 20, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Springfield, Illinois
Room B7 of the Bank of Springfield Center

Faculty Research Lightning Talks
October 24, 12:00-1:00 p.m.
In person and online

iSchool at California Library Association Annual Conference
November 2-4, Riverside, California
Visit us at Booth #612!

iSchool at Southern California Forum for Diversity in Graduate Education
November 4, 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., Camarillo, California

Alpha Chapter of Beta Phi Mu Annual Initiation and Luncheon Meeting
November 4, 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
In person and online

2017 Reseach Showcase
November 8, 12:00-4:30 p.m.

iSchool at Midwest Summit Graduate Conference, Purdue University
November 11, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., West Lafayette, Indiana