Julie Owens joined the iSchool on January 8 as a senior grants and contracts coordinator. In her position, she will perform post-award administrative functions related to sponsored research projects. 

The School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign seeks nominations for the 2023 Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award. The deadline for nominations is March 15, 2024. The award is cosponsored by Sage.

Emily Valentine joined the iSchool on January 6 as an operations associate. In her new role, she will support the activities of business, finance, and human resources.

The School of Information Sciences (iSchool) is pleased to announce the appointment of Melissa A. Wong (MSLIS '94) as editor-in-chief of its quarterly journal Library Trends, effective February 1, 2024. Her experience as a librarian, library director, author, editor, instructor, and instructional designer will advance the breadth of the journal's influence on practice and scholarship in the field of library and information science.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to learn how to recognize online deceptions and prevent the spread of elder fraud. That, in a nutshell, is the idea behind Deepcover, a free new app available for download on Apple's App Store and Google Play that aims to equip older adults with the skills they need to safely navigate the increasingly complex digital world we inhabit.

A new study by PhD student Kyrie Zhixuan Zhou and Assistant Professor Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo has uncovered the existence of gender bias in Large Language Models (LLMs) in the U.S. and China. The researchers examined public discussion about this topic on the social media platforms Twitter (now X) and Weibo, finding reports of gender bias in the LLMs ChatGPT and Ernie, China's ChatGPT-equivalent.

Tara Batte joined the iSchool on December 4 as assistant director of recruitment and admissions. In this position, she will support recruitment and admissions for all degree programs in the School, with an emphasis on graduate programs.

April Carter has joined the iSchool as assistant dean for student affairs. In her new position, she will provide strategic direction and support academic advising, career services, and enrichment of the student experience.

iSchool faculty, staff, and students will participate in the 2023 Charleston Conference, which will be held November 6-10 in Charleston, South Carolina. The conference is an annual gathering that draws librarians, publishers, vendors, and others to discuss issues relating to the acquisition of books and serials. 

Readers looking to boost their classroom or home book collections can select from hundreds of titles at the Center for Children’s Books Fall Book Sale on Saturday, November 4. The sale will primarily feature middle grade and young adult fiction and nonfiction, with paperback books $2 each, hardcover books $5 each, and other items priced as marked.