School of Information Sciences

SLA honors alum with Engineering Librarian of the Year award

James Blank (MS '97) is the recipient the of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Engineering Librarian of the Year Award. The Engineering Librarian of the Year, sponsored by IHS, highlights the accomplishments and contributions of SLA Engineering Division members to the engineering librarian profession.

Blank is a technical knowledge specialist in the engineering library at Caterpillar Inc. Since joining Caterpillar in 2000, his responsibilities have included many library functions, such as cataloging, acquisitions, collection development, and website administration. He currently has responsibility for performing in-depth research, administering access to industry standards, and serving as a knowledge management steward, among other duties.

IHS will present Blank with the award and a $1500 check during the Engineering Division Luncheon & Business Meeting, held Monday July 16, 2012 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

SLA was founded in 1909 and is an international association of nearly 9,000 information professionals working in corporate, academic, government or non-profit organizations and institutions.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

iSchool researchers to present their work at ESC 2026

iSchool researchers will present their work this week at the Engagement Scholarship Consortium's 2026 annual conference in Knoxville, Tennessee. The theme of this year's conference is "Changing Lives and Improving Society: Data-Driven Engagement and Innovation." ESC's goal is to work collaboratively to build strong university-community partnerships anchored in the rigor of scholarship and designed to help build community capacity.

Jiaqi Ma receives AICE grant

Assistant Professor Jiaqi Ma has received a grant from the Amazon-Illinois Center on AI for Interactive Conversational Experiences. AICE is a collaboration between Amazon and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to develop intelligent conversational systems that demonstrate contextual understanding and emotional intelligence, allow for personalization, and can interpret non-verbal communication while being ethical and fair.

Jiaqi Ma 2026

School of Information Sciences

501 E. Daniel St.

MC-493

Champaign, IL

61820-6211

Voice: (217) 333-3280

Email: ischool@illinois.edu

Back to top