School of Information Sciences

GSLIS instructor honored with Nancy B. Olson Award

Robert L. Bothmann, an adjunct instructor at GSLIS, has been awarded the 2012 Nancy B. Olson Award. The annual award, sponsored by the Online Audiovisual Catalogers (OLAC) network, recognizes a librarian who has made significant contributions to the advancement and understanding of audiovisual cataloging and electronic resources. Bothmann was recognized for his multiple leadership roles in OLAC and other national organizations, for educating colleagues and teaching future generations of librarians cataloging rules, as well his intellectual contributions to the field.

Bothmann teaches Cataloging and Classification I and II via LEEP for GSLIS. He is also an adjunct instructor at the School of Information Studies (SOIS) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In addition to teaching, Bothmann works as the metadata and emerging technologies librarian at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

He is the coauthor of Cataloging of Audiovisual Materials and Other Special Materials (5th ed.) and other various publications. He received his MLIS from SOIS, and also has a Master of Science in Cross-disciplinary Studies: Geography & English Technical Communication from Minnesota State University, Mankato. 

The annual award is named after Nancy B. Olson, the founder and first chair of OLAC, and an acknowledged expert of non-book cataloging. To learn more about this award, and see a list of past recipients visit their website.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Cao and Liu receive Best Paper Award for FreeOrbit4D

PhD student Wei Cao and Assistant Professor Yaoyao Liu received a Best Paper Award at the 4th Workshop on Generative Models for Computer Vision, which was held during the 2026 IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR). 

Library Trends issue explores compelling tensions in library and information science

The iSchool at Illinois is pleased to announce the publication of Library Trends 74 (4) "Compelling Tensions in Library and Information Science." Guest editor Katherine M. Wisser frames current tensions in the LIS field through Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," which posits that paradigm shifts are driven by periods of revolution, rather than incremental, progressive change.  

Two toned blue cover of Library Trends 74 (4). The background has soft-focus clusters connected by white lines

Wang group receives ICWSM Best Dataset Paper Award

A paper from Professor Dong Wang's Social Sensing & Intelligence Lab received the Best Dataset Paper Award at the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM) held in May 2026 in Los Angeles, California. According to Wang, the paper was accepted in the first review round, which had an acceptance rate of 4.7 percent (14 of 298 submissions). 

Adler and Wang to present at RESPECT 2026

Associate Professor Rachel Adler and Informatics PhD student Olive Wang will present their work at the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education Conference on Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT), which will be held in Chicago this week.

2025 Downs Intellectual Freedom Award given to Nicole A. Cooke

Nicole A. Cooke has been named the 2025 recipient of the Downs Intellectual Freedom Award for her advocacy, groundbreaking research, and dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion within the field of library and information science. Cooke is the Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and professor in the College of Information and Communications at the University of South Carolina.

Nicole Cooke

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