School of Information Sciences

iSchool students to present research at LITA Forum

Three iSchool students will participate in the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) Forum, which will be held November 17-20 in Fort Worth, Texas. The LITA Forum is the annual conference for professionals in archives, libraries, and other information services.

Nicholas Wolf, master's student and research data management librarian at New York University (NYU), will give a talk with Vicky Steeves, NYU librarian for research data management and reproducibility, titled "Using Openness as Foundation for Research Data Management Services." 

Abstract: This talk will describe the building and scaling up of research data management services at NYU solely using open source tools and data for instruction and best practices recommendations. Through demonstrating the applicability of tools such as OpenRefine, the Open Science Framework, ReproZip, and languages such as Python and R in library instruction, classes for faculty, and online knowledge bases, our aim is to encourage researchers to consider the sustainability and interoperability of their research. Through leading by example, Nick and Vicky have scaled up practices to create a culture of data sharing, reproducibility, and open-source advocacy on campus. 

Master's students Kevin Moore and Shelby Hallman will present their poster, "GRIPTS: Increasing Online Visibility of Departmental Research Productivity," which describes a project with potential benefit to multiple units at the University of Illinois.

About the research: Our library has created Group Information Productivity Tool (GRIPT) pages with the focus of facilitating specialized searches and faculty publication retrieval for the College of Engineering and physical science departments. The GRIPT pages serve as hubs for locating departmental resources, tracking faculty research activity, and following current and ongoing scholarly research within their field. As information literacy tools, GRIPTs pages help the users effectively design search strategies by identifying how and where to retrieve publications related to the departments’ ongoing research. We will discuss the role and impact of GRIPTs pages in the university and our plan to improve functionality.

 

Research Areas:
Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

iSchool researchers to present work at Technocracy Conference

This week, iSchool PhD students and faculty will present their research at the Technocracy Conference. Hosted by the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory at the University of Illinois on March 5–6, the conference will begin with a panel of graduate student papers and continue the following day with invited speakers and a keynote. All events will take place at the Levis Faculty Center on the Urbana campus. 

Wang group to present at WSDM26

Professor and Associate Dean for Research Dong Wang and PhD student Ruohan Zong will present their research at the 19th ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining (WSDM 26), which will be held from February 22–26 in Boise, Idaho. WSDM is a premier international conference in web search, data mining, and AI, known for its highly selective acceptance rates. This year, the acceptance rate for the main track of the conference was only 16 percent. 

Dong Wang

Reynolds prepares for a career in global tech

Growing up on the south side of Chicago, BSIS student Devon Reynolds always saw his future in technology. He discovered the information sciences program during his senior year of high school and was drawn to its balance of challenging coursework. Choosing the iSchool at Illinois felt like a natural next step. 

Devon Reynolds

Spectrum Scholar Spotlight: Mariana Guerrero

Eight iSchool master's students have been named 2025–2026 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association. This "Spectrum Scholar Spotlight" series highlights the School's scholars. MSLIS student Mariana Guerrero earned a bachelor's degree in Spanish language and literature from Rockford University.

Mariana Guerrero

PhD student Fobazi Ettarh passes away

PhD student Fobazi Ettarh passed away on January 28, 2026. Ettarh entered the doctoral program at the University of Illinois in 2022. She held an MLIS from Rutgers University and bachelor's degree in English and sociology from the University of Delaware. Prior to joining the iSchool, Ettarh served as an academic librarian at Temple University Libraries; California State University, Dominguez Hills; and Rutgers University. She was also a school library media specialist at Hawthorne (NJ) Public Schools.

Fobazi Ettarh

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