School of Information Sciences

iSchool well represented at ASIS&T 2017

Several iSchool faculty and students will participate in the 2017 Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Annual Meeting, which will be held October 27-November 1 in Washington, D.C. The meeting, now in its 80th year, is the premier international conference dedicated to the study of information, people, and technology in contemporary society. This year's theme is "Diversity of Engagement."

The involvement of iSchool faculty extends beyond participation in the event. Associate Professor Kathryn La Barre and Assistant Professor Emily Knox are members of the ASIS&T Board of Directors, contributing to governance activities. La Barre, chair of the 80th Anniversary advisory group, will be capturing ASIS&T memories in a brief oral history format from participants as part of the anniversary celebrations and working with Toni Carbo (University of Pittsburgh) and iSchool doctoral student Cass Mabbott to assemble an interactive timeline. Knox is one of the organizers for the pre-conference workshop, "The New Information State: How Information Ethics and Policy Affects Everyone."

Papers

"Communities of Practice and Data Expertise in Earth and Environmental Sciences"
Postdoctoral Research Associate Cheryl A. Thompson and Research Affiliate Karen S. Baker
Saturday, October 28, 11:20 a.m.

"Passive Information Behaviors while Grocery Shopping"
Visiting Assistant Professor Melissa Ocepek
Sunday, October 29, 3:00 p.m.

Doctoral Colloquium: "Collective Leadership and Information Behavior: A Case-Based Inquiry into Community Digital Literacy Initiatives"
Doctoral candidate Kirstin Phelps
Tuesday, October 31, 8:30 a.m.

"Toward A Characterization of Digital Humanities Research Collections: A Contrastive Analysis of Technical Designs"
Doctoral candidate Katrina Fenlon
Tuesday, October 31, 3:00 p.m.

"Agreeing to Disagree: Reconciling Conflicting Taxonomic Views Using a Logic-Based Approach"
Doctoral student Jessica (Yi-Yun) Cheng, Professor Bertram Ludäscher, Assistant Professor Jodi Schneider, Nico Franz (Arizona State University), Shizhuo Yu (UC Davis), and Thomas Rodenhausen (University of Arizona)
Wednesday, November 1, 10:30 a.m.

Panels

"Evolving Traditions: From ‘Documentation’ to 'Information Science and Technology'" (80th anniversary invited panel)
Moderated by Associate Professor Kathryn La Barre
Sunday, October 29, 3:00 p.m.

"ASIS&T Leadership Program: Rules that Enhance and Stimulate Creative Leadership"
Facilitated by Associate Professor Kathryn La Barre
Sunday, October 29, 5:00 p.m.

"Teaching Information Science and Technology to the World? Practices, Challenges, and Visions" 
Professor and Dean Allen Renear
Monday, October 30, 10:30 a.m.

"Organizational and Institutional Work in Data Infrastructures" 
"Place-Based Field Site Infrastructuring: Data Work at Launch and Termination"
Research Affiliate Karen S. Baker 
"Same Data, Differing Objectives: What Happened When Research Libraries Took on a Large Scientific Dataset"
Assistant Professor Peter T. Darch; Ashley E. Sands, Christine L. Borgman, Sharon Traweek, and Milena S. Golshan (UCLA)
Monday, October 30, 10:30 a.m.

"Wearable Devices: Information Privacy, Policy, and User Behavior"
Assistant Professor Masooda Bashir
Tuesday, October 31, 8:30 a.m.

Top-Ranked Papers
Moderated by Associate Professor Kathryn La Barre
Tuesday, October 31, 12:30 p.m.

"Addressing Barriers to Engaging with Marginalized Communities: Advancing Research on Information, Communication, and Technologies for Development – ICTD"
Assistant Professor and MS/LIS Program Director Nicole A. Cooke
Wednesday, November 1, 8:30 a.m.

Visual Presentations

Presented during the President’s Reception on Monday, October 30, 6:30 p.m. 

"Exploiting Graph-based Data to Realize New Functionalities for Scholar-built Worksets"
Doctoral student Jacob Jett 

"The Ethics of Contemporary Readers’ Advisory"
Doctoral candidate Emily Lawrence

"Visual Research Methods with Children and Youth: Opportunities & Challenges"
Doctoral student Cass Mabbott

"Designing a Leadership-Based Inquiry into Community Digital Literacy Initiatives"
Doctoral candidate Kirstin Phelps

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

New NSF award supports innovative role-playing game approach to strengthening research security in academia

A new National Science Foundation (NSF) award will support an innovative effort in the School of Information Sciences to strengthen research security by using structured role-playing games (RPG) to model the threats facing academic research environments. The project, titled "REDTEAM: Research Environment Defense Through Expert Attack Modeling," addresses a growing challenge: balancing the open, collaborative nature of academic research with increasing national security risks and sophisticated adversarial threats. 

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

iSchool International: Studying abroad in Japan

BSIS+DS student and undergraduate ambassador Alex Soja discusses his meaningful experience studying abroad in Japan, where he got the opportunity to live independently in Tokyo and gain a more global perspective.

Alex Soja 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