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

Seo selected as CAS Beckman Fellow

Assistant Professor JooYoung Seo has been selected as a Center for Advanced Study (CAS) Beckman Fellow for the 2026-2027 academic year. CAS is one of the most prestigious faculty recognition programs at the University of Illinois. Its primary mission is to identify and support the most productive and innovative faculty across all disciplines. CAS Fellows are nominated by their unit heads and selected by the Center's permanent faculty through a competitive review process, with final approval by the Board of Trustees. 

JooYoung Seo

Spectrum Scholar Spotlight: Nathaniel Allen Pila

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 Nathaniel Allen Pila earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Mount Holyoke College.

Nathaniel Allen Pila

iSchool participation in iConference 2026

The following iSchool faculty and students will participate in iConference 2026, which will be held virtually from March 23–26 and physically from March 29–April 2 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The theme of this year's conference is "Information Literacies, Authenticity and Use: The Move Towards a Digitally Enlightened Society."

Wang receives AccessComputing funding for video game project

Informatics PhD student Olive Wang has been awarded a minigrant by AccessComputing, an organization that supports people with disabilities in computing. The $5,000 grant will support Wang's work on the video game Loadouts, which teaches players why accessibility is important. In the game, players learn why video games are inaccessible for players who are low-vision and how accessibility features such as high contrast, auditory cues, and multimodality can be effective.

Olive Wang

Chan’s "Predatory Data" named a 2026 PROSE Award finalist

Professor Anita Say Chan's book Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future (University of California Press, 2025) has been named a finalist in the Computing and Information Sciences Category of the 2026 PROSE Awards. The annual awards bestowed by the Association of American Publishers recognize the very best in professional and scholarly publishing and celebrate works that have made significant advancements in their respective fields of study.

Anita Say Chan

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