New appointment for Smith

Linda C. Smith
Linda C. Smith, Professor Emerita, Interim Executive Associate Dean

Professor Emerita Linda C. Smith has returned to the iSchool on a part-time basis as interim executive associate dean for faculty affairs. In this role, she will provide leadership for iSchool faculty affairs and administrative oversight for the work of the School's associate deans.

Smith retired as professor and executive associate dean in 2019. During her 42-year career at the iSchool, she taught courses concerning information organization and access, reference and information services, and information sources and services in the sciences; advised many doctoral students; and served for 20 years as associate dean for academic programs including Leep online.

"I am grateful for the opportunity to return to the iSchool in this new role with a focus on support for faculty development during a period of rapid growth and change under the leadership of Dean Santos," Smith said.

Smith is the recipient of numerous honors, including ALISE awards for her teaching, service, and contributions to LIS education; the Award of Merit and Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award from ASIS&T; the Beta Phi Mu Award for distinguished service; selection as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and recognition as an Illinois Library Luminary. She is a prolific writer who has authored books, journal articles, chapters, reports, and conference papers. Routinely named to the University's List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent, she was selected as a University Distinguished Teacher-Scholar in 1999.

Smith received her MS/LIS from Illinois, MS in information and computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology, and PhD in information transfer from Syracuse University.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Seo receives grant for accessibility module

Assistant Professor JooYoung Seo has received a $5,000 grant from the nonprofit organization Teach Access to develop and implement a new accessibility module. Seo was one of 19 recipients nationwide who were awarded a faculty grant to infuse accessibility into curricula by creating "modules, presentations, exercises, or curriculum enhancements centered around the fundamental concepts and skills of accessible design and development." 

JooYoung Seo

Bickers joins administrative team

Hope Bickers joined the iSchool on May 22 as an office manager. In her new role, she will provide administrative support for the associate dean for academic affairs and program directors.

Hope Bickers_Headshot

Digital age creates challenges for public libraries in providing patron privacy

Library professionals have long held sacred the right of patrons to privacy while using library facilities, and the privilege is explicitly addressed in the American Library Association's Bill of Rights. The advent of the digital age, however, has complicated libraries' efforts to secure and protect privacy, Associate Professor Masooda Bashir has learned.

Masooda Bashir

Schneider named ACM Senior Member

Associate Professor Jodi Schneider has been named a Senior Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the world's largest educational and scientific computing society. Senior Member status is bestowed on ACM members with at least ten years of professional experience and five years of professional membership who have demonstrated performance through technical leadership and technical or professional contributions. Schneider is one of 35 new Senior Members this quarter.

Jodi Schneider

New computational tools to protect Homeland Security data

Associate Professor Jingrui He is developing computational tools to protect against leaks and/or unauthorized use of sensitive data held and distributed among Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies and other parties. Her project, "Privacy-Preserving Analytics for Non-IID Data," has been awarded a three-year, $651,927 grant from the DHS Center for Accelerating Operational Efficiency (CAOE).

Jingrui He