Ocepek and Lee receive ASIS&T best poster award

Melissa Ocepek
Melissa Ocepek, Assistant Professor

A poster coauthored by Assistant Professor Melissa Ocepek, PhD student Lo Lee, and Stephann Makri, senior lecturer at City, University of London, has been selected to receive the SIG USE Best Information Behavior Conference Poster Award at the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Annual Meeting, which will be held virtually from October 22-November 1. The award recognizes the best poster within the scope of information behavior, "broadly defined to include how people construct, need, seek, manage, give, and use information in different contexts."

In their poster, "Good, Bad, and Practical: Exploring Human Memory in Everyday Information Behavior," the researchers investigate how memory affects everyday information behavior. For their study, they interviewed and observed arts and crafts hobbyists navigating a creative shopping space designed to spark serendipity. Their findings demonstrate the distinctions between different types of memory and their impacts on everyday information behavior.

"The project came out of a larger project to design studies that explore spaces designed for passive information behaviors, such as browsing and encountering," said Ocepek. "We are interested in creating more empirically supported conceptual understanding of information behaviors that are more difficult to observe because they are passive."

Ocepek's research and teaching interests include everyday information behavior, cultural theory, critical theory, food studies, and research methods. She holds a BA in sociology and political science from Pepperdine University and a PhD in information science from the University of Texas at Austin.

Lee's research interests lie at the intersection of information behavior and creativity. She earned her MS in library and information science from the University of Illinois and BA in foreign languages and literature from National Tsing Hua University.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

iSchool faculty selected as Public Voices Fellows

Associate Professor Maria Bonn, Teaching Assistant Professor Haileleol Tibebu, and Assistant Professor Travis L. Wagner are among the twenty faculty from the University of Illinois System who were selected for the 2025–2026 cohort of the Public Voices Fellowship. The program is part of a national initiative led by The OpEd Project to help experts from underrepresented groups to be positioned as public thought leaders in their fields and contribute to the national dialogue around important issues.

Huang named a 2025–2026 Linowes Fellow

Associate Professor Yun Huang has been named a 2025–2026 Linowes Fellow by the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research at the University of Illinois. She is also the recipient of a 2024–2025 fellowship, which "provides exceptionally promising tenure-stream faculty with opportunities for innovation and discovery using the Cline Center's data holdings and/or analytic tools."

Yun Huang

New book explores video standards in film and archives

A new book co-authored by iSchool Adjunct Lecturer Jimi Jones and Marek Jancovic, assistant professor of media studies at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, examines video file standards and the tensions that have emerged between the film industry and the archiving community that is tasked with preserving cultural cinematic productions. 

Jimi Jones

Chin receives NSF CAREER award

Assistant Professor Jessie Chin has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award to support lifelong learning and foster information literacy. This prestigious award is given in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Chin’s project, “Search as a Mechanism for Learning,” will be supported by a five-year, $629,451 grant from the NSF.

Jessie Chin

What are the effects of trade restrictions on digital technologies?

President Donald Trump has threatened to levy higher tariffs on more than two dozen countries and on various products in the past few months. China in particular has been a target of the administration’s trade wars, aimed at preventing its dominance in areas such as artificial intelligence, although the U.S. government announced recently that it would sell advanced semiconductors used in AI to China. Assistant Professor Meicen Sun spoke with News Bureau arts and humanities editor Jodi Heckel about the effects of trade restrictions.

Meicen Sun