Cora Thomassen, former faculty member, passes away

Cora Thomassen

Cora Thomassen passed away on December 23, 2021.

Thomassen earned her MS/LIS degree from the University of Illinois in 1955. She became the librarian at South Haven, Michigan, public schools, and then librarian to an extension of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. In 1961, she accepted an assistant professor of library science position at the U of I, becoming a tenured associate professor in 1969. During the summer of 1964, she also taught at the University of Hawaii. In 1965-66, she was granted a leave from the U of I to teach at the University of Iowa, helping implement their graduate library science program. Her list of visiting lectureships and authored publications is extensive. Professional and community committee memberships and involvements kept her extremely busy and challenged.

Throughout her professional career, her fields of interest included library materials and services for children and young adults and audio-visual services for libraries. Thomassen took early retirement from the U of I in 1983 to become the director of the City Public Library in her hometown of Pella, Iowa. She stayed in touch with many former instructor associates and students after her retirement. Following her stint with the city library, she operated an antique shop called Aunt Cora's Attic. As time passed, health issues began to affect her mobility. Yet, she remained very active, alert to all current events, and host to many guests and family members at her home in Pella.

Per her wishes, there will only be a private immediate family graveside memorial service at a later date. Condolences and any remembrances that you may wish to share can be emailed to her niece at cindy.sidewalk@gmail.com.
 

Tags:
Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Knox appointed interim dean

Professor Emily Knox has been appointed to serve as interim dean of the School of Information Sciences, pending approval by the Board of Trustees. Until officially approved, her title will be interim dean designate. The appointment will begin April 1, 2025.

Emily Knox

iSchool instructors ranked as excellent

Fifty-six iSchool instructors were named in the University's List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for Fall 2024 and Winter 2024-2025. The rankings are released every semester, and results are based on the ratings from the Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) questionnaire forms maintained by Measurement and Evaluation in the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. 

iSchool Building

Ocepek and Sanfilippo co-edit book on misinformation

Assistant Professor Melissa Ocepek and Assistant Professor Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo have co-edited a new book, Governing Misinformation in Everyday Knowledge Commons, which was recently published by Cambridge University Press. An open access edition of the book is available, thanks to support from the Governing Knowledge Commons Research Coordination Network (NSF 2017495). The new book explores the socio-technical realities of misinformation in a variety of online and offline everyday environments. 

Governing Misinformation in Everyday Knowledge Commons book

Faculty receive support for AI-related projects from new pilot program

Associate Professor Yun Huang, Assistant Professor Jiaqi Ma, and Assistant Professor Haohan Wang have received computing resources from the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR), a two-year pilot program led by the National Science Foundation in partnership with other federal agencies and nongovernmental partners. The goal of the pilot is to support AI-related research with particular emphasis on societal challenges. Last month, awardees presented their research at the NAIRR Pilot Annual Meeting.

iSchool participation in iConference 2025

The following iSchool faculty and students will participate in iConference 2025, which will be held virtually from March 11-14 and physically from March 18-22 in Bloomington, Indiana. The theme of this year's conference is "Living in an AI-gorithmic world."