Twelve iSchool master's students were named 2024-2025 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services. This "Spectrum Scholar Spotlight" series highlights the School's scholars. MSLIS student Armaan Singh Kalkat graduated from the University of Florida with a BA in linguistics and BS in psychology (with an emphasis on neuroscience).
Why did you decide to pursue an LIS degree?
In college, I conducted undergraduate research and fell in love with the world of research and scholarship. However, I felt that academic research as a career didn't have as much structure and wasn't as directly focused on providing a social service as I would have liked. I decided to study LIS because it's a career field that allows me to combine my passion for research with the socially critical goal of increasing access to information.
Why did you choose the iSchool at Illinois?
I chose the iSchool at Illinois because I could tell from the course offerings that the program is forward-thinking and aims to encourage innovation in its students. I greatly value the flexibility the program offers in allowing me to combine areas of focus and explore a wide variety of topics. The extra financial aid available to Spectrum Scholars was also a great incentive.
What particular LIS topics interest you the most?
I'm primarily interested in academic librarianship, specifically working with research data and the technology necessary to make it findable and accessible. I'm taking opportunities here at the iSchool to learn more about new metadata standards, linked data, knowledge representation, and open access scholarship.
What do you do outside of class?
Outside of class, I work part time as a pre-professional graduate assistant in the University Library within the Scholarly Communication and Publishing unit. I work with the Illinois Experts research information management portal, which is a public portal of scholarship dedicated to widening the reach of the amazing research activities happening here at the University of Illinois. In my free time, I like to collect vinyl records and cassettes, play badminton, and go to concerts.
What does being a Spectrum Scholar mean to you?
Being a Spectrum Scholar is a real privilege, and I am very grateful for the honor. I am thankful that the ALA recognized my potential for contribution to this field, and I aim to live up to the principles behind the program by being a vocal advocate for diversity and equity in the workplace and beyond. While I am consistently in awe of the passion and dedication to progress in this field, I view equity more as a constant process rather than a definite endpoint. We should always continue to interrogate our preconceptions and view the world from different perspectives, and this open-mindedness is one of the primary defining characteristics of LIS to me. As someone considering a career in academia, a sphere that has a notoriously exclusionary and classist bias, the lessons I learn from Spectrum and the ways I can take inspiration from my peers in this program and past Spectrum Scholars will be invaluable resources for accomplishing my goals.
What career plans or goals do you have?
My career goal as of now is to become an academic librarian and actively contribute to developing new technologies and apply them to the goal of making research more accessible. As an undergraduate researcher, I often sensed a disconnect between academic institutions and the broader communities they exist in and serve. While outreach on the part of individual researchers is wonderful, I also want to work to narrow this gap on a larger scale. I envision myself finding new ways to get research findings and data into the hands of community members who could benefit the most from it, especially those who have historically been excluded. LIS is such a multifaceted field that there are a variety of ways to approach any one problem, and I'm sure that during my time here at Illinois, I will discover even more potential pathways and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration that will alter my trajectory, and that's part of the fun!