Cordell and Liu receive Outstanding Graduate Student Award

Cordell serves as the pre-professional graduate assistant for scholarly communication and publishing and also works as the digital humanities graduate hourly. In these roles, she supports digital publication workflows for the Illinois Open Publishing Network (IOPN), which publishes text and multimedia works on platforms like Pressbooks, Scalar, and Omeka S. Her many responsibilities include conducting technical checks to ensure accessibility and metadata quality for upcoming publications, contributing to marketing and outreach efforts, and co-leading workshops and sessions on a variety of topics including generative AI, text mining, mapping, and digital publishing.

Cordell was nominated by Angela Watters, Mary Ton, Dan Tracy, and Sara Benson. They commended the remarkable leadership and reliability that she has demonstrated in her roles, particularly in making important library resources more accessible to the campus community. They shared, "Cadence's commitment to accessibility has made a dynamic contribution to our unit's services, particularly the library’s Open Access publications. Her input on IOPN workflows, workshops, and guides has anticipated needs for improved inclusivity and helped place our unit at the forefront of the Library's efforts to make web content accessible before the new Title II ADA laws go into effect . . . Cadence has distinguished herself in every aspect of her position, demonstrating professionalism, poise, and polish at every opportunity. These accomplishments are especially impressive given the wide range of technical skills and communication strategies that she has contributed to Scholarly Communication and Publishing."

Liu serves as lead graduate assistant for Funk ACES Library. Her duties include being a first point of contact for reference inquiries, assisting patrons, onboarding and supporting other graduate assistants, and supervising undergraduate student assistants. Liu has also designed and led instruction sessions providing an overview of the Web of Science database as part of the Savvy Researcher series, and contributes to numerous projects and efforts, including collection development, outreach and engagement activities, exhibits, and website maintenance.

Liu was nominated by Mike Dickinson, Sarah Williams, Cindy Nakea, Janis Shearer, and Kelli Trei, who detailed her many outstanding contributions to Funk ACES Library in developing impactful exhibits, improving the accessibility of resources, and teaching popular workshops. They wrote, "Yanling's strong knowledge of physical exhibits and work as Funk's Exhibits Coordinator grew from demonstrating small to large initiatives that included collaborating with a campus RSO, the Entomology Graduate Student Association, and auditing the diversity of five years of Funk Library exhibit content which included 152 books. Yanling co-presented the results of this audit at the United States Agricultural Information Network (USAIN)/ Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries (CBHL) Conference in 2024." They added, "Yanling also initiated and led an effort collaborating with other GAs to review accessibility standards for approximately 75 Funk (ACES) LibGuides. This work helped bring the guides up to date with best practices and create a more cohesive, approachable set of guides for patrons. Yanling presented a poster on her work reviewing LibGuide accessibility at the 2024 Illinois Library Association Conference."