The following iSchool faculty, staff, and students will participate in iConference 2023, which will be held virtually from March 13-17 and physically from March 27-29 in Barcelona, Spain.

Adjunct Professor Sidney Berger (MSLIS '87) has authored a new book that will provide readers with a definitive glossary of book-related terminology. In The Dictionary of the Book: A Glossary for Book Collectors, Booksellers, Librarians, and Others (2nd Edition), which was recently published by Rowman & Littlefield, he brings “the vocabulary and theory of bookselling and collecting into the modern commercial and academic world” through the addition of more than 700 new entries. 

Assistant Professor Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo has co-edited a new book, Governing Smart Cities as Knowledge Commons, with Brett M. Frischmann (Villanova University School of Law) and Michael J. Madison (University of Pittsburgh School of Law). The book examines how several cities handle ethical, economic, political, and social issues arising from the cities' technologically advanced statuses.

Teaching Associate Professor Judith Pintar and Teaching Assistant Professor David Hopping have written a new book, Information Science: The Basics, which was recently published by Routledge.

Jingrui He, associate professor and MSIM program director, has been named a Senior Member of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). The Senior Member status is bestowed upon AAAI members who have achieved significant accomplishments within the field of artificial intelligence.

The New Philadelphia National Historic Site in western Illinois, commemorating the first U.S. town to be legally founded by African Americans, is the nation's newest national park. The national park designation in late December is the result of years of work by descendants of New Philadelphia's inhabitants, Pike County residents living near the former village, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign professors and students, and collaborators from across the nation.

A project to examine the circulation of newspaper reports about anti-Black violence in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century U.S. newspapers could provide context to the spread of white supremacist ideologies in social media today. 

With their nearly completed "Whole Tale" project, Bertram Ludäscher, professor and director of the Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship (CIRSS), and his team have created methods and tools for scientists to link executable computer code, data, and other information to online scholarly publications, which helps ensure reproducibility and paves the way for new discoveries.

iSchool researchers presented their work in game studies and design at the Playful by Design Conference, which was held on January 10 in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal. The conference included presentations on topics such as the gaming industry in Portugal and the U.S., games for learning, serious games, and emerging technologies.

The University of Illinois is part of a nine-university consortium led by the University of Buffalo that has been awarded a $20 million grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a national institute that develops artificial intelligence systems that identify and assist young children with speech and/or language processing challenges.