As the graduate assistant for the iSchool's Office of Advancement, Joanna Pike has learned technical skills, such as finding her way around the University's complex alumni database, but perhaps more importantly, she has gained a new perspective on the importance of giving.

The Iowa Library Association (ILA) has received the 2018 Downs Intellectual Freedom Award for taking a leadership role in several highly visible challenges to intellectual freedom. The award is given annually by the faculty of the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and cosponsored by Libraries Unlimited.

Professor and Associate Dean for Research J. Stephen Downie will be a keynote speaker for the 20th International Conference on Asia-Pacific Digital Libraries (ICADL2018), which will be held November 19-22 in Hamilton, New Zealand. The theme of this year's conference is "Maturity and Innovation in Digital Libraries."

Bonnie Mak presented the keynote address at "What is a Document? A Symposium on Documentation, Records, and Evidence," which was held November 8-9 at University Technology Sydney (UTS) in Australia. The event was sponsored by the UTS Faculty of Law and is part of a three-year project funded by the Australian Research Council to examine the document from the perspective of laws of evidence. The symposium featured speakers from institutions across Australia in such diverse fields as government and international relations, design, art history, and law.

Associate Professor Emily Knox has been selected to receive a Community Impact Award from the Junior League of Champaign-Urbana for her work with Makerspace Urbana. She will receive the award at the Junior League's Community Impact Gala on November 17.

A degree from the iSchool has become somewhat of a family tradition for the Hahns. Four members of the family are alumni, two are current students at the School, and their family connections to the field run deep. 

Assistant Professor Jodi Schneider will present her research at Crossref LIVE18, which will be held November 13-14 in Toronto, Canada. CrossRef is a cooperative membership organization of over 11,000 scholarly publishers from 118 countries. 

Four iSchool alumni have been selected by the American Library Association (ALA) to participate in its 2019 class of Emerging Leaders.

Regina Carter (MS '14), Suzanne Clerkin (MS '18), Catherine Manci (MS '16), and Theodore Quiballo (MS '17) are included in this year's class of fifty individuals from across the country.

iSchool faculty, staff, and students will participate in the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Annual Meeting, which will be held November 10-14 in Vancouver, Canada. The theme of this year's conference is "Building and Sustaining an Ethical Future with Emerging Technology." The meeting, now in its 81st year, is the premier international conference dedicated to the study of information, people, and technology in contemporary society.

PhD students Michael Gryk and Noah Samuel will present their research at the 14th International Conference on Knowledge Management (ICKM), which will be held November 9-10 in Vancouver, Canada, in conjunction with the ASIS&T Annual Meeting. ICKM brings together academics, researchers, developers, and other information professionals for discussions on the theoretical and practical aspects of information and knowledge management.