After she graduates next month, master's student Jenny Bruxvoort will move to Oregon to work as a research and instruction librarian at George Fox University. The job will combine her interest in academic libraries and her desire to support students.

Four Illinois professors are creating the Innovation Illinois Community Laboratory + Interactive Exhibit with $150,000 in funding from the University of Illinois System, as part of an investment in the arts and humanities. This project will involve a yearlong course that welcomes undergraduate students from all disciplines, who will spend the year imagining, researching, and prototyping social innovation projects that will become part of a traveling exhibit.

On Saturday, April 27, local digital literacy professionals and smart city/big data practitioners will share the mic for a Day of Discovery. Organizers include the local broadband group UC2B and Associate Professor Kate Williams, aided by US Ignite. The event is free and open to all.

Day of Discovery kicks off with a presentation from Seattle, Washington, with Seattle's Digital Equity Manager David Keyes explaining their decades-long municipal campaign for a "technology healthy city." Then panels composed of digital literacy program leaders and local professionals involved in smart city work will discuss their current efforts and future directions.

Assistant Professor Elizabeth Hoiem has been named the 2019 recipient of the Judith Plotz Emerging Scholar Award, which is given annually by the Children's Literature Association (ChLA). The award recognizes an outstanding article of literary criticism by an early career scholar on the topic of children's literature within a given year.

Master's student Sharon Han has been selected as the winner of the 2019 Student Writing Award sponsored by Ex Libris Group and the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) for her paper titled "Weathering the Twitter Storm: Early Uses of Social Media as a Disaster Response Tool for Public Libraries During Hurricane Sandy."

Doctoral candidate E.E. Lawrence will present at the 2019 Popular Culture Association National Conference, which will be held April 17-20 in Washington, D.C. Lawrence will give the talk, "Should the Public Library Promote Popular Fiction?," during the Libraries, Archives & Museum area's "Collections" session.

PhD student Jamillah R. Gabriel has received support from the University of Illinois and Drexel University to attend summer programs in the areas of critical theory and data science.

Associate Professor Maria Bonn will present her research at a preconference workshop during the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) biennial conference, which will be held April 10-13 in Cleveland, Ohio. With its theme of "Recasting the Narrative," ACRL 2019 will focus on what it means to be an academic library professional in the twenty-first century.

Our School is grateful for talented and dedicated staff, who contribute greatly to our teaching and research excellence. This "Get to Know" series highlights our staff, sharing their friendly faces and stories of professional success. In this story, we are featuring Office Manager Dianne Tellschow.di 

Yoo-Seong Song, faculty member and librarian at the University Library, now has a joint appointment with the iSchool. As a result, he will increase the number of courses he teaches for the School and participate more broadly in advising students who focus on information consulting and related areas.