Sharon Irish, project coordinator for the iSchool's Center for Digital Inclusion (CDI), has received a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts for her upcoming book highlighting artist Stephen Willats. According to Irish, Willats' ideas about the need for repeated contact with each other to discover different perspectives are fundamental to education and information sharing.

Assistant Director of Information Services and Archives Alisun DeKock (MS '07) is the "solo librarian and lone arranger" for Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. She enjoys the variety of her work as a librarian and archivist as well as being around some "seriously fascinating" creatures.

Assistant Professor Rachel M. Magee has been awarded a three-year Early Career Development grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS grant RE-07-18-0054-18), under the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, which supports "developing a diverse workforce of librarians to better meet the changing learning and information needs of the American public by enhancing the training and professional development of librarians, developing faculty and library leaders, and recruiting and educating the next generation of librarians."

The iSchool is hosting a special three-day gathering, INDABA: Conquering Racism, from April 27-29. All are invited, and remote participants can join online. The event will be recorded.

iSchool faculty and alumni played an active role in the Playful by Design Spring Symposium, which took place April 5-7 on the Urbana campus. The symposium, organized by the Playful by Design Research Cluster, included presentations and panel discussions as well as a new exhibit at the Spurlock Museum, movie screening, keynote address, and games and gaming make-a-thon. The event was sponsored by the iSchool, Illinois Informatics Institute, Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning, Spurlock Museum, CU Community FabLab, and Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities.

Assistant Professor Jana Diesner is the program co-chair of the 3rd International Workshop on Social Sensing (SocialSens 2018). The workshop will be held on April 17 in Orlando, in conjunction with the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things Design and Implementation (IoTDI 2018).

A group of cross-disciplinary experts gathered in Chicago on April 5 and 6 for a national forum on text data mining research. The forum, Data Mining Research Using In-copyright and Limited-access Text Datasets, was coordinated by iSchool faculty and staff and funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (grant LG-73-17-0070-17). 

Assistant Professor and MS/LIS Program Director Nicole A. Cooke will be the keynote speaker at the inaugural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Research Panel and Luncheon at the University of South Carolina. The event, which is hosted by the University's College of Information and Communications, will be held on April 13.

Librarian and writer Katie Dunneback (MS '03) became a fan of romance novels at the age of twelve, after reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. She started her first novel in college, at the advice of her anthropology professor, and after graduation became involved in Romance Writers of America (RWA). Dunneback recently received a 2018 RWA Service Award in recognition of her volunteer service to the association. "Being in RWA and a part of the romance community at large has helped shaped the adult I am today," she said.

A new website celebrating the accomplishments that women have made during the University of Illinois' 150-year history includes three women with iSchool connections: Katharine Lucinda Sharp, Linda C. Smith (MS '72), and  Lian Ruan (MS '90, PhD '11).