iSchool master's student Mark McCarthy received the 2018 Alexis Wernsing Innovation Award at this spring's Innovation Celebration, hosted by the Champaign County Economic Development Corporation in partnership with the University of Illinois, Parkland College, and community sponsors. The award recognizes “an individual or team from the University of Illinois that has channeled their experience living with a disability into positive change through the creation of new products, environments, or protocols that enhance quality of life.”
Associate Professor Kate McDowell is the 2018 recipient of the Excellence in Online & Distance Teaching Award, given annually by the University of Illinois. The award recognizes faculty members and instructors who have demonstrated sustained excellence and innovation in online and/or distance teaching and contributions to student learning through innovative uses of technology. She will receive the award at the University’s Celebration of Teaching Excellence on April 12.
Doctoral candidate E.E. Lawrence will present their research at the 2018 Popular Culture Association National Conference, which will be held March 28-31 in Indianapolis. Lawrence will give the talk, "Promoting Romance Reading and Improving Taste," during the Libraries, Archives & Museum area's "Embracing Scorned Literature" session.
Assistant Professor Jodi Schneider, CAS student Janina Sarol (MSIM '17), and undergraduate Linxi Liu will discuss their research at the European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR 2018) in Grenoble, France. Sarol will present their paper, "Testing a Citation and Text-Based Framework for Retrieving Publications for Literature Reviews," at the conference’s Bibliometric-enhanced Information Retrieval workshop on March 26.
Scott A. Collard (MS '99), head of specialized research services at New York University, is the recipient of the 2018 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Education and Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS) Distinguished Education and Behavioral Sciences Librarian Award. This award honors a distinguished academic librarian who has made an outstanding contribution as an education and/or behavioral sciences librarian through accomplishments and service to the profession.
Leah Davis, senior research associate with the Center for Digital Inclusion (CDI), will speak at the Information and Communications Technology in Organizations and Society Conference (ICTO2018) on March 23 in Paris. Davis and Alice Robbin (Indiana University) will present their paper, "The Problematic of Governance under Conditions of Catastrophic Disaster: Theoretical Frames for Understanding the Response to the Hurricane Season in the United States, 2005-2017," which has been selected as a finalist for best conference paper.
Three iSchool alumni are included in the Library Journal's 2018 class of Movers & Shakers, an annual list that recognizes fifty professionals who are transforming what it means to be a librarian. Robin Bradford (MS '00), Roberta Koscielski (MS '82), and Chera Kowalski (MS '09) were honored in the "Advocates" category.
The following iSchool faculty, staff, and students will participate in iConference 2018, which will be held March 25-28 in Sheffield, UK. The annual event brings together scholars, researchers, and information professionals to share insights on critical information issues. The theme of this year's conference is "Transforming Digital Worlds."
Adjunct Assistant Professor Debra Mitts-Smith (MS '98, PhD '07), author and expert on children's and young adult literature, will serve as the distinguished speaker for the 2018 Charles W. Mann Jr. Lecture in the Book Arts on March 22 at Pennsylvania State University.
M. Kathleen Kern (MS '99) has been appointed incoming editor of Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ), the journal of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). Kern began as editor-designate in early February and will assume the position of editor on July 1, 2018.
