Assistant Professor Elizabeth Massa Hoiem is one of six Illinois faculty members who have been awarded National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships for 2018. It is the third year in the last four that the Urbana campus has garnered more fellowship awards than any other single institution.

Last month, first-year master's student Amanda Weber presented her research at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL). During FIL's International Librarian's Colloquium, she talked about the power of bilingual children's literature and how it plays a role in identity formation and affirmation. Weber had researched and written about the topic for her undergraduate thesis at DePauw University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Spanish. "When picture books are culturally and linguistically appropriate, accurate, and affirming, they represent children's realities and inspire them to discover, create, and celebrate their identities," she said. It was this interest in children's literacy that led her to the iSchool.

Four iSchool alumni have received the Up and Comer Award from ATG Media. Sarah E. Crissinger (MS '15), Hailley Fargo (MS '16), Maoria Kirker (MS '11), and Katrina Spencer (MS '16) are among the twenty individuals who were selected for the award, which is intended for early-career librarians and information professionals.

Enrollment at the iSchool has risen to record levels, due to unprecedented growth in the master's programs. Almost 650 applications were received for the Fall 2017 semester in the master's in library and information science (MS/LIS) and master's in information management (MS/IM) programs. Enrollment in these programs currently accounts for 686 of the School's total student enrollment of 746.

Six iSchool alumni have been selected by the American Library Association (ALA) to participate in its 2018 class of Emerging Leaders. Jessica Colbert (MS '17), Aisha Conner-Gaten (MS '13), Tracy Drake (MS '15), Hailley Fargo (MS '16), Brittany Fiedler (MS '17), and Yan Liu (MS '14) are included in this year's class of fifty individuals from across the country.

Associate Professor Catherine Blake has been named the iSchool's Centennial Scholar for 2017-2018. The award is endowed by alumni and friends of the School and given in recognition of outstanding accomplishments and/or professional promise in information sciences.

Julie Edwards (MS '05) fell in love with Botswana in 2015 when she helped plan a conference there for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Reference and Information Section. As soon as her conference ended, she vowed that one day she would return. She is now back in Botswana as a Fulbright Scholar for the 2017-2018 academic year.

The Kansas City Public Library's defense of the First Amendment has earned it the 2017 Downs Intellectual Freedom Award. 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 was a keynote speaker for the 7th Rizal Library International Conference, which was held from November 16-18 at Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, Philippines. The theme of the conference was "CLICK! Connecting Libraries, Information, and Community Knowledge."

Renee Hill, senior lecturer and director of the school library specialization at the University of Maryland's College of Information Studies (CIS) and a research fellow at the iSchool, has won the 2017 LJ/ALISE Excellence in Teaching Award, sponsored by Rowman & Littlefield.