The National Science Foundation has awarded $6 million to US Ignite—an independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to spur development of advanced Internet applications that enable transformative public benefit—for a project to develop “living lab” communities across the country. Participating cities will serve as testing grounds for smart gigabit applications. Announcement of the grant…

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has awarded $398,844 to the University of Illinois Library and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science through its Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. Harriett Green (MS '09), English and digital humanities librarian at the University Library, is the principal investigator (PI) on the project, “Digging Deeper, Reaching Further:…

Fourteen GSLIS instructors were named to the University’s List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for Spring 2015.

The GSLIS faculty have selected three scholars to be appointed research fellows from August 2015 to August 2017. GSLIS research fellows are chosen because their work is relevant to the interests of GSLIS faculty and students. Each will give at least one lecture during their appointment. Nominated by Associate Professor Emerita Christine Jenkins and Associate Professor Carol Tilley is Denise…

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has awarded GSLIS a $248,205 National Leadership Grant for the project, “App Authors: Closing the App Gap II.” Principal investigator Deborah Stevenson, assistant professor and director of the Center for Children’s Books, and co-PI Kate McDowell, associate professor and assistant dean for student affairs, began work on the IMLS-funded planning phase of…

Research Associate Professor Jon Gant will lead a series of webinars this fall designed for local government officials across the state of Illinois. Webinars will focus on e-government topics, such as best practices (September 17), technology planning (October 15), and using data and analytics (November 19). 

Doctoral student Andrea K. Thomer and recent graduate Nic Weber (PhD '15) are the winners of the 2015 Best Paper Award given by the Association for Information Science and Technology’s (ASIS&T) Special Interest Group for Scientific and Technical Information (SIG-STI). Thomer and Weber presented their paper, "The Phylogeny of a Dataset," at the 77th ASIS&T Annual Meeting, held October…

Assistant Professor Emily Knox is the 2015 recipient of the Illinois Library Association (ILA) Intellectual Freedom Award.The award, presented by the ILA Intellectual Freedom Committee, recognizes an individual or group for outstanding contributions in defending intellectual freedom or the advancement of these principles.

Alea Perez is passionate about reading and librarianship, especially when it comes to teen services. On top of completing her master's studies this August, she manages her own YA lit website and recently started a new job as the head of youth services at the Westmont (IL) Public Library. Why did you decide to pursue an LIS degree? As a child, I was constantly surrounded by books thanks to…

Research Associate Professor David Dubin and doctoral candidate Cheryl A. Thompson will participate in the sixth Research Data Alliance (RDA) Plenary Meeting in Paris, France, on September 23-25. Dubin will cochair a meeting of the Research Data Provenance interest group, and represent that group in a joint meeting with the Metadata, Data in Context, and Metadata Standards Catalog…