Amanda McGrory is surprisingly calm when she talks about juggling her master’s degree classes, work at the iSchool's Help Desk, and race trainings with the University’s wheelchair track team. On top of these activities—which make up her normal routine—McGrory is preparing to travel to Rio de Janeiro to compete in the 2016 Paralympic Games.

Associate Professor Bonnie Mak has been appointed to the Advisory Committee of the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH), which promotes interdisciplinary study in the humanities, arts, and social sciences. Her two-year term began on August 15.

Assistant Professor Emily Knox has been invited to participate in a Nation of Makers meeting at the White House on August 24 as a representative of Makerspace Urbana. The meeting brings together individuals who run, support, and/or are involved with makerspaces around the country.

Makerspaces offer community members the space, tools, and technology to turn their ideas into reality.

Associate Professor Victoria Stodden has been invited to serve on the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Coordinating Committee. The twenty-member committee, representing a diverse group of stakeholders across disciplines, encourages adoption and implementation of TOP Guidelines through education, communication, and outreach.

Geoffrey C. Bowker will deliver the second lecture in the Design Dialogues Speakers Series on Tuesday, September 20, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), 1205 W. Clark Street, Urbana. 

Martin Wolske, senior research scientist and lecturer, takes a critical look at digital literacy for the twenty-first century in his paper, "A Radical Reconsideration of Digital Literacy." The article was published in the Summer 2016 issue of Information for Social Change.

The iSchool is pleased to announce that Ted Underwood has joined the faculty, effective August 16. Professor Underwood also holds a joint appointment with the Department of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

For master’s student Catherine Mardula, librarianship is the family business. She’s following in the footsteps of her mother, an iSchool alumna, as well as her aunt and grandmother, all of whom are librarians. Catherine is pursuing special collections librarianship and—thanks to her Alternative Spring Break experience at the University of St. Andrews—cataloging.

Two iSchool master's students undertook placements at Oxford University this summer and presented their work at a seminar earlier this month. The placements were part of the Oxford-Illinois Digital Library Placement Program, an ongoing collaboration between Illinois and Oxford. Catherine Blauvelt (MS '16) and Alex Kinnaman spent six weeks at the Oxford e-Research Centre and Bodleian Libraries, respectively.

Tina Hubert (MS '88), director of the Six Mile Regional Library District located in Granite City, Illinois, is the 2016 recipient of the Illinois Library Association Librarian of the Year Award. The award recognizes a librarian's distinguished service and leadership in Illinois libraries. The award is sponsored by Sikich.