Think for a moment about a meaningful event or time in your life, one of your strongest memories. Chances are you’re thinking of that memory not as a single instance in a vacuum but in the context of what led to it, the people who might have experienced it with you, or the consequences of the actions that took place. You’re probably thinking of that memory as a sequence with a beginning, middle, and end—as a story. 

Doctoral student Steve Witt (MS '95) is the recipient of the 2016 Donald G. Davis Article Award given by the Library History Round Table of the American Library Association (ALA). The award will be presented on June 26 at the 2016 ALA Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida, at the Library History Round Table Research Forum.

The iSchool at Illinois seeks nominations for the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award. The deadline for nominations is October 1, 2016.

Given annually, the award acknowledges individuals or groups who have furthered the cause of intellectual freedom, particularly as it impacts libraries and information centers and the dissemination of ideas.

Doctoral candidate Noah Lenstra (MS '09, CAS '11) successfully defended his dissertation, "The Community Informatics of an Aging Society: A Comparative Case Study of Public Libraries and Senior Centers,” on June 20.

Martin Wolske, senior research scientist and lecturer, participated in the event, “Digital Skills: A Gateway to Opportunity,” on June 13 at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago. The event was hosted by Chicago Public Library (CPL) and Digital Promise, a nonprofit that works to improve opportunities to learn by encouraging innovation in education. 

Several master’s students from the Applied Business Research course (590ABR) participated in the Innovation Immersion Program (IIP) Global Conference, which was held in May at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in Ulsan, South Korea. These students represented the iSchool’s Business Information Group (BIG), a research group that simulates an information consultancy.

The American Library Association (ALA) will hold its 2016 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Florida, on June 23-28. The theme of the conference is, "Transforming Our Libraries, Ourselves."

In 1996, our School was the first on campus to offer an online program, making our top-ranked master’s degree in library and information science available to students around the world. This groundbreaking program was called the Library Education Experimental Program, or LEEP.

US Ignite announced this week the creation of a national network of Smart Gigabit Communities. Each of the fifteen communities in the network—including Urbana-Champaign—has made a significant commitment toward levering next-generation smart city and internet technologies to keep pace with the world’s rapidly changing technology and economy.

Several students and faculty members will share their research at the 2016 Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL), held on June 19-23 in Newark, New Jersey. The event brings together international scholars focusing on digital libraries and associated technical, practical, organizational, and social issues.