James LaRue (MS '81) has been named director of the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom and executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation, effective January 4, 2016. In his application, LaRue noted “My passion for this core principle of librarianship is tightly bound with my own history….For me, librarianship—and life—is predicated on a respect for the…

The Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship (CIRSS) at GSLIS recently welcomed Timothy Cole (MS '89) to the Center staff as coordinator for library applications. In this newly-created role, Cole will coordinate projects focusing on academic library applications of informatics research. Cole’s projects will emphasize metadata schema design and application, linked data-based…

As a GSLIS student, Kirsten Y. Howley focused on government and business information. Now she puts those skills to work daily in a role that facilitates information sharing and more at a large technology company. Where do you work and what is your role? I am a senior business analyst with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a technology integrator in technical,…

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been awarded a new research grant by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to explore the benefits for users of linked open data (LOD) for digitized library special collections. Timothy Cole (MS '89), mathematics librarian in the University Library and coordinator for library applications within the Center for Informatics Research in Science and…

GSLIS alumni JoAnn Jacoby (MS '97) and Leslie Reynolds (MS '95) have been selected to participate in the 2016-2017 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Leadership Fellows Program. Jacoby, associate university librarian for user services and associate dean of libraries at Illinois, and Reynolds, senior associate dean of University Libraries at University of Colorado Boulder, will join twenty…

Lisa Abbott fields a range of research questions and information challenges at the Kellogg Company, but no matter what comes her way, she’s ready to tackle it. “I know my business, and my business is whatever the day asks of me. Fortunately, I have one heck of a toolbox helping me out,” she said. Where do you work, and what is your role? I manage the information center for the Kellogg…

GSLIS will offer a new special topics course, LIS490GH: Global Health Informatics, for the first time in Spring 2016. Developed and taught by Research Scientist Ian Brooks, the course will be the first on the Urbana campus to expose students to the changing field of health informatics in developing parts of the world.

Five GSLIS alumni have been selected by the American Library Association (ALA) to participate in its 2016 class of Emerging Leaders. Natalie Bazan (MS ’10), Mandi Goodsett (MS ’13), Samantha Helmick (MS ’13), Madison Sullivan (MS ’15), and Harriet Wintermute (MS ’11) are included in this year's class of fifty individuals from across the country. Now in its tenth year, this leadership…

The group HP Kids Read is the 2015 recipient of the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award, given annually by the faculty of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and cosponsored by Libraries Unlimited.

After a successful first year, GSLIS faculty members Catherine Blake and Michael Twidale will again serve as advisors to the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Information Resource Center (VIReC), a VA Health Service Research & Development Service (HSR&D) resource center that supports VA researchers in need of information about data resources specific to their research.