When Ed Koval created the Anna Mae Koval Scholarship at GSLIS in honor of his late wife, he knew that the financial support for students would help them achieve their educational and career goals. The gift, however, is providing more than just financial support. It is proving inspirational as well. Anna Mae Koval inspired countless young readers as a librarian and storyteller during her…

The GSLIS Library School Alumni Association (LSAA) has announced the 2015 recipients of its annual awards. The recipients were recognized on June 28 at the LSAA Annual Meeting and reception held at the annual meeting of the American Library Association in San Francisco. Merinda Hensley (MS '06) is the recipient of the Leadership Award, which is given to an alum who has graduated in the past…

Associate Professor Kathryn La Barre has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T). Her three-year term as a director-at-large will begin in 2016.

Associate Professor Bonnie Mak has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP), a global network of book historians. Mak’s eight-year appointment (2015-2023) will be confirmed at the society’s annual meeting and conference held July 7-10 in Longueuil and Montreal, Canada. Established in the early 1990s, the SHARP…

Senior Research Scientist Martin Wolske and incoming CAS student Travis Faust (MS '15) were among more than 15,000 attendees of the International Society for Technology and Education (ISTE) annual conference. Held June 28 - July 1 in Philadelphia, ISTE 2015 drew teachers, administrators, media specialists, and other educational technology enthusiasts. Wolske and Faust, along with alumna Miriam…

Within the realm of social justice, professional resources can be scattered widely among the many disparate areas that intersect with this field, impeding research and fieldwork. A group of LIS doctoral students from across the country—all current American Library Association Spectrum Doctoral Fellows—are working together to create a solution to this challenge called the Social Justice Collaboratorium (@SJCollaborate).c

GSLIS recently hosted the second annual Summer Getaway, a series of workshops that brought together over sixty school librarians from across the state to learn about current topics in K-12 librarianship from experts and from each other. Each day of the three-day event offered a different professional development focus. On Monday, attendees learned about the latest state requirements for…

It’s no surprise that MS student Flannery Crump chose GSLIS when she decided to pursue a career in LIS. The program was recommended to her by a reliable source—her mother, Amy Crump. She’s following in her mother’s footsteps toward a career in public librarianship. Flannery Crump Why did you decide to pursue an LIS degree? All throughout my childhood, my parents would take me to the…

Associate Professor Carol Tilley will join thousands of her fellow comic book fans in San Diego July 9-12 for Comic-Con International, one of the largest comics and entertainment events in the world. Tilley will share her expertise in comics and comics history through her participation in the following panel discussions: "Lost (and Found) Comics Studies of the Past," with authors Brad Ricca…

GSLIS Senior Research Scientist Martin Wolske has been named president of the Board of Trustees of the Champaign Public Library. He has been a member of the board since November 2014 and is now replacing Trisha Crowley, whose term ended in June of this year. His term as president is set for one year with the possibility of reappointment. This new appointment coincided with an announcement from…