Associate Professor Kate McDowell (MS '99, PhD '07) has been named interim associate dean for academic affairs, effective immediately. In this new role, she provides leadership and oversight for academic programs, including program development, curriculum coordination, and continuous improvement of educational experiences. 

Judith Pintar joined the iSchool in August 2018 as a senior lecturer. She previously served as a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and as a visiting assistant professor in Sociology, where she earned her PhD.

Due to record enrollment this fall, the iSchool held new student orientation in the Illini Union Ballrooms for the very first time. According to Meg Edwards, assistant dean for student affairs, the new venue provided a welcoming experience for students and a wonderful opportunity to engage.

Associate Professor Jana Diesner taught a course on network analysis to Chinese students participating in the Information Science and Engineering Summer Program this past July. Sponsored by Global Education and Training (GET) at the University of Illinois, the two-week, hands-on program took place at the Urbana campus.

The iSchool is pleased to announce that Kyungwon Koh will join the faculty in August 2018. She is currently an associate professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Koh's areas of expertise include digital youth, the maker movement, learning and community engagement through libraries, human information behavior, and competencies for information professionals. 

Over thirty Chinese academic librarians have a better understanding of American libraries after participating in a visit to the Urbana campus. The visit was hosted by Lian Ruan (MS '90, PhD '11), head librarian and director of international programs at the Illinois Fire Service Institute

The first Annual Conference of the Comics Studies Society, "Mind the Gaps! The Futures of the Field," will be held August 9-11 at the iSchool at Illinois. This inaugural conference, cosponsored by the iSchool and The Center for Children's Books, seeks to bring together scholars, artists, and other members of the international comics studies community for critical conversations about the future of the field, in all its multidisciplinary and transcultural formations.

Beta Phi Mu, the library and information studies honor society, celebrates its seventieth anniversary this year. It was founded at the University of Illinois in August 1948 by a group of leading librarians and library educators to recognize and encourage scholastic achievement among library and information studies students. The Alpha Chapter will hold its annual meeting on Saturday, October 27, 2018, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the iSchool.

iSchool faculty, staff, and students will participate in the 2018 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 21-26.

The iSchool at Illinois seeks nominations for the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award. 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. The deadline for nominations is October 5, 2018.