The life and career of GSLIS research fellow Michelle H. Martin was fundamentally influenced by a woman named Augusta Baker. As a child, Martin knew Baker and had opportunities to see and hear the storytelling specialist, who was a storyteller-in-residence at the University of South Carolina (USC) for fourteen years. Today, Martin is the Augusta Baker Chair in Childhood Literacy at USC. The chair…

An article by Assistant Professor Bonnie Mak and Julia Pollack (MS '12) was recently published in the Fall 2013 issue of Art Documentation.  The article, "The Performance and Practice of Research in A Cabinet of Curiosity: The Library's Dead Time," discusses their exhibition held at the Figure One Gallery in Champaign, Illinois, which investigated how the materiality of information shapes…

Two GSLIS alumni have won awards from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Kimberly Willson-St. Clair (MS '01), along with colleagues at Portland State University, has been selected to receive the 2014 ACRL Instruction Section Innovation Award. Wendy Holliday (MS '02) has received the 2014 ACRL Instruction Section Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award with co-author…

Terry von Thaden (PhD '04) has been appointed to serve as vice chairperson of the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board’s study on Combatting Sexual Assault (CoSA). Von Thaden is a human factors research scientist with the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute’s (IFSI) Firefighter Life Safety and Research Center. The study will focus on reviewing the scientific work regarding…

In 1991, a group of scholars on the University of Illinois Urbana campus came together to form the Women, Information Technology and Scholarship (WITS) group to explore how issues of gender, race, and class were interwoven in emerging information technologies. This group was hosted at GSLIS in its final two years (1996-1998) and former GSLIS dean Leigh Estabrook was an active member.…

Karen G. Schneider (MS '92), university librarian at Holy Names University, Oakland, California, is the 2014 recipient of the American Library Association (ALA) Elizabeth Futas Catalyst for Change Award. This award is given biennially to an individual for making positive changes in the profession of librarianship and consists of a 24K gold-framed citation and $1,000 contributed by the Elizabeth Futas Memorial Fund of the American Library Association.

[image1-right]Battle Bunny, written by Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett, illustrated by Matthew Myers, and published by Simon & Schuster, is the winner of the 2014 Gryphon Award for Children’s Literature.  The Gryphon Award, which includes a $1,000 prize, is given annually by the Center for Children’s Books. This year’s committee was chaired by Deborah Stevenson, director of the…

The GSLIS eUpdate, published every other month, summarizes current news, events, alumni and advancement highlights, and continuing professional development opportunities. Other publications that may be of interest to alumni and friends are listed on the GSLIS Publications web page. _____________________________________________________ IN THIS ISSUE GSLIS Spotlight GSLIS News Summary…

The International Committee of the GSLIS ALA Student Chapter will host a panel discussion, “Libraries Under Siege: Censorship, Access, and Endurance in the Middle East” on February 7, 2014. Kathryn La Barre, GSLIS faculty member and the immediate past president of the International Society for Knowledge Organization: Chapter for Canada and United States will moderate the event. This panel…

CIRSS faculty and students will participate in the upcoming 9th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC) to be held February 24-27 in San Francisco. This year's theme, "Commodity, catalyst or change-agent? Data-driven transformations in research, education, business & society," will focus on how data-driven tools and services allow us to explore, manage, use, and benefit from…