Anna Hartmann (MS ’09) has been named Advocate of the Month by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). This monthly feature on the YALSA blog, sponsored by the Legislative Committee, highlights the advocacy work of passionate individuals on behalf of teens in libraries. As the teen services librarian at the Council Bluffs Public Library in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Hartmann…

On the south side of Chicago, Sandra Aya Enimil was arguing with one her seatmates on the bus when someone told her she’d make a good lawyer. She was seven years old at the time. “I didn’t know exactly what the word meant, so I asked my mother what a lawyer was, and she told me it is somebody who helps other people,” Enimil, a current GSLIS student and LAMP scholar, recalls. “I became…

GSLIS faculty and doctoral students were honored at the 2012 iConference that was held from February 7-10, 2012, and was hosted by the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. A Best Paper Award was given to doctoral student Noah Lenstra and Professor Abdul Alkalimat for their paper, “Networked Cultural Heritage and Socio-Digital Inequalities: A Case Study in an African-American…

Beth Kumar (MS '06, CAS '07), e-resources and serials librarian at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, is the recipient of the 2012 First Step Award-A Wiley Professional Development Grant presented by the ALCTS Continuing Resources Section. The award will be presented on Sunday, June 24, at the ALCTS Awards Ceremony during the 2012 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference…

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) awarded Allison Cabaj the 2012 MAE Award for Best Literature Program for Teens. The MAE Award provides $500 to the recipient and $500 to the recipient’s library and is sponsored by the Margaret A. Edwards Trust.Cabaj, a library and media specialist and English teacher, created a program that brought together reading and technology at the…

Rae-Anne Montague, assistant dean for student affairs at GSLIS, has been named the February 2012 Ally of the Month by the SODA Committee of the Counseling Center, the LGBT Ally Network, and the LGBT Resource Center on campus. Upon announcing the honor, the SODA Committee shared the following interview with Montague: On behalf of the SODA Committee of the Counseling Center, the LGBT Ally Network,…

The Center for Children’s Books (CCB) at GSLIS at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign is hosting its Eleventh Annual Book Sale February 20 through February 22, 2012. Sale hours are 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. each of these days. Thousands of brand-new children’s books will be available for youth ages birth through high school. The titles available represent the full spectrum of children’s…

Champaign’s Figure One Gallery celebrates the opening of "A Cabinet of Curiosity: The Library's Dead Time," an exhibit created by GSLIS Assistant Professor Bonnie Mak and master's student Julia Pollack. The exhibit will be held at the gallery's downtown Champaign location (116 N. Walnut) on February 17-18 from 5:00-9:00pm. GSLIS will sponsor a reception on Friday evening. [image1-left:…

The master’s program in library and information science at GSLIS has been granted continued accreditation status by the Committee on Accreditation (COA) of the American Library Association (ALA). The decision was made at the 2012 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Dallas in January. The decision was based on the Program Presentation, the External Review Panel Report, all reports submitted by GSLIS since…

Scott Walter, associate university librarian for services, associate dean of libraries and professor of library administration and library and information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the recipient of the 2012 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Education and Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS) Distinguished Education and Behavioral Sciences…