A $1-million dollar gift from Lionelle (BA, LAS '66; MS, LIS '67) and James (BS, Business '66; MS, Business '67) Elsesser will both expand the iSchool's academic programs and support the recruitment of promising students. The gift will be invested in the School's new programs, and that investment will generate $50,000 annually for the Katharine L. Sharp Scholarships, which will be available to students in all iSchool programs.

It was her interest in understanding how people seek and use information, particularly STEM-related information, that inspired Sharon Han to pursue her MS/LIS degree. At Illinois, she has gained experience as a graduate assistant in the Funk ACES Library and a research assistant for the Young Researchers project. 

MS/LIS student Michael Pritz discusses his internship with NASA.

iSchool master's students Laura Rocco and Elise Feltman are the recipients of the first Robert Howerton Graduate Student Research Award from the University Library. The award financially supports students who hold a pre-professional graduate assistantship position at the library and who are engaged in research regarding reference and technical services with plans to publish their work.

Current student Warren Lambert began his journey to the iSchool six years ago, when he first visited the Urbana campus in November 2012 to find out more about the MS in library and information science (MS/LIS) program. At the time, he was finishing up his bachelor's degree in art history at the University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL).

A team composed of two iSchool PhD students, Ly Dinh and Jessica Cheng, and a PhD student from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Li-Min (Cassandra) Huang, won the ASIS&T 2018 Student Design Competition. The competition was held on November 13 during the ASIS&T Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada.

Doctoral student Shubhanshu Mishra won the Best Student Paper Award at the Workshop on Informetric and Scientometric Research (SIG/MET), which was held on November 10 in conjunction with the ASIS&T 2018 Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada. Sponsored by Elsevier, the award recognizes achievement in student presentation in the following criteria: design of the study, originality, relevance to the workshop, and adherence to research ethics. 

As the graduate assistant for the iSchool's Office of Advancement, Joanna Pike has learned technical skills, such as finding her way around the University's complex alumni database, but perhaps more importantly, she has gained a new perspective on the importance of giving.

iSchool faculty, staff, and students will participate in the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Annual Meeting, which will be held November 10-14 in Vancouver, Canada. The theme of this year's conference is "Building and Sustaining an Ethical Future with Emerging Technology." The meeting, now in its 81st year, is the premier international conference dedicated to the study of information, people, and technology in contemporary society.

PhD students Michael Gryk and Noah Samuel will present their research at the 14th International Conference on Knowledge Management (ICKM), which will be held November 9-10 in Vancouver, Canada, in conjunction with the ASIS&T Annual Meeting. ICKM brings together academics, researchers, developers, and other information professionals for discussions on the theoretical and practical aspects of information and knowledge management.