Associate Professor and PhD Program Director Jana Diesner has been appointed as a 2018-19 R.C. Evans Data Analytics Fellow in the University of Illinois-Deloitte Foundation Center for Business Analytics. Launched in 2016, the Center is part of the Gies College of Business at the Urbana campus.

Doctoral candidate Jimi Jones will discuss his dissertation research at the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) Digital Preservation 2018, which will be held October 17-18 in Las Vegas. NDSA is a consortium of more than 220 organizations committed to the long-term preservation and stewardship of digital information and cultural heritage, for the benefit of present and future generations.

The HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC) has extended non-consumptive research tools to copyrighted materials, expanding research through fair use. HTRC is a collaboration between the University of Illinois, Indiana University, and the HathiTrust to enable advanced computational access to the HathiTrust Digital Library database.

Doctoral candidate Kahyun Choi successfully defended her dissertation, "Computational Lyricology: Quantitative Approaches to Understanding Song Lyrics and Their Interpretations."

Associate Professor and MSLIS Program Director Nicole A. Cooke will discuss her research on fake news, misinformation, and disinformation at the 2018 Public Interest Technology Summit, which will be held on October 13 at Harvard University. The summit is hosted by digital HKS, an independent project at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs that is committed to teaching public leaders to understand how to design, build, and engage with digital technologies as they relate to civic participation, digital equity and inclusion, governance of government platforms, and accountability.

Doctoral candidate Kirstin Phelps will participate in ISIC 2018: The Information Behaviour Conference, which will be held October 9-11 in Krakow, Poland. The conference is a platform for a broad and multidisciplinary community of researchers to present and discuss how people engage with information in a myriad of contexts.

The 2018 Illinois Library Association (ILA) Annual Conference will be held from October 9-11 in Peoria. The theme of this year's conference is "Libraries: All Inclusive." Visit with the iSchool at Booth #315 in the Exhibit Hall on October 10 and 11. The School will also host an alumni breakfast on October 11.

PhD student Michael Gryk presented his research in data curation at iPRES 2018, which was held in Boston from September 25-27. The conference brought together researchers, archivists, librarians, providers, and other experts to share recent developments and innovative projects in the field of digital preservation.

Doctoral students Jamillah Gabriel and Lettycia Terrones will discuss diversity in LIS education at the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC), which will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from September 26-30. The conference brings together librarians, staff, and supporters as well as community participants to explore issues of diversity in libraries.

Ashley Batchelder, a master's student in the Leep online program, presented her library's physical activity programs at the Association for Rural and Small Libraries (ARSL) Conference, which was held from September 13-15 in Springfield, Illinois. Batchelder, who is an assistant children's librarian at the Mt. Zion (IL) District Library, took part in the session, "Let's Get Moving at the Library! Physical Activity Programs for Fun and for Health." She presented two programs that promote physical activity at her library: the Music and Movement program she developed and the library's Annual Garden Party that kicks off the summer reading program.