Three iSchool master's students have been selected by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Committee on Diversity and Leadership to participate in the Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce (IRDW) as ARL diversity scholars: Aicha Azzaoui, Carli Lowe, and Teresa Helena Moreno.

Doctoral candidate LaTesha Velez successfully defended her dissertation, "James E. Shepard, The Man and His Message: A Context-Sensitive, Discourse-Historical Analysis of 'God Bless Old North Carolina," on Thursday, June 29.

Doctoral candidates E.E. Lawrence and Andrea Thomer have been awarded Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships by Beta Phi Mu, the International Library and Information Studies Honor Society.

Associate Professor Terry Weech and doctoral candidate Aiko Takazawa will discuss their research on the economics of information at the International Conference on Business and Information (BAI), which will be held July 4-6 in Hiroshima, Japan.

Last month five iSchool students traveled to Moscow with their instructor, Ellen Knutson (MS '02, PhD '08), to learn about community engagement in Russian libraries and to experience Russian culture. They completed the trip as part of the Community Engagement course (IS 418), which explores the multiple ways that information professionals in libraries and other settings learn about, collaborate with, and provide service and outreach to community members.

The American Library Association (ALA) will hold its 2017 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Chicago on June 22-27. The theme of the conference is "Transforming Our Libraries, Ourselves."

iSchool faculty, staff, and students will present their research at the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL), which will be held on June 19-23 in Toronto.

Ten master’s students have been named 2017-2018 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services.

MS student Vivian Alvarez works with tweens and teens at the Rudy Lozano Branch of the Chicago Public Library, which is located in the Mexican-American community of Pilsen. As part of her job, she develops programming for youth that nurtures learning and strengthens communities.

Master's student NaVosha Copeland is a 2017 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award will be presented at a ceremony during the SAA Annual Meeting in July.