Eight iSchool master's students were named 2021-2022 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services. This "Spectrum Scholar Spotlight" series highlights the School's scholars. MS/LIS student Brandi Hart earned her BA degree in history and classical studies from Denison University.

Anita Nikolich, director of research and technology innovation and research scientist, has been selected to serve a three-year term on the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure (ACCI). Comprised of distinguished members representing diverse science, engineering and computational science communities, the ACI helps ensure that NSF-supported cyberinfrastructure is "responsive to changing technology and science landscapes and enables significant advances across all fields of science and engineering supported by the agency."

BS/IS student Luke Emano has been selected as a recipient of a Research Support Grant for his project, "Time is Value: Exploring the Barriers of Scalability for Timebanks." The award, worth $1,000, is sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research.

iSchool faculty and students will present their research at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2022), which is structured as a hybrid-onsite conference from May 2-5 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The annual conference brings together researchers and practitioners who have the overarching goal of making the world a better place with interactive digital technologies.

In the Fall 2022 semester, the iSchool will offer a new degree, the Bachelor of Science in Information Sciences + Data Science (BS/IS+DS). The degree is part of a campus-wide partnership to provide interdisciplinary education in data science. It consists of a collaboration between the iSchool and other colleges, including the Gies College of Business, Computer Science Department in the Grainger College of Engineering, and the Department of Statistics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) is pleased to announce that Sarah Rebecca Velazquez Gaglio and Wardah Mohammed are the recipients of the Building Diversity Graduate Assistantships for the 2022-2023 academic year. The assistantships will ultimately provide experience, mentoring, and networking to participants with the goal of increasing the number of staff members from underrepresented groups at Illinois’ two and four-year public and private college and university libraries.

For MS/LIS student Ben Ostermeier, the digital exhibit he curated for the U of I Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML), "Starkiller to Skywalker: How Star Wars Evolved from Script to Screen," was a labor of love. A Star Wars fan, Ostermeier spent ten months curating the exhibit, although background work on the exhibit actually started earlier, as a project for one of his MS/LIS courses.

Siggi Schroth joined the iSchool on April 4 as an office support specialist. She serves as the primary receptionist at the main building on 501 E. Daniel Street.

The Library Awards and Recognition Committee is pleased to announce that MS/LIS students Leah DiCiesare and Jason Larsen have been selected as recipients of the 2021-2022 Outstanding Graduate Student Award. This award recognizes graduate student workers for exceptional accomplishments and service to the University Library.

Chieh-Li (Julian) Chin, research program manager at the iSchool, has received the Employee Excellence Team Player award from Technology Services, where she serves as a data analyst at the Data and Technology Innovation Team. She received the award for exemplifying "the essence of teamwork and collaboration" internally, across Technology Services teams and in the campus community.