The Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) is very pleased to announce that Colin Rhinesmith (PhD '14), associate professor at Simmons University School of Library and Information Science is the 2021 recipient of the ASIS&T Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award. The award's purpose is to recognize the unique teaching contribution of an individual as a teacher of information science.

With the recent publication of three studies on early-twentieth century Carnegie public library design, Professor Emeritus Alistair Black has completed his work for Cardiff University's Shelf-Life project. Directed by Professor Oriel Prizeman at the University's Welsh School of Architecture and funded by the United Kingdom's Arts and Humanities Research Council, Shelf-Life asks if the procurement of over 2,600 public library buildings across Britain and America a century ago, through the philanthropy of the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, could benefit from “systematic thinking regarding their revitalization” in light of today’s climate change and need for sustainability and recycling in construction.

Two iSchool alumni are included in Library Journal's 2021 class of Movers & Shakers, an annual list that recognizes 46 professionals who are moving the library field forward as a profession. Carmi Parker (MS/LIS '15) was honored in the Advocates category, and Claudia Șerbănuță (MS/LIS '09, PhD '17) was honored in the Change Agents category.

Librarian Rachel Wightman (MS/LIS '09) has spent her career teaching students to find information. Outside of her work as associate director for instruction and outreach at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota, she is teaching church congregations how to spot and stop the spread of misinformation. For the past year, Wightman has been holding online training sessions for congregations across the country.

With her focus on the maker movement in libraries and community engagement, Associate Professor Kyungwon Koh is a natural for her new role as director of research for the CU Community Fab Lab. Short for "fabrication laboratory," the Fab Lab encourages individuals to develop new ideas, solve problems, and make things. Free and open to anyone who is interested, the Fab Lab promotes personal growth, economic development, and cross-cultural understanding.

Teaching Assistant Professor Jill Naiman has received a $506,912 grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to digitize predigital scientific literature. Her project, "The Reading Time Machine: Transforming Astrophysical Literature into Actionable Data," is a collaboration with Harvard University and the Astrophysics Data System (ADS), a digital library portal operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) under a NASA grant. With over 15 million records, ADS is one of the most important archives in the scientific field of astronomy.

MS/LIS student Anthony Martínez presented his research at the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Division IV webinar, Projects in the Libraries - Ideas, Innovations, Initiatives, which was held on May 26. The goal of the webinar series is to provide a place for LIS students to share their projects, research, and ideas about different topics related to libraries.

Professor Emeritus Chip Bruce has authored a new book on the nature and importance of maps. In Thinking with Maps: Understanding the World through Spatialization, which was recently published by Rowman & Littlefield, he demonstrates how the concept of maps and mapping has implications and applications across all spheres of intellectual endeavor.

When students return to campus for the fall semester, they will find an exciting new art installation welcoming them back. The digital art installation, Library of Color, will be in the east foyer of the iSchool building at 501 E. Daniel Street. The artwork was created by one of the world's foremost data artists, Jer Thorp, and made possible through a generous grant from the John N. Chester Estate Endowment Fund provided by the Office of the Chancellor.

A new scholarship in the iSchool will support students who are interested in pursuing a career in academic libraries. Thomas Wilson established the Kuang-Hwei "Janet" Lee-Smeltzer Scholarship Fund in honor of his wife, Janet, who passed away on November 28, 2015. Lee-Smeltzer (MS '93) had a distinguished career in librarianship, working in academic and public libraries in several states. At the time of her death, she served as head of Cataloging and Metadata Services at The University of Alabama Libraries in Tuscaloosa.