Privacy, security, and trust have long been watchwords in the computer science and computer engineering fields. Generally, however, these groups don’t prioritize how those issues impact users of the technology they create. GSLIS Assistant Professor Masooda Bashir wants to change that. With a background in math, computer science, and psychology, she has long been interested in the human aspects of digital technology.

In a society where makerspaces, Google, and smartphones proliferate, people don’t interact with information, technology, or libraries the way they used to. The digital world influences how we live, work, learn, and play, which in turn alters our information needs and expectations. For decades, library and information science (LIS) professionals have been leading the way in understanding the use of information. The roles of LIS professionals are evolving along with the information landscape, but how will educating these professionals evolve? What is ahead for the future of LIS education?

Join GSLIS faculty, staff, and students at the 2016 ALISE Annual Conference, which will be held January 5-8 in Boston. The theme of the conference is "Radical Change: Inclusion & Innovation."

Associate Professor Bonnie Mak will present, “Confessions of a 21st-Century Memsahib: The Off-Shore Sweatshops of the Digital Humanities,” at the annual convention of the Modern Language Association (MLA) in Austin in January 2016. Her paper will be offered as part of the MLA panel, “Critical Informatics and the Digital Humanities,” an initiative that seeks to document emergent methods for the…

Abbott's nutrition business has awarded GSLIS $25,000 for a project led by Assistant Professor Vetle Torvik titled, “Computer-assisted text-mining across biomedical papers and patents for competitive intelligence.” Working with Torvik on this year-long project is doctoral student Adam Kehoe (MS ’09).

Associate Professor Carol Tilley has been selected to serve on the judging panel of the 2016 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. Presented annually by Comic-Con International, the Eisner Awards are the industry’s most prestigious, recognizing the best in comics publication, writing, art, and scholarship. "Many youth services library faculty and professionals hope to serve on one of the 'Big…

GSLIS will offer a new special topics course, LIS490GH: Global Health Informatics, for the first time in Spring 2016. Developed and taught by Research Scientist Ian Brooks, the course will be the first on the Urbana campus to expose students to the changing field of health informatics in developing parts of the world.

GSLIS Associate Professor Victoria Stodden will speak at SC15 (formerly Supercomputing), the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis. The conference is an annual meeting of researchers, industry representatives, journalists, and others with an interest in high performance computing. It will be held on November 15-20 in Austin, Texas.

GSLIS Professor Bertram Ludäscher will give the keynote address, "YesWorkflow: More Provenance Mileage from Scientific Workflows and Scripts," at the WORKS 2015 Workshop: Workflows in Support of Large-Scale Science, on Sunday, November 15. This is the tenth WORKS Workshop, which is held annually in conjunction with the SC Conference, and focuses on topics related to the scientific workflow…

Assistant Professor Nicole A. Cooke and affiliated faculty member Clara Chu have been appointed to serve on a new American Library Association (ALA) task force on LIS accreditation. The Task Force on the Context of Future Accreditation is charged with drafting a white paper describing the fields and context for which ALA will be making accreditation decisions in the future. Based on their…