GSLIS master’s student Lucas McKeever recently received an Acorn Scholarship for volunteerism and community activism from the Acorn Equality Fund, a grassroots organization that supports gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered students and their allies in downstate Illinois. The $3,000 scholarship was presented to McKeever at the 14th Annual Acorn Equality Fund Breakfast on December 1,…

Doctoral student Nic Weber spent the past summer working at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) as part of their Advanced Studies Fellowships Program. The Advanced Studies Program (ASP) at NCAR allows graduate students and post-docs to work with NCAR scientists and use NCAR’s high performance computing facilities to pursue topics important to their future career. Typically, this…

Six GSLIS students are recipients of the 2012 Sylvia Murphy Williams Scholarship Fund, and all are recipients of the Spectrum Scholarship awarded by the American Library Association. GSLIS is very proud of these students—be sure to read their profiles in the ILA Reporter to learn more about each award winner!Anthony BishopLiza BookerChristina NhekThomas PadillaCharlotte RohJose Miguel Ruiz 

GSLIS doctoral student Sarah T. Roberts delivered the inaugural lecture for the Illinois Institute of Technology’s newly formed lecture series on digital humanities, which was held on September 21.Her lecture, “Digital Humanity: Foregrounding Human Traces in Technological Systems (and Why We Should Care),” addressed practical applications of technology and ethical issues involved in seemingly…

GSLIS student Karen Smith-Cox has been invited to attend the 2012 School Library Journal Leadership Summit in Philadelphia on October 26 and 27. This year’s summit, “Advocacy and the E-volution: Creating Stronger Schools Through Stronger Libraries,” will focus on discussions of Common Core State Standards and the role of libraries in fostering and empowering innovation in schools. School…

Three GSLIS students have been selected as 2012 LAMP Scholars. LAMP (LIS Access Midwest Program) is a regional initiative that encourages students from historically and statistically underrepresented groups to pursue careers in library and information science. LAMP provides scholarships, mentoring, and opportunities for professional development to students and also hosts an annual summer…

First-year GSLIS students Karen Barton and Tracy Drake participated in this year’s Summer Pre-doctoral Institute (SPI) at the University of Illinois. SPI is a campus-wide orientation program that accepts incoming graduate students from U.S. populations that are underrepresented in campus graduate programs. During the eight-week program, students enroll in an independent study, participate in…

In “Critical Issues in Juvenile Detention Center Libraries,” a new paper posted at the Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults, GSLIS CAS student Jeanie Austin (MS '09) discusses the challenges that staff face in juvenile detention center libraries and argues for libraries to take a more active role in societal and political change. JRLYA is published on a continuous basis by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) at http://yalsa.ala.org/jrlya.

Washington, DC—The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Committee on Diversity and Leadership has selected 14 masters of library and information science (MLIS) students to participate in the 2012–2014 Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce (IRDW) as ARL Diversity Scholars. Among those named is GSLIS student Thomas Padilla.The ARL IRDW offers numerous financial benefits to program…

GSLIS doctoral student Sarah T. Roberts has spent the first few weeks of this record-breaking July heat organizing a campaign to help a small community library on the South Side of Chicago. The William Leonard Public Library in Robbins provides essential services to a financially disadvantaged community but has recently fallen on hard times due to a declining tax base in the community.…