Katrina Hagler joined the iSchool on August 8 as director of recruitment and admissions. In this position, she will oversee recruiting and admissions for the School's degree programs.

Penny Ames, admissions and records coordinator, is among the eight civil service employees from across the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who have been named recipients of the 2022 Chancellor's Distinguished Staff Award. Each recipient of the Chancellor's Distinguished Staff Award receives $1,000 and a plaque. Recipients' names also are engraved on a plaque displayed in the Illinois Human Resources Office.

Kalie Maulding joined the iSchool on July 5 as a human resources specialist. In her new position, she will assist with all human resources functions at the School.

The School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the iSchool at Illinois, is pleased to announce its newest degree offering, the Bachelor of Science in Information Sciences + Data Science (BS/IS+DS).

The old, green hand press that used to be stationed on the first floor of the iSchool building is getting a new lease on life. It has been moved to the Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab, where students and community members will be using it for letterpress printing. The Washington-style hand press, which was manufactured in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century by Reliance, was used for teaching and fine printing at the University of Illinois for decades before becoming a show piece at the iSchool.

Research on Diversity in Youth Literature (RDYL), a peer-reviewed, online, and open-access journal focused on issues of diversity, equity, social justice, inclusion, and intersectionality in youth literature, culture, and media, has moved from St. Catherine University to the iSchool's Center for Children's Books. The journal is co-edited by iSchool Associate Professor Sarah Park Dahlen and Sonia Alejandra Rodríguez, associate professor of English at LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York.

After a pandemic break, the iSchool is pleased to announce that the seventh annual Summer Getaway will be offered in person on June 10-11. Led by iSchool faculty/instructors/staff and school librarians, this professional development event offers a series of workshops focused on topics related to media literacy.

For libraries and librarians, 2021 was an especially challenging year in terms of the increase in attempts at censorship. According to the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom, the number of challenges to library materials more than tripled from 2020 to 2021. In addition, current estimates show that 82 to 97 percent of challenges go unreported, suggesting that the total number of challenges are significantly greater.

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.

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.