Doctoral candidate Ly Dinh successfully defended her dissertation, "Advances to Network Analysis Theories and Methods for the Understanding of Formal and Emergent Structures in Interpersonal, Corporate/Organizational, and Hazards Response Setting," on May 19.
MS/LIS student Kyra Lee had the opportunity to network with leaders in the LIS field at the 2022 Black Caucus American Library Association (BCALA) Leadership Institute. At the inaugural event, which took place from April 12-14 in Durham, North Carolina, LIS students and early career library professionals gathered for workshops, panels, facilitated discussions, and presentations. Lee was one of eighteen students selected to participate in the institute.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Members of Associate Professor Dong Wang's research group, the Social Sensing Lab, will present their research at The ACM Web Conference 2022. The conference, which will be held virtually April 25-29, is the premier venue to present and discuss progress in research, development, standards, and applications of topics related to the Web.
BS/IS student Jared Canty is learning new skills through the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP). Canty, a senior from the Chicago area who is also majoring in brain and cognitive sciences, applied to the program because he wanted to obtain more research experience before graduation. For his project, he is documenting bilingual (Spanish-English) speech from individuals residing within the Midwest.
