The iSchool welcomed five staff members to its undergraduate advising team this academic year. Academic Advisors and Coordinators Cory Castaneda, Dara (DL) Lawyer, and Keri Marion joined the School in August, and Katie Murphy joined in February. Stacy Clemmons was promoted to senior advisor and coordinator and transitioned from graduate to undergraduate student advising. 

Assistant Professor JooYoung Seo has been selected as a Center for Advanced Study (CAS) Beckman Fellow for the 2026-2027 academic year. CAS is one of the most prestigious faculty recognition programs at the University of Illinois. Its primary mission is to identify and support the most productive and innovative faculty across all disciplines. CAS Fellows are nominated by their unit heads and selected by the Center's permanent faculty through a competitive review process, with final approval by the Board of Trustees. 

Eight iSchool master's students have been named 2025–2026 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association. This "Spectrum Scholar Spotlight" series highlights the School's scholars. MSLIS student Nathaniel Allen Pila earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Mount Holyoke College.

In his role as analyst at Nicor Gas, Eugene Gurevich (BSIS '23) is making sure the natural gas system that millions of people use stays safe and dependable. He credits the iSchool with teaching him technical skills—such as how to clean, transform, and visualize data—as well as how to communicate effectively with different audiences. Gurevich encourages current students to "explore unconventional career paths."

The following iSchool faculty and students will participate in iConference 2026, which will be held virtually from March 23–26 and physically from March 29–April 2 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The theme of this year's conference is "Information Literacies, Authenticity and Use: The Move Towards a Digitally Enlightened Society."

Informatics PhD student Olive Wang has been awarded a minigrant by AccessComputing, an organization that supports people with disabilities in computing. The $5,000 grant will support Wang's work on the video game Loadouts, which teaches players why accessibility is important. In the game, players learn why video games are inaccessible for players who are low-vision and how accessibility features such as high contrast, auditory cues, and multimodality can be effective.

Professor Anita Say Chan's book Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future (University of California Press, 2025) has been named a finalist in the Computing and Information Sciences Category of the 2026 PROSE Awards. The annual awards bestowed by the Association of American Publishers recognize the very best in professional and scholarly publishing and celebrate works that have made significant advancements in their respective fields of study.

This summer, iSchool students will have the opportunity to enroll in select courses through the new Summer Intensive pilot program, which will take place on campus over the course of two weeks. Each course will run for one week, with lessons lasting all day. Students may enroll in courses for one or both weeks, for a maximum of four credit hours. In addition to the all-day classes, students will enjoy a range of academic, professional, and social events in the evenings and on the adjoining weekends.

Professor Jingrui He has been inducted into Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society. Sigma Xi is the international honor society of science and engineering and one of the oldest and largest scientific organizations in the world, boasting a history of service to science and society spanning over 125 years. It has a multidisciplinary membership of scientists, engineers, and scholars, and Sigma Xi chapters can be found in universities and colleges, government laboratories, and commercial research centers.

As a librarian at Kiplinger Research Library, Alex Aspiazu (MSLIS '22) loves solving historical mysteries and serving as a welcoming guide for patrons who are new to special collection libraries. When not providing a friendly presence at Kiplinger, Washington, DC residents can catch Aspiazu performing in plays at area theaters.