“Graduate school is about expanding the breadth of your knowledge and finding the area in which you also want to achieve some depth.” Andi Ogier received this advice from an advisor and took it to heart. She chose data curation as her area of expertise and found that the GSLIS specialization in that field prepared her for data-focused work in a variety of projects. Where do you work and what…

Graduation is approaching, and at this time of the year, we reflect on those individuals who have made a difference in our lives. New graduates and alumni are encouraged to honor GSLIS faculty and/or staff through the LSAA Tassel Project, which was established in 2011 by the Library School Alumni Association (LSAA) to support the creation of an endowed professorship in the School. With a…

Leighton Christiansen’s experience in transportation and the information professions prepared him for work as the single librarian serving the Iowa Department of Transportation. Combined with the skills he learned via the iSchool's Specialization in Data Curation, Christiansen has found himself uniquely positioned to tackle the challenges facing the transportation information industry today.…

As a GSLIS student specializing in data curation, Lynn Yarmey completed an internship at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The position led to a job offer following her graduation, and today Yarmey holds leadership roles on multiple research projects. She will talk more about her experiences as a student and professional during the Data Curation Alumni Panel event on April 22. Where do…

Excited about using new technologies and motivated by a desire to connect people with information, Aaron Collie specialized in data curation when he earned his master's at the iSchool. He now gets to do both of these things and more as a digital curation librarian at Michigan State University. Collie will talk more about his experiences as a student and professional during the Data Curation…

Library Journal’s annual “Movers & Shakers” list recognizes professionals who are shaping the future of libraries in a variety of ways. The recently released 2014 class of Movers & Shakers includes two GSLIS alumni: Stephanie Davis-Kahl (MS '98) in the "Change Agents" category, and Cathryne Kaufman (MS '09) in the "Marketers" category. Omar Poler, a LAMP alumnus, also was honored in…

David Larsen (MS '04) has been selected by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) to receive the 2014 Virginia Boucher-OCLC Distinguished ILL Librarian Award. The award honors professional achievement, leadership, and contributions to interlibrary loan and document delivery. Larsen, head of access services and assessment at the University of Chicago Library, was selected for his…

[image1-right]Stephanie Davis-Kahl (MS '98) has been selected by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) to receive the 2014 Education and Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS) Distinguished Education and Behavioral Sciences Librarian Award. Davis-Kahl, scholarly communications librarian and associate professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, was selected for the award based on…

Anna Maria Watkin (MS '96), director of the Parkland College Library, and Erika Hackman, director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Parkland College, will accept the 2014 ACRL Community and Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS) EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Award on behalf of the project Scholarship at Parkland (SPARK) at the 2014 ALA Annual…

Two GSLIS alumni have won awards from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Kimberly Willson-St. Clair (MS '01), along with colleagues at Portland State University, has been selected to receive the 2014 ACRL Instruction Section Innovation Award. Wendy Holliday (MS '02) has received the 2014 ACRL Instruction Section Ilene F. Rockman Publication of the Year Award with co-author…

[image1-right:resize-180w]Karen G. Schneider (MS '92), university librarian at Holy Names University, Oakland, California, is the 2014 recipient of the American Library Association (ALA) Elizabeth Futas Catalyst for Change Award. This award is given biennially to an individual for making positive changes in the profession of librarianship and consists of a 24K gold-framed citation and $…

[image2-right]Lian Ruan (MS '90, PhD '11) is the focus of a recent Illuminate Illinois feature by the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Illinois Chapter. Ruan is the director/head librarian of the Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI) Library at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an adjunct lecturer at GSLIS. At IFSI, Ruan works to provide resources to firefighters and…

[image1-right]An assistantship with the Instructional Technology and Design (ITD) office at GSLIS prepared Juliana Perry for her current position as web services project manager at Bryn Mawr College. According to Perry, her degree in LIS brings a new perspective to the IT world. Where do you work and what is your role?I work at Bryn Mawr College as the web services project manager, which…

[image1-right]An assistantship with The Center for Children's Books (CCB) during her time at GSLIS provided Ayanna Coleman with the knowledge and skills she needs to navigate the publishing world, and now she is launching her own literary agency, Quill Shift Literary Agency.Where do you work and what is your role?I'm the associate manager of events and programs as well as the librarian at the…

A first career in journalism led Melinda Miller to explore information architecture, and her experience at GSLIS helped prepare her for a recent promotion. [image1-right]Where do you work and what is your role? I work at Pixo as the director of user experience and research. Pixo, located in Urbana, is a software company that designs and develops websites, mobile apps, and custom…

[image1-right]Cynthia Kremer (MS '11) is the focus of a recent Illuminate Illinois feature by the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Illinois Chapter. Kremer is a part-time reference librarian at National Louis University (NLU) and is currently working on a practicum in health sciences librarianship at Rush Medical Center and the University of Illinois at Chicago's Library of the Health…

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and the Special Collections and Bechtel Fellowship Committee have awarded the 2014 Louise Seaman Bechtel Fellowship to Natalie Ziarnik.The Bechtel Fellowship is designed to allow qualified children’s librarians to spend a total of four weeks or more reading and studying at the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature, a part of the…

A relocation to Portland, Maine required Elizabeth Pope (MS ’09) to get creative with her job search, but the skills she gained at GSLIS allowed her to find her current position at a nonprofit research company. Where do you work and what is your role?[image1-right]I'm the director of research and operations at Idealware, a nonprofit based out of beautiful Portland, Maine. Our mission is to help…

Five GSLIS alumni have been selected to participate in the American Library Association’s 2014 class of Emerging Leaders. Joy McGehee (MS '09), Ashley Rayner (MS '11), Ben Rodriguez (MS '13), Soraya Silverman-Montano (MS '11), and Samuel Suber (MS '12) are included in this year's class of 56 individuals from across the country. Now in its eighth year, this leadership development initiative…

[image1-right:resize-180w]With a background in nonprofits and a passion for keeping the web open and accessible, Gemma Petrie has put the skills she gained at GSLIS to good use in her job as a user experience researcher for Mozilla. Where do you work and what is your role? I work at Mozilla as a user experience researcher. It is my job to learn about the goals and challenges faced by…