The iSchool was well represented at the international conference, "Information and Power in History," which was held at the VU University Amsterdam on March 16-17. Organized by the Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands, in collaboration with Radboud University and Utrecht University, the conference attracted scholars from a wide variety of historical and other disciplines. 

The following iSchool faculty, staff, and students will participate in iConference 2017, which will be held March 22-25 in Wuhan, China. The event brings together scholars, researchers, and information professionals to share insights on critical information issues.

Join iSchool faculty, staff, and students for the following activities during the Association for College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Conference in Baltimore, including our reception on Thursday, March 23, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Hard Rock Café Baltimore.

Twenty-one iSchool instructors were named in the University's List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for Fall 2016. The rankings are released every semester, and results are based on the Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) questionnaire forms maintained by Measurement and Evaluation in the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning.

Assistant Professor Jana Diesner will discuss current issues with open science that involve human-centered and online data and her related research at the Open Science Conference 2017, which will be held March 21-22 in Berlin. The Open Science 2017 Conference is the fourth international conference of the Leibniz Research Alliance Science 2.0.

Professor Alistair Black and doctoral student Steven Witt discussed their research at the Penn Libraries symposium, The Science of Information, 1870-1945: The Universalization of Knowledge in a Utopian Age, which was held February 23-25 at the University of Pennsylvania and the Beckman Center at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia. 

Associate Professor Catherine Blake will present at the 2017 inaugural Health Communication: Barriers, Breakthroughs, and Best Practices (HCB3) Conference from March 1-3 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The American Library Association (ALA) Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender and Government Documents Round Tables (GLBTRT and GODORT) are proud to announce iSchool affiliated faculty member Lisa Hinchliffe (MS ’94) as the inaugural recipient of the Larry Romans Mentorship Award. 

Professors Michael Twidale and Bertram Ludäscher will participate in upcoming Dagstuhl Seminars, which will be held February 26-March 1, in Wadern, Germany. The seminars bring together researchers of international standing and promote personal interaction as well as open discussion of research results and ideas.

Doctoral student Shadi Rezapour and Assistant Professor Jana Diesner will present a paper at the 20th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2017), which will be held February 25-March 1 in Portland, Oregon.

The iSchool is pleased to announce the appointment of program directors for its master’s and doctoral degree programs. Assistant Professor Nicole A. Cooke is program director for the MS in library and information science (MS/LIS), and Assistant Professor Jana Diesner is program director for the PhD in library and information science. Cooke and Diesner join Professor Michael Twidale, program director for the MS degree in information management (MS/IM), in providing leadership for the iSchool’s highly regarded degree programs.

A book edited by Assistant Professor Nicole A. Cooke and Miriam E. Sweeney (PhD '13) has been published by Litwin Books/Library Juice Press. Teaching for Justice: Implementing Social Justice in the LIS Classroom is the first in the publisher’s series on critical race studies and multiculturalism in library and information science.

The iSchool is pleased to announce that Robert J. Brunner has joined the faculty, effective January 1. Professor Brunner holds a joint appointment with the Department of Accountancy in the College of Business.

Doctoral student Shadi Rezapour and Assistant Professor Jana Diesner will present a paper at The 11th IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing (ICSC 2017), which will be held January 30 through February 1 in San Diego, California.

Assistant Professor Nicole A. Cooke is the recipient of the 2017 American Library Association (ALA) Achievement in Library Diversity Research Award. This award recognizes her contributions to the profession and her promotion of diversity within it, defining achievement as a "body of work or a groundbreaking piece whose dissemination advances our understanding of or sparks new research in the areas of diversity."

J. Stephen Downie, professor and associate dean for research, participated in the Center for Open Data in the Humanities (CODH) seminar, "Big Data and Digital Humanities," on January 23 at the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo, Japan.

A new book co-edited by Associate Professor Bonnie Mak investigates how archives, archival practices, and the notion of the archive are being explored across the disciplines. Showcasing the work of established and emergent scholars, as well as information professionals, Engaging with Records and Archives: Histories and theories bridges theory and practice to offer fresh perspectives on recordkeeping and archives.

Assistant Professor Nicole A. Cooke's book, Information Services to Diverse Populations: Developing Culturally Competent Library Professionals, is now available from Libraries Unlimited.

The iSchool will be well represented at the annual conference for the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), which will take place from January 17-20 in Atlanta. ALISE '17 will explore how LIS educators and researchers can develop curricula, programs, and research activities that support partnerships with communities to manage and create change.

Associate Professor Bonnie Mak will present, "On Interdisciplinary Endings," as part of a panel at the upcoming Modern Language Association Annual Convention (MLA 2017) in Philadelphia.