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.

By using products such as soap, shampoo, body lotion, toothpaste and makeup, the average consumer may be exposed to dozens of chemicals each day. It's not easy, though, to know exactly what is in many consumer products or what potential risks they pose, either individually or in combination.

Associate Professor Victoria Stodden will present her research at A University Symposium: Promoting Credibility, Reproducibility and Integrity in Research on December 9 at Columbia University

Reporting new research results involves detailed descriptions of methods and materials used in an experiment. But when a study uses computers to analyze data, create models or simulate things that can’t be tested in a lab, how can other researchers see what steps were taken or potentially reproduce results?

The iSchool and the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong are cohosting the workshop "Digital Scholarship Centers: Building Library Services for Data-Driven Scholarship" from November 28-30 at the University of Hong Kong.

Professor Emeritus Abdul Alkalimat will give the keynote presentation at the 30th Symposium on African American Culture and Philosophy, which will be held from December 1-3 at Purdue University. This year's symposium will explore the "humanity" in the digital humanities as well as Africana/Black studies' perspectives.

Assistant Professor Emily Knox will participate in the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention, to be held November 17-20 in Atlanta, Georgia. She will serve as a panelist for the session, "How Teachers, Parents, and Communities Can Keep Students Reading."

Doctoral candidates Ana Lucic and Henry A. Gabb will present work with Associate Professor Catherine Blake at the 40th annual American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium held from November 12-16 in Chicago.

Assistant Professor Nicole A. Cooke is the 2016 recipient of the Larine Y. Cowan Make a Difference Award for Teaching and Mentoring in Diversity, given annually by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The award honors Dr. Larine Y. Cowan, past director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Access. 

In early November, Senior Lecturer Maria Bonn presented a talk and served on a "Neapolitan" session panel at the 2016 Charleston Conference–Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition in Charleston, South Carolina. The conference is an annual gathering of librarians, publishers, electronic resource managers, consultants, and vendors of library materials.