Kristin Petersheim (MS '15) was awarded the IEEE Continuing Education Stipend from the Engineering Division of the SLA. Petersheim has worked as associate technical information specialist in the Caterpillar Technical Information Center since 2015, where she also serves as document delivery and acquisitions librarian and outreach and instruction librarian.

The iSchool at Illinois seeks nominations for the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award. The deadline for nominations has been extended to October 10, 2017.

Master's student NaVosha Copeland is a 2017 recipient of the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award will be presented at a ceremony during the SAA Annual Meeting in July.

Elizabeth Vallen (MS '16) is the 2017 recipient of the Donald Peterson Student Travel Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award supports attendance at the conference by a student and/or recent graduate from a graduate archival program in North America.

Assistant Professor Matthew Turk has been recognized by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) as an outstanding 2016-2017 SPIN mentor. The SPIN (Students Pushing Innovation) internship at NCSA provides undergraduates at Illinois with the opportunity to apply their skills to real challenges in areas such as high-performance computing, data analysis and visualization, and cybersecurity.

Each year, the School recognizes a group of outstanding students for their achievement in academics as well as a number of attributes that contribute to professional success. The following student awards were presented at the School's Convocation ceremony on May 14, 2017.

Master's student Ritse Adefolalu has received the Marilyn Kay Maynard Scholarship awarded by the Illinois School Library Media Association (ISLMA). The scholarship is designed to encourage students who wish to gain licensure to work in Illinois as a school librarian, with three scholarships awarded each year.

Master's student Kortney Rupp has been selected by the Special Libraries Association (SLA) as recipient of the 2017 Marion E. Sparks Award. This award provides funding to attend the 2017 SLA Annual Conference, which will be held June 16-20 in Phoenix, Arizona. 

Master's student Saajan Dehury was part of the winning team at Campus 1871, a startup pitch competition held on March 31-April 2 at 1871, Chicago's Center for Technology and Entrepreneurship. 

Professor Alistair Black and doctoral candidate Henry Gabb have been honored by the American Library Association's Library Research Round Table (LRRT) with the 2017 Jesse H. Shera Award for Distinguished Published Research.

Jessica Followell is the 2017 master's student recipient of the Graduate Student Essay Award from the Children's Literature Association. Followell won the award for her essay, "Miracle Cures and Moral Lessons: Victorian Legacies in Contemporary Representations of Children with Disabilities," which examines two plot devices that emerged in children's literature during the Victoria era to discuss disabilities—the miracle cure and the moral lesson.

Master's student Ian Harmon has earned a fellowship from the Society for Scholarly Publishing. Out of 70 applicants, Harmon was chosen as one of twelve to receive the highly competitive fellowship. He will be provided with a wide range of career development opportunities.

Professor Alistair Black's research on the design of post-war British public libraries has received an Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH) Prize for Research in the Humanities. Black's entry, "The Long Journey to Libraries of Light," was selected as the winner of an Honorable Mention for best faculty research.

Assistant Professor Rachel Magee has been named an American Library Association (ALA)-Google Ready to Code (RtC) Faculty Fellow. As an RtC Fellow, she will participate in Phase II of the Libraries Ready to Code project, which ALA and Google launched in January 2017 to help equip librarians with the right skills and tools to encourage kids to code. 

Master's student Leanna Barcelona uses materials from the past to connect with students today in her artistic and award-winning exhibits. Barcelona's graphic design skills were recognized again this month when she won first prize in the Image of Research competition sponsored by the Graduate College. 

Jodi Schneider (MS '08), assistant professor, is the recipient of a start-up allocation award from the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE). XSEDE is a project of the National Science Foundation that provides researchers with access to the world’s most advanced and powerful collection of integrated digital resources and services.

Alumnus Mark Sorensen (MS '98) has been named an Illinois Library Luminary by the Illinois Library Association (ILA). This distinction honors individuals whose efforts have made a significant contribution to Illinois libraries.

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.

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. 

Master’s student Kortney Rupp has been selected by American Chemical Society (ACS) Publications as one of two recipients of the ACS Publications Travel Grant for Librarians and Library School Students.