Music, politics, art, prison justice, comics . . . the topics of zines are as diverse as the individuals creating them. Unlike a traditional magazine, a zine is self-published, small in scale, and more personal. On September 16, iSchool Associate Professor Kathryn La Barre answered questions about zines and her role as caretaker of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (UCIMC) Zine Library on the Harukana Show, a broadcast of UCIMC's radio station WRFU, which is also webcast internationally.

Michele Plante joined the School on September 12 as the employer relations coordinator. In this new role, she will develop, maintain, and evolve partnerships with employers for student preprofessional and professional opportunities as well as increase corporate engagement.

In the new book, Reference and Information Services, An Introduction (5th Edition), Professor Linda C. Smith (MS '72) and coeditor Melissa A. Wong (MS '94) have assembled chapters from experts in library and information science that focus on new ideas and methods for providing reference service; discuss the effective use of print, online, and fee-based sources; and explore the future of reference services in light of today's fast-changing technology.

The iSchool is pleased to announce the appointment of Martin Wolske as interim director of the Center for Digital Inclusion (CDI). Wolske assumes the position following the departure of Jon Gant, founding director, who recently accepted the deanship of the School of Library and Information Sciences at North Carolina Central University in Durham.

Fifteen iSchool instructors were named in the University's List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for Spring 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.

Moises Orozco Villicaña joined the iSchool on August 22 as director of enrollment management. In this new position, he is responsible for overall recruitment and admissions.

Ann Ohms (MS '08) joined the School on August 1 as K-12 program coordinator. In this role, she advises students interested in pursuing licensure or endorsement as a K-12 library information specialist and supervises teacher-librarian candidates during their student teaching.

Georgeann Burch (MS '04), K-12 program coordinator, retired from the University on May 31, 2016. The first to serve in this role, she joined the iSchool in 2005 following experience as a school library media specialist. Under her direction, the program expanded in enrollments, offerings, and reputation.

The iSchool at Illinois seeks nominations for the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award. The deadline for nominations is October 1, 2016.

Given annually, the award acknowledges individuals or groups who have furthered the cause of intellectual freedom, particularly as it impacts libraries and information centers and the dissemination of ideas.

The American Library Association (ALA) will hold its 2016 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Florida, on June 23-28. The theme of the conference is, "Transforming Our Libraries, Ourselves."

In 1996, our School was the first on campus to offer an online program, making our top-ranked master’s degree in library and information science available to students around the world. This groundbreaking program was called the Library Education Experimental Program, or LEEP.

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 15, 2016.

GSLIS alumna Lorraine Haricombe (MS ’88, PhD ’92) will deliver the 2016 GSLIS Convocation address, "Imagine." The event will be held on Sunday, May 15, at 9:30 a.m. For those who would like to watch the ceremony online, live video will be available as well as archived for future viewing.

This fall, the first cohort of students will begin their studies in our School’s new Master of Science degree in information management (MS/IM) program. These students will have the opportunity to choose from four professional pathways to prepare for successful careers in the design and management of information systems.

MS/LIS, CAS, and nondegree students who hold a Professional Educator License (PEL) can now add a Technology Specialist (TS) endorsement to their PEL with GSLIS coursework.

Students and recent graduates interested in working in special collections librarianship are invited to attend the upcoming workshop, “A Rare Choice: Career Workshop for Special & Specialized Collections Librarianship,” at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) on Saturday, May 7.

Coursera, a leading online education company known for massive open online courses (MOOCs), today announced that they are partnering with CS @ ILLINOIS on a professional data science master’s degree.

GSLIS and the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) are pleased to announce a partnership to offer an online graduate-level course on intellectual freedom for library and information science (LIS) students around the country.

Fifteen GSLIS instructors were named to the University’s List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for Fall 2015. 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. Only those instructors who gave out ICES forms during…

Betty Sue Flowers, former director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, will deliver the inaugural Taylor Willingham Lecture in Change Management at GSLIS on Tuesday, March 29.