The American Library Association hosted a spring retreat for the Spectrum Doctoral Fellows on April 5-7 at the iHotel and Conference Center on the Illinois campus. Assistant Professor Nicole Cooke co-planned the event, which was sponsored by the American Library Association’s Office for Diversity, made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Senior Lecturer Maria Bonn traveled across the pond recently to participate in the 2014 Fiesole Collection Development Retreat, held April 10-12 in Cambridge, England. This annual meeting draws information professionals and industry representatives from around the world to discuss developments and issues in collection development.“Fiesole is a wonderful opportunity to engage in high-level…

The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) and GSLIS are pleased to announce a partnership to offer an online graduate-level course on intellectual freedom for library and information science students around the country. The course, to be taught by GSLIS professor Emily Knox, is the first education-related project of FTRF’s Judith F. Krug Memorial Fund.“Intellectual Freedom and Censorship” will be…

Programmers from around the world will flock to Montreal on April 9-17 for PyCon 2014, the world’s largest gathering for users of the programming language Python. Among the participants will be two GSLIS master’s students, Elizabeth Surbeck and Elizabeth Wickes.Wickes, a first-semester student specializing in data curation and socio-technical data analytics (SODA), will present a poster titled, “…

Prospective master’s students now have additional time to apply for Summer 2014 admission through GSLIS’s cutting-edge LEEP program. The new deadline is May 1. LEEP, an innovative hybrid program, combines synchronous web-based education with brief periods of on-campus instruction. It is a popular online option that provides the brightest students with access to the nation’s top LIS program…

Linda C. Smith, professor and associate dean for academic programs, will serve as a partner on a recently awarded Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) national forum planning grant that will look at the future of library and information science education. The grant, "Educate to Innovate: Re-visioning Library and Information Science Education," is led by Eileen G. Abels, dean of…

The GSLIS eUpdate, published every other month, summarizes current news, events, alumni and advancement highlights, and continuing professional development opportunities. Other publications that may be of interest to alumni and friends are listed on the GSLIS Publications web page. _____________________________________________________ IN THIS ISSUE GSLIS Spotlight GSLIS News Summary…

The Center for Children’s Books (CCB) will host its annual Storytelling Festival, coordinated this year by GSLIS students Amy Atkinson and Tad Andracki, on Saturday, April 12, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. in the GSLIS Building, Room 126. The Festival will feature age-old folklore, innovative uses of new media, and everything in between. The festival will bring to life a host of characters…

Each semester, GSLIS distance students come to campus for an intensive weekend where they meet on-campus students, connect with their instructors, and form professional relationships. LEEP weekend provides distance and on-campus students with the unique opportunity to attend lectures, networking events, and other professional developmental activities. As part of this spring's LEEP weekend, the…

The Library School Alumni Association (LSAA) is seeking nominations for three distinguished awards. The awards are given annually at the GSLIS alumni reception held at the American Library Association conference. The deadline for nomination is April 1, 2014. The Distinguished Alumnus Award recognizes an individual alumnus of GSLIS who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of…

GSLIS will host prospective students on Friday, March 14, as part of the campuswide Community of Scholars (COS) Campus Visit Program. The program brings admitted graduate students from underrepresented backgrounds to campus to meet with faculty and staff from their intended academic programs and give them the opportunity to network with current and prospective students. GSLIS will welcome…

GSLIS master’s students and representatives from the corporate sector gathered at the iHotel on Friday, February 28, for a meeting of the Corporate Roundtable and the Fourth Annual Applied Project Poster Session. Master’s student and former W. W. Grainger intern Kelsey Heffren and Erwin Cruz, Grainger’s director of intellectual property strategy and management and GSLIS adjunct lecturer,…

The GSLIS News Digest highlights recent news, events, and accomplishments of GSLIS faculty, staff, and students. For more news, visit the GSLIS home page and follow us on Facebook and Twitter! News from GSLIS at Illinois On a panel at the College Art Association in February, Professor Abdul Alkalimat provided personal history and political context in the Organization of Black American…

GSLIS faculty, students, and staff will participate in iConference 2014, which will be held March 4-7 in Berlin. The annual iConference, hosted by the iSchools organization, brings together scholars, researchers, and information professionals from around the world. The theme of the ninth annual conference, which will take place at Humboldt University of Berlin, is "Breaking Down Walls:…

The life and career of GSLIS research fellow Michelle H. Martin was fundamentally influenced by a woman named Augusta Baker. As a child, Martin knew Baker and had opportunities to see and hear the storytelling specialist, who was a storyteller-in-residence at the University of South Carolina (USC) for fourteen years. Today, Martin is the Augusta Baker Chair in Childhood Literacy at USC. The chair…

The GSLIS eUpdate, published every other month, summarizes current news, events, alumni and advancement highlights, and continuing professional development opportunities. Other publications that may be of interest to alumni and friends are listed on the GSLIS Publications web page. _____________________________________________________ IN THIS ISSUE GSLIS Spotlight GSLIS News Summary…

Five GSLIS students will join Associate Professor Terry Weech at BOBCATSSS, an international symposium under the auspices of EUCLID (European Association for Library and Information Education and Research) that brings together library and information science professionals, researchers, educators, and students. CAS student Nicole Helregel and master's students Emilia Marcyk, Erik Radio, Angela…

GSLIS faculty, staff, and students will participate in the 2014 ALISE Annual Conference, which will be held January 21-24 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The theme of the conference is "Educational Entrepreneurship," and sessions will focus on a variety of topics related to incorporating entrepreneurship into LIS pedagogy and research. Tuesday, January 21 WISE Pedagogy Pre-conference…

GSLIS will serve as a key intellectual and infrastructural partner for a new grant awarded to the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH) by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The $3 million grant will fund the first two years of an extensive consortium of fifteen humanities institutes. IPRH, a division of the University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, provides…

The GSLIS eUpdate, published every other month, summarizes current news, events, alumni and advancement highlights, and continuing professional development opportunities. Other publications that may be of interest to alumni and friends are listed on the GSLIS Publications web page. _____________________________________________________ IN THIS ISSUE GSLIS Spotlight News Summary…