PhD students Michael Gryk and Noah Samuel will present their research at the 14th International Conference on Knowledge Management (ICKM), which will be held November 9-10 in Vancouver, Canada, in conjunction with the ASIS&T Annual Meeting. ICKM brings together academics, researchers, developers, and other information professionals for discussions on the theoretical and practical aspects of information and knowledge management. 

When Julia Hart, site leader for the COUNTRY Financial DigitaLab, is in need of interns, she looks to the iSchool for student talent. Hart's first hire for the DigitaLab, which was launched at the University of Illinois Research Park in October 2017, was MS/IM student Anmol Gandhi. Gandhi still works at the lab as a data analyst, along with fellow MS/IM student Tanvi Malhotra. The students' job duties include predictive modeling, machine learning, text mining, and data visualizations as well as data modeling and research.

MS/IM student Seung Jun discusses his practicum experience at the AbbVie Innovation Center.

The iSchool launched a new apprenticeship program this fall with The Urbana Free Library. The program, which is modeled after an internship partnership between the Dominican University School of Information Studies and Skokie Public Library, will provide students with practical experience and additional exposure to all facets of library operations.

CAS student Stephanie Shallcross (MS '18) presented her work on teaching digital literacy to youth at the Community Informatics Research Network (CIRN) annual conference, held October 24-28 in Prato, Italy. This year's conference addressed research, practice, and creative endeavors focused on shaping and influencing policy and programs.

iSchool students interested in crafting and socializing with their fellow students should check out the Stitch & Bitch student group. Despite the group's name, a knitting background is not necessary, and all students are welcome regardless of their level of crafting experience.

MS/IM student Suyash Singh received Honorable Mention in the Data Visualization Competition sponsored by the University of Illinois Library’s Scholarly Commons. The competition provides students with an opportunity to demonstrate their skills in visually communicating information. Winners were announced on October 9 at the Fall 2018 Scholarly Commons Open House.

Doctoral candidate Jimi Jones will discuss his dissertation research at the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) Digital Preservation 2018, which will be held October 17-18 in Las Vegas. NDSA is a consortium of more than 220 organizations committed to the long-term preservation and stewardship of digital information and cultural heritage, for the benefit of present and future generations.

Three iSchool students were on the winning team at PygHack 2018, a 24-hour hackathon that brings together coders, designers, engineers, and dreamers to work together to create something that can benefit the community or an organization in Champaign-Urbana. This year's event was held on September 29-30 at the University of Illinois Research Park. PygHack projects were judged on community benefit, collaboration, design, functioning prototype, and innovation. 

Doctoral candidate Kahyun Choi successfully defended her dissertation, "Computational Lyricology: Quantitative Approaches to Understanding Song Lyrics and Their Interpretations."

MS/LIS student Edward Gloor discusses his practicum experience at the Champaign County Historical Archives.

Doctoral candidate Kirstin Phelps will participate in ISIC 2018: The Information Behaviour Conference, which will be held October 9-11 in Krakow, Poland. The conference is a platform for a broad and multidisciplinary community of researchers to present and discuss how people engage with information in a myriad of contexts.

The 2018 Illinois Library Association (ILA) Annual Conference will be held from October 9-11 in Peoria. The theme of this year's conference is "Libraries: All Inclusive." Visit with the iSchool at Booth #315 in the Exhibit Hall on October 10 and 11. The School will also host an alumni breakfast on October 11.

PhD student Michael Gryk presented his research in data curation at iPRES 2018, which was held in Boston from September 25-27. The conference brought together researchers, archivists, librarians, providers, and other experts to share recent developments and innovative projects in the field of digital preservation.

Doctoral students Jamillah Gabriel and Lettycia Terrones will discuss diversity in LIS education at the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC), which will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from September 26-30. The conference brings together librarians, staff, and supporters as well as community participants to explore issues of diversity in libraries.

As the new Student Leadership GA for the iSchool, MS/LIS student Eileen López will serve as chair and coordinator of the Student Advisory Board and iSchool Student Representatives as well as support the Student Affairs Office. Born and raised in Chicago, she earned her BFA in graphic design from Columbia College Chicago and worked as a designer before coming to the iSchool for her master's degree.

Ashley Batchelder, a master's student in the Leep online program, presented her library's physical activity programs at the Association for Rural and Small Libraries (ARSL) Conference, which was held from September 13-15 in Springfield, Illinois. Batchelder, who is an assistant children's librarian at the Mt. Zion (IL) District Library, took part in the session, "Let's Get Moving at the Library! Physical Activity Programs for Fun and for Health." She presented two programs that promote physical activity at her library: the Music and Movement program she developed and the library's Annual Garden Party that kicks off the summer reading program.

Doctoral candidate Kinyetta Nance discusses her summer internship at Facebook in California.

Doctoral student Jessica Cheng will present her research at the 18th European Knowledge Organization Systems (NKOS) Workshop, which will take place on September 13 in Porto, Portugal. The workshop, held in conjunction with the International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries (TPDL 2018) and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI 2018), will explore the potential of knowledge organization systems (KOS) such as classification systems, taxonomies, thesauri, ontologies, and lexical databases in the context of current developments and possibilities.

Doctoral candidate Jacob Jett presented his research in digital cultural heritage collections at the Japanese Association for the Digital Humanities annual conference (JADH 2018), which was held September 9-11, in Tokyo, Japan. The theme of this year's conference was "Leveraging Open Data."