GSLIS master’s student Jhani Miller is the winner of the 2015 Emerging Leader Award given by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Resource Center. Each year, the center recognizes achievements made in a number of noteworthy areas by members of the LGBTQ campus community, including students, faculty, and staff. Miller was nominated for the Emerging Leader Award by GSLIS Senior…

The Library of Congress, in conjunction with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, has named five members to the 2015 class of the National Digital Stewardship Residency (NDSR) program. Among those named is Jessica Tieman, who will earn her master's degree from GSLIS this spring. The NDSR program offers recent master’s degree graduates/doctoral candidates in specialized fields—library…

GSLIS master’s student Lindsay Shapray has been selected to participate in the highly competitive 2015 Library of Congress (LoC) Junior Fellows Summer Intern Program. She will spend ten weeks working full time on-site in Washington, DC, at the LoC’s John W. Kluge Center, which works to bring together scholars and political leaders. The Kluge Center is a great fit for Shapray, who has…

Doctoral candidate Noah Lenstra (MS ’09, CAS ’11) was recently honored with the University of Illinois Campus Award for Excellence in Public Engagement. One of six award recipients for the 2014-2015 academic year, Lenstra was recognized for his work in community informatics, specifically in Champaign and East St. Louis. Lenstra has worked closely with Champaign’s African-American community to…

Recently, business partners at the quarterly GSLIS Corporate Roundtable (CRT) event had the opportunity to learn more about master’s-level student projects that have application within the corporate sector. Directly following the CRT discussion about big data, seven master’s students made presentations about their work to representatives from a variety of companies including CRT sponsors…

This week the University of Illinois celebrates both Graduate Student Appreciation Week and International Week. At GSLIS, we are proud of all our students and our international connections, including faculty, research fellows, scholars-in-residence, and students like Thomas Mukonde, who hails from Zambia. Why did you decide to pursue an LIS degree? I decided to do an LIS degree because I…

This week the University of Illinois celebrates both Graduate Student Appreciation Week and International Week. At GSLIS, we are proud of all our students and our international connections, including faculty, research fellows, scholars-in-residence, and students like Nushrat Khan, who hails from Bangladesh. Why did you decide to pursue an LIS degree? Prior to starting graduate school in…

Thanks to contributions from alumni and friends, GSLIS was able to award two Leep student scholarships in 2014. Lindsay Keating (MS '14) received an award for the Summer 2014 semester, and Lori Jansson (MS '14) received an award for Fall 2014. The Leep Scholarship Fund was established by Leep alumna Brooke Johnson (MS '03) and GSLIS Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Programs Linda C.…

Four GSLIS master's students have been named the 2015 recipients of the C. Barber Mueller Prizes for Excellence in Exhibition Design, which is awarded annually by the University of Illinois Library's Library Exhibitions Committee. Linsy DePooter and Meredith Knoff, graduate assistants at the Undergraduate Library, were selected for their exhibit titled, "Words into Music," which is on display…

Artist, writer, zinester, crafter, student, mother—Ann Chiu is many things. She balances her eclectic interests with the help of the supportive GSLIS community and like-minded people in Portland, Oregon. Why did you decide to pursue an LIS degree? About four years ago, I found myself working part time as a waitress at an assisted living housing facility, and part time as a barista at a local…

GSLIS master's students Ray Ostman and Madison Sullivan have been selected as two of fifteen recipients nationwide to receive a 2015 ACRL Library School Student Scholarship. The purpose of the scholarship is to provide opportunities for students to participate in an Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) professional development experience and learn more about current issues in…

CIRSS faculty and students will participate in the upcoming 10th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC), February 9-12 in London. This year's theme, "Ten years back, ten years forward: achievements, lessons and the future for digital curation," will focus on how the digital curation research community will be moving the domain forward in the years to come.  Posters Crediting…

Join GSLIS faculty, staff, and students at the 2015 ALISE Annual Conference, which will be held January 27-30 in Chicago. The theme of the conference is “Mirrors & Windows: Reflections on Social Justice and Re-Imagining LIS Education.” January 27 WISE Pedagogy Pre-conference Workshop, “Integrating Community Engagement in Online Education,” 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., presenters include…

Jerrod Moore is going places—literally. Having recently completed his master’s coursework at GSLIS, Moore is preparing to start work in February at GE Capital, which is based in Norwalk, Connecticut, with offices worldwide. Over the next two years, he will live and work in four different cities as a GE Information Technology Leadership Program (ITLP) fellow. The highly competitive two-year…

GSLIS master's student Erik Ponder and CAS student Kate Rojas (MS '14) have been chosen by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) as 2015 Career Enhancement Program (CEP) fellows. Each year, ARL member libraries select a group of library and information science master's students to participate in this competitive program, which provides avenues for students from traditionally…

In the ongoing challenge to develop new technological innovations, great minds don’t think alike. It was the diverse intellectual backgrounds and strengths of each teammate that allowed a group of four Illinois graduate students to tackle a design challenge that required a multidisciplinary approach. GSLIS master’s student Chris Nixon called on his friends Berenice Vargas, a fellow GSLIS…

GSLIS doctoral candidate Melissa Villa-Nicholas has been awarded The Barbara and Donald Smalley Graduate Research Fellowship for the 2015 academic year given by the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, where she is pursuing a graduate minor in queer studies. This $12,000 fellowship supports graduate students working on their dissertation and is awarded to a graduate minor in gender and women…

After completing bachelor's and master's degrees in China, Jinlong Guo came to the United States to earn his doctoral degree at GSLIS. Despite his knowledge and expertise in the field, he continues to  be impressed by the interdisciplinarity and potential of research in LIS. Why did you decide to pursue an LIS doctoral degree? My path to the LIS doctoral degree seems very straightforward…

At the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), scientists study major global issues from climate change to solar activity to air quality. The data collected at NCAR is shared with other researchers in the United States and internationally, contributing to solutions to world-wide environmental challenges. A thousand miles away, students at the University of Illinois have access to one…

GSLIS doctoral students Emily Lawrence and K.R. Roberto and master's student Kellee Warren will present separate talks at the Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies Colloquium at the University of Toronto on October 18, 2014. The colloquium aims to view the information field through the critical lens of gender and sexuality, considering the challenges and advantages of that interaction.…