The University of Illinois is celebrating International Week from March 31-April 6 to raise awareness about the breadth of international education, activities, and resources at Illinois. At GSLIS, we are proud of our international connections and our diverse student body, faculty, research fellows, and scholars-in-residence. We have developed an especially strong academic relationship with…

Looking for new ways to engage in intellectual exploration and create practical applications that solve socio-technical issues, Kirstin Phelps found that GSLIS could provide both the challenges and support she was hoping for in a degree program. Phelps is a first-year PhD student with a background in communications and education. Why did you decide to pursue an LIS degree? When I started…

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…

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…

Two teams of GSLIS students have been selected to present at the social media expo during the 2014 iConference on “Leveraging Social Media to Foster Smarter Societies.” An overall winning team will be selected from the student team presentations at the conference.The two student teams are:SentiNets, advised by Assistant Professor Jana Diesner, comprised of doctoral students Jinlong Guo, Kirstin…

CIRSS faculty and students will participate in the upcoming 9th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC) to be held February 24-27 in San Francisco. This year's theme, "Commodity, catalyst or change-agent? Data-driven transformations in research, education, business & society," will focus on how data-driven tools and services allow us to explore, manage, use, and benefit from…

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…

Five GSLIS master's students have been chosen by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) as 2014 Career Enhancement Program (CEP) fellows: Alonso Avila, Raquel Flores-Clemons, Sophie Hou, Bradley Kuykendall, and Jerrod Moore. 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…

[image1-right]To help accomplish her goal of becoming a law librarian, LEEP student Lindsey Carpino, JD, balances teaching law courses to paralegal students, working as a reference associate at a law school, and taking GSLIS courses.Why did you decide to pursue an LIS degree?I wanted to pursue an LIS degree because I developed an interest in becoming a law librarian while I worked as a reference…

CIRSS researchers will make a strong showing as they share their expertise in scientific data curation at this week’s 46th annual Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The meeting, scheduled for December 9-13 in San Francisco, California, is the largest worldwide conference in the geophysical sciences, gathering more than 24,000 earth and space scientists, educators,…

GSLIS PhD student Yang Luo successfully defended her dissertation proposal last spring and promptly left on a trip to China for field research over the summer. The CCB was excited to find the opportunity to meet with Luo and to talk about her research and trip.“My research is on the history of children’s libraries in China. I’m specifically looking at the time period from 1912-1937,” says Luo…

GSLIS students William Langston and Sophie Young have been selected to receive 2014 Spectrum Scholar/PLA Conference Travel Grants from the Public Library Association. In total, ten of the nation's 2013 Spectrum Scholars were selected to receive funding to attend the conference. Langston and Young, both master's students, were named ALA Spectrum Scholars earlier this year along with four other…

[image1-right]With a background in history and initially inspired by an interest in archives and special collections, Christina John decided to pursue a master’s degree at GSLIS. She now plans to apply her research and LIS skills to a career in the corporate or nonprofit sector.Why did you decide to pursue an LIS degree?I decided to pursue an LIS degree when I was an undergrad at DePaul…

Information management in a corporate setting can take many forms. For Shannon Roberts (MS ’12), it involves working as a price and market analyst for John Deere. For GSLIS master’s student Kelsey Heffren, it means conducting oral history interviews of longtime staff at W. W. Grainger, Inc., and working to organize, preserve, and expand the company’s intellectual property collection. And for…

[image1-right]GSLIS master's student and LAMP Scholar Katrina Spencer recently attended the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) regional conference held at the St. Louis Public Library from October 18-20. Her trip was partially funded by GSLIS and the Center for Children's Books (CCB). The CCB sat down with Spencer, who is interested in translation of children’s literature and…

In this essay, master's student Regina Sierra Carter recounts her summer at the Smithsonian Institution, where she worked as a multicultural junior fellow. If you are interested in hosting a GSLIS student for an internship or practicum, please contact Roy Brooks, practicum coordinator. [image1-right]As a result of the generous support of the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., I was blessed to serve…

Carole Palmer, GSLIS professor and director of CIRSS, and Nicholas Weber, GSLIS doctoral candidate, will share their expertise in data curation at the upcoming John Deere Big Data Summit, which will be held in Champaign on October 1 and 2. The summit is intended to bring together analytic and big data thought leaders from inside and outside the company to showcase cutting edge academic…

Washington, DC—The ARL Committee on Diversity and Leadership has selected 15 masters of library and information science (MLIS) students to participate in the 2013–2015 Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce (IRDW) as ARL Diversity Scholars.The ARL IRDW offers numerous financial benefits to program participants as well as leadership development provided through the annual ARL Leadership…

[image1-right]GSLIS master’s student Yan Liu has demonstrated time and again that she is dedicated to pursuing a career in librarianship and willing to put in the extra effort required to stand out from the crowd. Since moving from her home in Beijing to the United States to study library and information science at GSLIS, Liu’s dedication has garnered well-deserved attention and praise.…

Five GSLIS master's students participated in the University of Illinois’s 2013 Summer Pre-doctoral Institute (SPI). SPI is a campus-wide orientation program that accepts incoming graduate students from U.S. populations that are underrepresented in campus graduate programs. During the eight-week program, students enroll in an independent study, participate in a series of research-based seminars,…