Isaac Wink worked at an immigration legal clinic following his undergraduate studies in history and public policy at the University of Chicago. Through his work with individuals applying for asylum in the United States, he discovered he enjoyed using his research skills to help people. Because of this, librarianship felt like a suitable career path.

Thirteen iSchool master's students were named 2022-2023 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services. This "Spectrum Scholar Spotlight" series highlights the School's scholars. MSLIS student Sanobar Chagani earned her bachelor's degree in political science and communications and rhetorical studies from Syracuse University.

BSIS student Jared Canty has been honored by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) as a 2022 Fiddler Innovation Undergraduate Fellow. Canty was among twenty undergraduates from various fields who were selected from NCSA's SPIN, REU-INCLUSION, and Design for America programs. The fellowship, which includes a $1,500 award, recognizes students whose research at NCSA crosses over into multiple disciplines, encouraging exploration of new topics and innovation.

Doctoral candidate Linh Hoang successfully defended her dissertation, "Natural Language Processing to Support Evidence Quality Assessment of Biomedical Literature," on December 8.

It was while she was serving in the Peace Corps that Alex Brown's eyes were opened to the need for reliable access to quality information and education. She didn't realize it at the time, but this experience would one day lead her to the iSchool, where she is now a student in the MSLIS online (Leep) program.

A paper coauthored by PhD student Lanyu Shang and members of Associate Professor Dong Wang's research group, the Social Sensing and Intelligence Lab, received the best paper award in the research track during the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Network Analysis and Mining (ASONAM 2022).

MS/IM student Niharika Surange wasn't always drawn to a career in data science; like many children around the world, she initially wanted to work in the same occupation as her parent. However, as Surange progressed through school, her interest in information science and technology grew. 

BS/IS student Jules Paoletti discusses her study abroad in Barcelona, Spain, this fall, an experience that has "opened her eyes to new learning styles."

Members of Associate Professor Dong Wang's research group, the Social Sensing and Intelligence Lab, will present their research at the 25th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2022) and the 2022 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Network Analysis and Mining (ASONAM 2022). 

As he works toward his PhD in information sciences, William Langston is receiving financial support through the Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois Program (DFI). The program provides competitive need-based financial awards to underrepresented students in the state of Illinois who are interested in becoming full-time tenure-track faculty and staff at colleges and universities in Illinois.

MS/LIS student Katie Colson and Cora Godfrey (MS/LIS '22) won first prize for their paper at the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) conference's student forum. The conference, which supports innovation in metadata design and best practices across the metadata ecology, was held virtually on October 3-7.

iSchool faculty, staff, and students will participate in the annual conference of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), which will be held from October 24-26, and the 85th annual meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), which will be held from October 29-November 1. Both conferences will take place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Thirteen iSchool master's students were named 2022-2023 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services. This "Spectrum Scholar Spotlight" series highlights the School's scholars. MS/LIS student Megha Bamola earned her bachelor's degree in urban planning from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Three thousand years ago, Native Americans and pioneers used a trail that stretched across Illinois from Kaskaskia in the south to Peoria in the north. These early travelers used the trail for hunting, trade, and war. Over time, with the development of cities and highways, the trail faded away, but a trace of what it used to be remains. MS/LIS student Anna Sielaff is bringing the history of the trail to life through her project, "Relive the True Mother Road: The Edwards Trace."

As Perry Diggs pondered the next step in his academic journey, he asked some of his former professors for advice. Recognizing his love of research and archiving, they encouraged Diggs to consider a degree in library and information science. Now enrolled in the MS/LIS online (Leep) program, Diggs is grateful for their counsel as well as for the support he has received through the iSchool's George S. Bonn Scholarship. 

MS/IM student Shivani Dhavala discusses her internship with Tesla. According to Dhavala, her iSchool coursework and internship experience is preparing her for a career as a product manager, where she can "contribute to some really fascinating products that people would use."

Imani Barberousse's interest in medical librarianship is a natural extension of her thirty years of experience as a doula and mother. She believes that collecting and disseminating birthing stories—especially those from women of color—can help inform and improve current medical techniques to reduce the current maternal and infant death rate in the United States. 

Thirteen iSchool master's students were named 2022-2023 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services. This "Spectrum Scholar Spotlight" series highlights the School’s scholars. MS/LIS student Inbar Michael earned her bachelor's degree in history with a minor in humanities and law from the University of California, Irvine.

PhD student Jamillah Gabriel and iSchool alumna Katrina Spencer (MS/LIS ’16) gave the keynote address at the Society of American Archives Annual Conference, which was held on August 25-27 virtually and in Boston, Massachusetts.

MS/LIS online (Leep) student Jamie Flood has been awarded a 2022 Paul Evan Peters Fellowship from the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI). The fellowship, established in honor of CNI's founding director, recognizes outstanding scholarship and intellectual rigor, a commitment to civic responsibility and democratic values, and imagination. CNI annually provides two awards: one to a doctoral student in the amount of $5,000 per year, and one to a master's student in the amount of $2,500 per year.