School faculty, staff, and students will present their research at the 2025 Illinois Library Association (ILA) Annual Conference, which will be held on October 14–16 in Rosemont. The theme of this year's conference is "You Belong Here."

MSLIS students Monica Gil, Holly Bleeden, and Harrison Price were selected as winners of this year's Graduate Student Exhibit Contest, sponsored by the University of Illinois Library. Gil and Bleeden won first place for their exhibit, "Echoes of Time: The Evolution of Music Media," and Price won second place for his exhibit, "Unique-ly Illinois: Creative Writing from High School to Higher Education." The exhibits will be on display in the Marshall Gallery in the library through the end of March.

Associate Professor Kate McDowell will present the keynote at the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) Spring Meeting on March 4 in Washington, D.C. COSLA is an independent organization whose membership consists of the top library officers of the states and territories, variously designated as state librarian, director, commissioner, or executive secretary.

Last semester, students in the Business Intelligence Group (BIG), the student consultancy group affiliated with Associate Professor Yoo-Seong Song's Applied Business Research class (IS 514), worked with Wismettac, a Japanese food distribution company. As a large global company with 47 offices in North America, Wismettac sought to study how data science and AI-based technologies could help the company's operations. 

The iSchool is pleased to announce that Colin Rhinesmith joined the faculty as a visiting associate professor on January 1, 2025. His position will become permanent following approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. He previously served as founder and director of the Digital Equity Research Center at the Metropolitan New York Library Council.

Join iSchool faculty, staff, and students for the annual conference of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), which will take place from October 14-17 in Portland, Oregon. The theme of the 2024 conference is "Ethics and Evolution of Truth and Information."

iSchool researchers will present their work at the 24th Annual Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC) International Conference, which will be held on October 9-10 in Portland, Oregon. The theme of the 2024 conference is "Pathways to Prosperity: Building Sustainable Futures through Community Engagement."

Associate Professor Kate McDowell will present three keynotes on data storytelling this fall. Her first keynote will be given at Library Research Seminar VIII: Telling Library Stories, which will be held from September 16-18 at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.

As part of Teaching Associate Professor Judith Pintar's Introduction to Information Sciences (IS 101) course, students are tasked with creating board games that teach various aspects of information science targeted to particular audiences. The students presented their creations on April 19 at the Game Studies and Design Spring 2024 Showcase. In addition to the game demonstrations, the event featured posters and presentations by students and faculty.

Associate Professor Kate McDowell will deliver two keynotes on library data storytelling this month. 

Doctoral candidate Julia Burns Petrella successfully defended her dissertation, "Educating Pre-Service School Librarians about Race, Racism, and Whiteness," on December 4.

This fall, students in the Business Intelligence Group (BIG), the student consultancy group associated with Associate Professor Yoo-Seong Song's Applied Business Research class (IS 514), worked on projects related to supply chain management, digital health, biotechnology, and higher education for companies located at the University of Illinois Research Park and overseas in East Asia and Africa. 

Join iSchool faculty, staff, and students for the annual conference of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), which will take place from October 2-5 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The theme of ALISE 2023 is "Bridge the Gap: Teaching, Learning, Practice, and Competencies."

Associate Professor Maria Bonn, Senior Data and Policy Analyst Ben Schaap, and Teaching Assistant Professor Sharon Comstock have received a Provost's Initiative on Teaching Advancement (PITA) grant, worth $7,500, for their proposal, "Standardizing MSLIS Experiential Learning Opportunities." PITA grants support the implementation of teaching innovations and enhancements at the University of Illinois.

The iSchool is pleased to announce that Rachel Adler will join the faculty as an associate professor in August 2023. She currently serves as an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at Northeastern Illinois University. 

Assistant Professor JooYoung Seo has received a $5,000 grant from the nonprofit organization Teach Access to develop and implement a new accessibility module. Seo was one of 19 recipients nationwide who were awarded a faculty grant to infuse accessibility into curricula by creating "modules, presentations, exercises, or curriculum enhancements centered around the fundamental concepts and skills of accessible design and development." 

iSchool undergraduates have the opportunity to explore various career pathways and meet potential employers through a unique course, IS 200 CE: Career Exploration and Development (formerly IS 199 EE: iSchool Explore, Engage, Develop). This one-credit course focuses on professional development and career exploration by connecting students with industry representatives, alumni, current students, faculty, and staff. It provides an opportunity for students to build a professional network and teaches them the skills to do so through course assignments, informal interview and career fair presentations, and other professional workshops.

The Business Intelligence Group (BIG), a student consultancy group associated with Associate Professor Yoo-Seong Song's Applied Business Research class (IS 514), has expanded its size and scope this year. In addition to graduate students, BIG now welcomes iSchool undergraduates to serve as consultants.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 10,000 full-time school librarian positions have been lost nationwide over the past two decades. This loss is especially felt by students, since research suggests that reading, writing, and graduation rates improve where schools employ certified school librarians. Thanks to a new program cosponsored by the iSchool and Chicago Public Schools (CPS), five school libraries that had been shuttered for five or more years now have a school librarian in place, with more to come.

Librarians need to be able to communicate about social justice issues, and teaching social justice storytelling to library school students will help them develop the skills to do so, two researchers say. Associate Professor Kate McDowell and Nicole Cooke, a former Illinois information sciences professor who now teaches at the University of South Carolina, analyzed how to teach those skills through a storytelling assignment with their students.