Doctoral candidate E.E. Lawrence will present at the 2019 Popular Culture Association National Conference, which will be held April 17-20 in Washington, D.C. Lawrence will give the talk, "Should the Public Library Promote Popular Fiction?," during the Libraries, Archives & Museum area's "Collections" session.

Associate Professor Maria Bonn will present her research at a preconference workshop during the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) biennial conference, which will be held April 10-13 in Cleveland, Ohio. With its theme of "Recasting the Narrative," ACRL 2019 will focus on what it means to be an academic library professional in the twenty-first century.

Yoo-Seong Song, faculty member and librarian at the University Library, now has a joint appointment with the iSchool. As a result, he will increase the number of courses he teaches for the School and participate more broadly in advising students who focus on information consulting and related areas.

Doctoral candidate E.E. Lawrence successfully defended their dissertation, "Reading for Democratic Citizenship: A New Model for Readers' Advisory," on March 28.

Doctoral candidate Dianah T. Kacunguzi will present her research at the UP Carnegie Conference, which will be held from March 24-30 in Pretoria, South Africa.

Professor and Executive Associate Dean Linda C. Smith (MS '72) has been named an Illinois Library Luminary by the Illinois Library Association (ILA). This distinction honors individuals whose efforts have made a significant contribution to Illinois libraries. Smith's nearly 50-year career began when she came to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Graduate School of Library Science (now the School of Information Sciences) in 1971 shortly after graduating summa cum laude in physics and mathematics from Allegheny College (PA). She received her MS from Illinois in 1972 and spent a year at Washington University School of Medicine Library in St. Louis as a trainee in computer librarianship. She then earned an MS in information and computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1975 and a PhD from Syracuse University, School of Information Studies in 1979. 

The University of Illinois is working with six other universities to streamline and improve access to books for students with disabilities who need an alternative to the print format. Part of a two-year effort funded by a $1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the project includes university libraries, disability resources offices and university presses, as well as the digital repositories HathiTrust, Internet Archive and Bookshare.

Studies consistently show that students achieve higher test scores and greater academic success when they have access to fully staffed, effective school libraries. The School Librarian Licensure program at the iSchool welcomes those who want to make a difference in the lives of youth by becoming a school librarian. Applications to the program are due February 15 for summer/fall admission.

Kati Richardson (MS '18) is the district librarian for the Highland (IL) school district. She has always been passionate about libraries, so school librarianship was a natural choice.

iSchool master's students Laura Rocco and Elise Feltman are the recipients of the first Robert Howerton Graduate Student Research Award from the University Library. The award financially supports students who hold a pre-professional graduate assistantship position at the library and who are engaged in research regarding reference and technical services with plans to publish their work.

iSchool faculty, staff, and students will participate in the 2018 Charleston Conference, which will be held November 7-9 in Charleston, South Carolina. The conference is an annual gathering that draws librarians, publishers, vendors, and others to discuss issues relating to the acquisition of books and serials.