Fall 2020 Intersections

INTERSECTIONS FALL 2020

PEOPLE I INFORMATION I TECHNOLOGY

FALL 2020

Intersections

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Fall 2020 School of Information Sciences University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Published by the iSchool Communications Office. For more information or to submit story ideas, please contact brya@illinois.edu.

Dean: Eunice E. Santos Editor: Cindy Ashwill Managing Editor: Cindy Brya Contributing Writers: Cindy Ashwill, Cindy Brya Photography: Cindy Brya, L. Brian Stauffer, Thompson-McClellan Photography Design: Pat Mayer

501 East Daniel Street Champaign, Illinois 61820 ischool@illinois.edu ischool.illinois.edu Phone: (217) 333-3280

Intersections

Contents

Comstock named to PLDA

Bosch receives grant

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People use information for analysis, inquiry, collaboration, and play—and in so doing, change the world. The iSchool at Illinois is dedicated to shaping the future of information through research, education, and engagement, both public and professional.

Intersections highlights our current work in these areas as well as achievements of our students, alumni, faculty, and staff.

Williams preserves African American history 17 Ida B. Wells-Barnett, African American journalist, abolitionist, and feminist, lived in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago.

Her house (pictured on page 17) has been designated a national historic landmark.

Photo credit: Antonio Vernon

Balz scholarship established

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NEWS Letter from the Dean iSchool assumes administration of Informatics programs Celebrating ten years of innovation and creativity at the CU Community Fab Lab New Faces—Fall 2020 Comstock named to the Public Library Data Alliance Career fairs go virtual Pintar named University of Illinois Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Knox elected president of Beta Phi Mu In memoriam: Charles H. Davis and William T Henderson

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RESEARCH Blake leads Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub CHIME in Illinois brings together students, international public health agencies Bashir receives grant to study privacy measures in public libraries Knox and Koh receive grant to study public library makerspaces Bosch receives grant to study potential bias in adaptive learning technology Schneider awarded Linowes Fellowship Hoiem authors article in CLE on production stories

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FEATURES Practicum Spotlight: Newberry Library Puckett receives prestigious Phi Kappa Phi fellowship Roosevelt honored for outstanding service Talbott receives advising award Fifteen iSchool students named 2020-2021 ALA Spectrum Scholars Welcome new iSchool undergraduates

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ALUMNI Hagar’s crisis informatics research informs COVID-19 challenges iSchool alumna works to preserve, celebrate African American history in Bronzeville 2020 ISAA award recipients announced Benson and Koscielski receive 2020 ILA awards

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GIVING Balz scholarship to support returning students Scholarship an affirmation, financial boost for Kang

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CLASS NOTES

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GRANTS

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Letter from the Dean

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I am extremely thankful for the hard work of our iSchool community, which has allowed us to continue to educate talented students, advance meaningful research, and benefit our communities and

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society.

t the start of the fall semester, we all faced a new academic year with uncertainty about what might transpire. The ongoing pandemic has been a challenge, requiring our faculty, staff, and students to make adjustments during this particularly stressful time. Through everyone’s efforts, we have successfully accomplished our work while achieving campus goals for wellness and safety. I am extremely thankful for the hard work of our iSchool community, which has allowed us to continue to educate talented students, advance meaningful research, and benefit our communities and society.

The collaboration and partnerships that have contributed to our resilience also characterize much of our endeavors. This issue of Intersections highlights these efforts. An important development at the start of the semester was the transfer of Illinois Informatics to our School, which strengthens the natural synergies between informatics and the iSchool’s existing programs, as well as enhances cross-campus opportunities. The iSchool continues our leadership in campus-wide programs and research, particularly those focused on using information technology to benefit individuals and organizations, including two collaborative research partnerships: Associate Professor Catherine Blake oversees the Midwest Big Data Hub, a multi-state network of experts who utilize data science to improve life in the Midwest, and Research Scientist Ian Brooks directs the Center for Health Informatics, a partnership with Grainger College of Engineering to promote positive health outcomes through multidisciplinary research innovation.

Our faculty received a number of prestigious grants and awards in areas such as librarianship, privacy and security, and learning technologies. Examples include a recent IMLS grant led by Associate Professors Emily Knox and Kyungwon Koh, who will collaborate with Indian Trails Public Library District to measure the impact and value of public library makerspaces. Additional funding from IMLS received by Associate Professor Masooda Bashir will assess technologies that protect user privacy and security in public library systems. In the area of education, an NSFfunded project will allow Assistant Professor Nigel Bosch to examine potential bias in adaptive learning software for K-12 mathematics, based on demographic differences in how students interact with these learning technologies.

Honors achieved by our faculty and staff exemplify our School’s commitment to collaboration and service, including those received by Senior Lecturer Sharon Comstock, Teaching Associate Professor and Acting BS/IS Program Director Judith Pintar, Academic Advisor Katelyn Talbott, and Senior Grants and Contracts Coordinator Tamara Roosevelt. In addition, our alumni continue to make us proud through their important efforts, as evidenced by this year’s ISAA awards. Please read about these wonderful accomplishments in this issue.

We look forward to 2021. Alumni are invited to participate in celebratory events marking the 75th anniversary of our Center for Children’s Books, including a virtual lecture series, online exhibit, panel discussion, and gala. We are making plans for additional virtual alumni events that provide opportunities for connection, engagement, and collaboration. I hope you will join us.

Sincerely, Eunice Santos, Dean

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iSchool assumes administration of Informatics programs

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dministration of the Illinois Informatics Institute has been transferred from the Office of the Provost to the School of Information Sciences.

This will be a hosting relationship that preserves the multidisciplinary nature of the Institute’s programs, which are managed by several colleges including the iSchool.

“The iSchool is very excited to welcome Informatics,” said iSchool Dean and Professor Eunice E. Santos. “This new arrangement will leverage our School’s leadership to strengthen our mutual teaching and research efforts on campus, in the local community, and beyond.”

The Institute’s programs will be collectively referred to as Informatics. The Informatics PhD, MS in Bioinformatics, and CU Community FabLab—a workshop for rapid prototyping and computer-based design—will continue to be cross-campus

programs hosted by the iSchool. The Informatics Minor, which is the second largest minor at the University, will become a program within the iSchool but will continue to be operated as a campuswide initiative by Informatics staff.

“In today’s environment, we know that Informatics is a highly sought-after area of study by our students,” said Provost Andreas C. Cangellaris. “We are pleased to bring together Informatics programs with the nationally ranked iSchool to encourage even more partnerships, collaborations, and synergies as the iSchool’s convergent research activities across campus continue to grow.”

Altogether, Informatics programs make critical contributions to the University’s curriculum through education in information technologies. These programs attract more women and students from underrepresented groups than other

campus programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as well as a multitude of students who are interested in non-STEM majors.

Informatics staff will become iSchool staff, and all current personnel will remain in place following the transfer.

Lisa Bievenue will continue in her role as director for Informatics programs, providing leadership for programs and personnel.

“This arrangement will provide stability and administrative support, enabling Informatics staff to focus on the students and content of our campuswide interdisciplinary education programs.

It also will provide an institutional home for the CU Community Fab Lab, a campus gem for community engagement and interdisciplinary instruction,” said Bievenue.

Celebrating ten years of innovation and creativity at the CU Community Fab Lab

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his year marks the tenth anniversary of the CU Community Fab Lab, which began in 2010 as a volunteer effort to bring the maker movement to the local community. Short for “fabrication laboratory,” the Fab Lab encourages individuals to develop new ideas, solve problems, and make things. Free and open to anyone who is interested, the Fab Lab promotes personal growth, economic development, and cross-cultural understanding. The iSchool is proud to host the Fab Lab as part of its new relationship with Informatics.

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News

New Faces—Fall 2020

Alaine Martaus, Research Development Coordinator Martaus supports faculty during different stages of the research process, helps identify funding sources and pair researchers with specific solicitations, monitors compliance with different research protocols, and provides support to facilitate publications and publicity.

Kevin Trainor, Senior Lecturer Trainor teaches courses in systems analysis and design, programming and system development, database design and implementation, web development, and project management.

Jill Naiman, Teaching Assistant Professor Naiman teaches research methods for efficient and engaging data visualization in technological fields.

Zoe LeBlanc, Assistant Professor LeBlanc’s research interests include crafting international histories of information, experimenting with computational methods for studying the past, and theorizing how digital methods have and will continue to transform humanists’ research practices.

Madelyn Sanfilippo, Assistant Professor Sanfilippo’s research empirically explores governance of sociotechnical systems, as well as outcomes, inequality, and consequences within these systems.

Anita Nikolich, Director of Research and Technology Innovation and Research Scientist Nikolich supports the iSchool’s efforts to grow and expand research funding, tech transfer, and corporate relationships, and contributes to University-wide initiatives in big data science and computing.

Comstock named to the Public Library Data Alliance

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All of us share a deep passion for and long-term dedication to the core motivations behind the

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founding of PLDA.

– Sharon Comstock

enior Lecturer Sharon Comstock has been named to the first roster for the Public Library Data Alliance (PLDA) by the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) and the National Information Standards Organization (NISO).

Representing an array of stakeholders, this group will continue the work of the COSLA’s Measures that Matter initiative.

The dozen founding members of the PLDA will work from ideas and concepts put forward by the Measures that Matter Action Plan Implementation Group, of which Comstock was a member. This work is expected to generate additional projects led by working groups comprised of subject matter experts and stakeholders drawn from volunteers beyond the core PLDA membership.

The vision for the PLDA includes promoting thought leadership, coordination, commitment, resources, and momentum. It will engage broadly with diverse stakeholders to propose strategic actions around data that reflect the role and impact of public libraries at the local, regional, state, and national levels, and also create a communications infrastructure for the field.

“All of us share a deep passion for and long-term dedication to the core motivations behind the founding of PLDA,”

Comstock said. “Very few professions have more than 100 years’ worth of data sets. Library staff past and present have a demonstrated commitment to measurement, and I think our opportunity now is to ask different questions.

Community inquiry starts with a belief that the community is where the knowledge is.”

Formation of the PLDA was one of the recommendations resulting from the Measures that Matter initiative.

Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS RE-0016-0181-16), the initiative centered on coordinating conversation and action around public library data gathering and use, allowing libraries to continuously improve services aligned with community needs and accurately represent the rich story of the twenty-first century public library.

Comstock joined the iSchool in August 2019. She was previously an inquiry and impact officer at the Evansville (IN) Vanderburgh Public Library and adjunct instructor at Kent State University.

Comstock holds a PhD in library and information science from Illinois and an MA from Northwestern University.

Adapted from a joint COSLA and NISO news release

Career fairs go virtual

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he School of Information Sciences moved its career fairs to a virtual format this fall. The Virtual Career & Internship Fair hosted by the iSchool on September 23 was attended by 35 employers and 676 students, including 295 students from the iSchool. The Government, Library, Archives, and Museum (GLAM) Employers Virtual Career Fair was held on October 7, attracting 26 employers and 155 students from six library programs. Of the GLAM attendees, 83 students were from the iSchool, more than triple the number who participated last year.

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News

Pintar named University of Illinois Distinguished Teacher-Scholar

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eaching Associate Professor and Acting BS/IS Program Director Judith Pintar has been selected by the Office of the Provost and the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs as the University of Illinois Distinguished Teacher-Scholar for the 2020-2021 academic year. The program offers faculty members an opportunity to engage in an in-depth analysis of the craft and art of teaching, consider new approaches, and put their insights to work in ways that will benefit their students and the campus community. Pintar will receive $7,500 for her project and an additional $7,500 for a research assistant.

Pintar’s award will support her project, “Gameful Pedagogy: Instructional Design for Student Well-Being.” As part of the project, faculty who serve as undergraduate program directors will be invited to attend a series of discussions, facilitated by the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL), in order to identify specific factors in course design that foster student wellness and encourage their incorporation into undergraduate syllabi across campus. Student focus groups will be held in the fall semester to provide the program directors with insights to inform the instructional design process. Students will be asked to outline a Students’ Bill of Rights—similar to the Gamers’ Bill of Rights—which emphasizes course design factors that have the greatest impact on their well-being.

“By viewing class design through a new vantage, assessing elements of syllabi as one would assess fairness in rules of play, faculty participants may empathize with how students feel about their courses, which we hope will lead to a recognition of the connection between teaching practices and students’ well-being,” Pintar said.

“The work that I do as a Teacher-Scholar will become part of the suite of resources that CITL offers to improve instructional design and transform teaching practice across our campus. Because my proposed work is also part of the pedagogical vision associated with Games@Illinois, it will be incorporated into that initiative as well.”

Pintar serves as director of Games @ Illinois: Playful Design for Transformative Education, a project funded by the Provost’s Investment for Growth program. Her research interests include digital storytelling, game studies, and the development of interactive and narrative AI. She earned her PhD in sociology from Illinois.

Knox elected president of Beta Phi Mu

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ssociate Professor and Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Emily Knox has been elected president of Beta Phi Mu, the international honor society for library and information studies.

Knox was inducted into Beta Phi Mu in 2003 upon receiving her master’s in library and information science from the University of Illinois, and she has served as the faculty liaison to the Alpha Chapter (Illinois) since 2014. She was elected director of the national organization in 2015 and appointed treasurer in 2018. Knox’s book, Book Banning in 21st Century America, was the first monograph in the Beta Phi Mu Scholars Series.

“I’m excited to work with members of the Beta Phi Mu board as the organization adapts to the landscape of higher education in the twenty-first century,” Knox said. “The national board recently amended the bylaws to permit undergraduates in information sciences and related fields to become members. Hopefully, students in the iSchool’s newly launched BS in information sciences program will soon be invited to join the honor society.”

Knox joined the iSchool faculty in 2012. Her research interests include information access, intellectual freedom and censorship, the intersection of print culture and reading practices, and information ethics and policy.

In memoriam: Charles H. Davis and William T Henderson Charles Hargis Davis (“Charlie,” “Chuck,” “Dave”), former dean and professor emeritus in the iSchool at Illinois, died at his home in Bloomington, Indiana, on September 24. He was 82 years old. He is survived by his wife, Debora (Ralf) Shaw, who was a member of the Illinois iSchool faculty from 1984-1988.

Davis earned an MA in library science and PhD in information science from Indiana University, specializing in computer programs dealing with chemical

information retrieval. He joined the Drexel University Graduate School of Library Science as an assistant professor in 1969.

Three years later, he joined the University of Michigan School of Library Science as an associate professor with tenure. He then moved to the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, as professor and dean of the Faculty of Library Science. In 1979, he was recruited as dean of the Graduate School of Library Science at the University of Illinois, which under his leadership was later renamed the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. He served as dean until 1986, continuing as a professor until his retirement from Illinois in 1993 as professor emeritus. He

then became a senior fellow and adjunct professor at Indiana University’s School of Library and Information Science.

Davis was an active member of the American Society for Information Science, serving as president of the organization from 1982-1983. His two books with James E. Rush, Information Retrieval and Documentation in Chemistry, and Guide to Information Science, were foundational for the study of information science. He and Debora Shaw co-edited the collaboratively written Introduction to Information Science and Technology, published for the American Society for Information Science and Technology.

William (Bill) T Henderson, associate professor emeritus, died at home on June 11 at the age of 90. He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Professor Emerita Kathryn Luther Henderson.

Bill received his bachelor’s degree in floriculture from the University of Illinois.

He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army’s Quartermaster Corps and served in Korea during the Korean Conflict. Upon returning to the States following promotion to first lieutenant and discharge from the Army, he was accepted as a divinity student at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. Kathryn accepted a position as a librarian there, and they were married on August 22, 1953. Bill added a master’s degree in library science from the University of Chicago to the master of divinity he received at McCormick Seminary, and he served for seven years as the seminary’s first acquisitions librarian. He also was ordained as a minister.

In 1965, Kathryn was asked to join the faculty of the Graduate School of Library

and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Bill had the opportunity to choose a position in the University Library from among several openings and chose preservation, an emerging area of concern in libraries as collections were growing, aging, and becoming increasingly in need of careful stewardship and increased care.

Bill and Kathryn team-taught preservation courses and organized conferences related to preservation.

Their course was always included on the university’s list of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students.

In May 2011, the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science Alumni Association selected Bill as the recipient of its Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his outstanding service to the School.

For many years, Bill was the Alpha chapter secretary of Beta Phi Mu, the international honor society for library and information studies. In November 2014, Alpha Chapter established the Kathryn Luther and William T Henderson Award in recognition of the high esteem in which they were held by fellow chapter members and in order to inspire future generations with their example.

Because of his lifelong interest in agriculture, Bill was a member of the Champaign County Farm Bureau. For many years the Hendersons served on the Selection Committee that determines the recipients of the Champaign County Farm Bureau Foundation agricultural scholarships. In January 2020, Bill and Kathryn were awarded the Foundation’s newly established Luther Circle Award.

He was a member of St. Peter’s United Church of Christ, serving on various committees and having a role in Christian education endeavors. He was a longtime member of the American Library Association, the American Theological Library Association, the Illinois Library Association, and Beta Phi Mu. When the current building of the School of Information Sciences was being renovated, there were repeated calls for a conference room where classes and seminars could be held. A continuing legacy of Bill is the William T and Kathryn Luther Henderson Conference Room.

Memorial contributions may be made to the William T and Kathryn Luther Henderson Fund at the University of Illinois Foundation, P.O. Box 734500, Chicago, IL 60673-4500.

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Research

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Blake leads Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub

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s its second year of new funding begins, there is new leadership at the Midwest Big Data Hub (MBDH), with a swap in principal investigators and the appointment of a new executive director. iSchool Associate Professor Catherine Blake, previously a co-principal investigator (PI) on the project, has moved into the PI role, while William (Bill) Gropp, director and chief scientist of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications

(NCSA) and the Thomas M. Siebel Chair in the Department of Computer Science at Illinois, transitions to co-PI duties. Longtime Hub staff member John MacMullen was named executive director in January.

“I’m excited and honored to step into the role of principal investigator for the Midwest Big Data Hub,” said Blake, who also serves as associate director of the Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship (CIRSS) and director of the graduate programs in information management and bioinformatics at the iSchool. “The community developed during the first phase has made the MBDH well positioned to leverage the rapidly growing data and information collections and technologies in Phase 2 that focus on opportunities, interests, and resources that are unique to the Midwest.”

The MBDH, co-led by the NCSA and the iSchool, serves a twelve-state region that encompasses Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,

Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. It is part of the National Science Foundation’s regional Big Data Innovation Hub (BD Hubs) program that comprises offices in the Midwest, West, South, and the Northeast. Initially funded in 2015, the second phase started in summer 2019 and will run until 2023.

The goal of the MBDH awards, which will total over $4 million for both phases, is to catalyze data science efforts around important priority areas in the Midwest.

Priority areas for MBDH currently include advanced materials and manufacturing; water quality; big data in health; digital agriculture; and smart, connected, and resilient communities.

In addition, MBDH leads cross-cutting initiatives to broaden the participation in data science education, develop cyberinfrastructure for research data management, and address cybersecurity issues around big data.

Adapted from an MBDH news release

CHIME in Illinois brings together students, international public health agencies

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ith the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, many public health organizations have found themselves overwhelmed by the need to make fast, data-focused operation decisions, but often they do not have enough staff with

the necessary data science skills. The University of Illinois, meanwhile, has a diverse student population with strong technical skills and professional expertise who would like to help combat the pandemic but do not know how to get involved.

To bridge this gap, the Center for Health Informatics (CHI), a partnership with the Grainger College of Engineering under the direction of iSchool Research Scientist Ian Brooks, in collaboration with the World Health Organization/PanAmerican Health Organization (WHO/ PAHO), has developed the CHI Mobilizing Experts in Illinois (CHIME in Illinois) initiative. Through this new international public health initiative, agencies who

have identified specific technical and informational needs are matched with teams of University of Illinois students with the necessary skills and experience to work on their projects, all under the supervision of CHI-affiliated faculty.

In one recent collaboration, students are working with researchers from PAHO to create a tool that will increase access to and usability of international COVID-19related health metrics. The tool will offer a web interface that draws on updatable data sources, delivering a holistic view of the continent as well as current localized information. That evidence can then be used to mobilize and strengthen existing information systems and to support requests for increased funding.

Bashir receives grant to study privacy measures in public libraries

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ssociate Professor Masooda Bashir has received a $150,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS LG-246404-OLS-20) for her project, “Securing our Public Libraries: A Forum on Privacy and Security.” The project seeks to identify the existence and absence of privacy protecting technologies (software and/or hardware) in public library systems.

In today’s digital world, public libraries play a critical role in offering free public internet access. The American Library Association (ALA), with its well-established reputation of protecting patrons’ privacy, has updated its interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights to include technological measures to protect patron privacy. However, Bashir notes that with such a wide variety of library sizes, funding, staff training, equipment, vendors, and software, it is not clear if any widespread technological measures are currently in place that adhere to the ALA guidelines.

According to Bashir, there is “an important gap in the conversations we are having about privacy and security technologies implemented in our public libraries.” This gap exists due to the lack of shared vocabulary among public libraries

and differing levels of technical skillsets and resources across library systems.

The IMLS grant will support a national forum on privacy and security, in which experts and public library representatives will collaborate on an exploratory study of what technological mechanisms are in place to protect patron privacy in our nation’s libraries.

Bashir’s research interests lie at the interface of information technology, human psychology, and society; especially how privacy, security, and trust intersect from a psychological point of view with information systems.

Associate Professor Yang Wang will serve as key project staff. He conducts research focusing on usable privacy and security technologies, social computing, human-computer interaction, and explainable artificial intelligence.

Knox and Koh receive grant to study public library makerspaces

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ssociate Professor and Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Emily Knox and Associate Professor Kyungwon Koh have received a $100,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LG-246251OLS-20) for their project, “Measuring the Impact and Value of Makerspaces in Public Libraries.” Knox will serve as principal investigator for the one-year exploratory project, which is a partnership with Indian Trails Public Library District in Wheeling, Illinois, that was initially proposed by iSchool alumna Ryann Uden (MS ’06), the library’s deputy director.

The Indian Trails Public Library District, led by Executive Director Brian Shepard (MS ’05), has had a makerspace since 2017. While makerspaces can be found in public libraries across the country, library administrators have found that little information is available on how to demonstrate their makerspaces’ impact and value. This project will provide the tools needed to develop an initial

Emily Knox

Kyungwon Koh

framework and future toolkit for measuring the impact, value, and accessibility of public library makerspaces.

“Library makerspaces represent a shifting role of libraries as an institution for knowledge creation,” said Koh, co-principal investigator on the project. “Makerspaces increase access that libraries offer to community members, including a range of resources, technologies, programs, experts, and peers.”

Knox’s research interests include information access, intellectual freedom and censorship, the intersection of print culture and reading practices, and information ethics and policy.

Koh’s areas of expertise include digital youth, the maker movement, learning and community engagement through libraries, human information behavior, and competencies for information professionals.

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Research

Bosch receives grant to study potential bias in adaptive learning technology

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We’re working with an educational software company, Carnegie Learning, that has a history of researching potential biases in their own software, so they are keenly interested in implementing any improvements we can

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make.

– Nigel Bosch

he National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Assistant Professor Nigel Bosch a three-year, $987,015 grant to study potential bias in adaptive learning software through his project, “Collaborative Research: Exploring Algorithmic Fairness and Potential Bias in K-12 Mathematics Adaptive Learning.” Bosch will observe and interview students using adaptive math learning software to discover what aspects of their identity are most salient in the adaptive learning context and then investigate possible algorithmic biases related to the identities that students express. Steven Ritter, founder and chief scientist at Carnegie Learning, will serve as co-principal investigator on the project, which also includes researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Illinois College of Education.

Adaptive learning software works by automatically measuring how much students have learned about a topic, as well as their learning process and experiences, and then adjusting the instruction accordingly. In his research, Bosch has examined demographic differences in how students interact with learning technologies, such as educational games and online courses, with the goal of understanding “how adaptations could be made to better support students for whom the software is currently not working well.”

“This new project came about through discussions with some of my collaborators who have also studied biases in learning technology,” Bosch said. “We noted that there have been some surprises in previous research when it comes to who is most likely to experience bias where it occurs and decided there was a clear need for a mixed-methods project that will get much deeper into the details of where bias occurs.”

Data will be collected on educational software usage patterns for students using the math education platform MATHia. “We’re working with an educational software company, Carnegie Learning, that has a history of researching potential biases in their own software, so they are keenly interested in implementing any improvements we can make, such as new machine learning models that are fairer than their current models,” he said. “Their software is used by hundreds of thousands of students across the U.S., so the potential for making high-impact improvements is really exciting.”

According to Bosch, results from this project will contribute to scientific understanding of the role of student identity in adaptive learning software, biases in machine learning for educational software, and the effects of applying machine learning methods for bias reduction.

Bosch uses machine learning/data mining methods to study human behaviors, especially in learning contexts. His research examines data such as facial expressions, audio recordings, log file records of user actions, and other sources that provide insight into learners’ behaviors. After earning his PhD in computer science from the University of Notre Dame in 2017, Bosch worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). He is a faculty affiliate of NCSA and Illinois Informatics.

Schneider awarded Linowes Fellowship

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ssistant Professor Jodi Schneider has been named a 2020-2021 Linowes Fellow by the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research at the University of Illinois. The fellowship “provides exceptionally promising tenure-stream faculty with opportunities for innovation and discovery using the Cline Center’s data holdings and/or analytic tools.”

Schneider will work on her project, “Assessing the Impact of Media Polarization on Public Health Emergencies.” She will use Archer, a web application being developed by the Cline Center, in her work analyzing news coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid crisis.

“My goal in conducting this project is to use the Cline Center’s data resources in order to better understand how public health emergencies are reported and to assess the polarization and politicization of the U.S. news coverage,” Schneider said. “This is a key moment to study the intersection of the evidence base, political discourse, and public opinion in the health domain. This work may have important implications for better communication of health evidence for the public and to journalists.”

Schneider studies the science of science through the lens of arguments, evidence, and persuasion.

She is developing linked data (ontologies, metadata, and Semantic Web) approaches to manage scientific evidence. She holds a PhD in informatics from the National University of Ireland, Galway. Prior to joining the iSchool in 2016, Schneider served as a postdoctoral scholar at the National Library of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, and INRIA, the national French Computer Science Research Institute.

Hoiem authors article in CLE on production stories

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ssistant Professor Elizabeth Hoiem has published a paper, “The Progress of Sugar: Consumption as Complicity in Children’s Books about Slavery and Manufacturing, 1790-2015,” in Children’s Literature in Education (CLE). In her paper, Hoiem analyzes “production stories,” a genre of books and media that teaches how everyday things are made. Since they started in the eighteenth century, children’s production stories have evolved from picturebooks to TV episodes and web video series.

Hoiem focuses on stories of sugar production in her paper and accompanying web resource, Production Stories.

“During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, privileged children and their parents greatly increased their consumption of sugar, coffee, cotton, and rum—all commodities eaten or worn on the body and produced by enslaved persons,” Hoiem said. “To prepare children for this new industrial global economy, parents educated their children about how and where things were made, using a new kind of information book.”

Her web resource provides a visual analysis of sugar production stories for children in the context of the history of slavery. Hoiem hopes the resource will encourage librarians, educators, and readers to look for production stories “that faithfully tell the human story behind making things.”

“I find that production stories reveal surprising details about technical processes for making things but may conceal the human cost of production,” she said. “They also end with consumption, when children use the products, symbolically affirming the conditions under which they were made.”

In her research and teaching, Hoiem explores the history of technological innovations in children’s literature, from early children’s books and toys to contemporary applications of digital pedagogy.

She received a 2018 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for her current book project, “The Education of Things: Mechanical Literacy in British Culture, 1752-1860.” This project investigates the class politics of “object lessons,” a mode of experiential learning that developed during the lateeighteenth and nineteenth centuries with the rise in child labor and mass literacy. Hoiem holds a PhD in English from Illinois.

Visit the Production Stories website: iopn.library.illinois.edu/omeka/s/ProductionStories

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Features

Practicum Spotlight: Newberry Library What is your area of interest at the iSchool?

I am really interested in archives and special collections, and I hope to have a career as an instructional librarian within a special collections department.

Where did you work last semester, and what was your role?

I was the Midwest Dance and Theater Archives intern at the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois.

How did you find out about the practicum?

I am very much in the mindset that hands-on experience is the best type of learning, so I have been constantly on the search for opportunities that are aligned with my interests. After landing the internship, I looked into using this experience as a practicum—and since it fit within the requirements, I was happy to use it for program credit.

MS/LIS student Nada Abdelrahim discusses her practicum experience at the Newberry Library.

What knowledge and skills did you acquire?

Luckily, I was able to work with an amazing collection and learn how to process and describe archival materials. When COVID-19 forced us to do our work remotely, I became very good at researching and writing biographical notes for finding aids. I would say adaptability was key in this role.

What did you like best about working at the organization?

With a big independent institution like the Newberry, I was able to appreciate the variety of librarian positions and talk to many different colleagues about their roles and experiences, which was helpful and really fun.

What advice do you have for students who are interested in a practicum?

Think about the skills you’d like to acquire that supplement your classes and look for roles that may help you gain those skills. Consider libraries or institutions around you and approach them to create a position that fits your needs. You’ll never know unless you ask!

What are your plans after you complete your degree?

I’ll be graduating in fall 2020. My hope is to take on an instructional librarian role and see where it goes from there. I am excited for the future!

Puckett receives prestigious Phi Kappa Phi fellowship MS/LIS student Jonathan Puckett has been selected as a recipient of the Sherrill Carlson Fellowship by The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. The fellowship, worth $35,000, is one of two national awards given by the society to the top-ranked nominee in the humanities and the arts.

Puckett earned bachelor’s degrees in history and English and a minor in Black studies from the University of Southern Mississippi in May 2020. His senior thesis focused on the archival rediscovery of the literature of Pauline E. Hopkins, an early twentieth-century African-American author, and Hopkins’ literary contributions to conversations about citizenship in the Jim Crow era.

Puckett chose the iSchool at Illinois for his graduate study because of the School’s top ranking and resources.

He decided to pursue an MS/LIS because of his personal experience with archives and libraries.

“I am an only child from a poor, single-parent household, and when I was about eight, I began genealogical research to locate family members with whom I could better relate. Planning three family reunions in middle school and privately publishing two genealogical books, I became affiliated with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History as a freelance researcher while in high school,” Puckett said.

At the age of fifteen, he received a Seton Shields Genealogical Grant for his research. Three years later, Puckett’s search for his ancestry was featured in The Wall Street Journal.

“These early experiences helped hone my interest in library and information science, as I developed an interest in people’s stories, particularly those individuals who are underheard or who are silenced in the general fields of history and literature,” he said.

Roosevelt honored for outstanding service

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amara Roosevelt, senior grants and contracts coordinator at the iSchool, has received the Outstanding Service Award from Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance (SPaRC), a working group at the University of Illinois devoted to the management and administration of sponsored programs. She was presented with the award at the SPaRC Retreat on September 4.

Roosevelt joined the Research Services team at the iSchool in January 2018. In her position, she assists researchers with their proposals, ensures that grants are spent appropriately, and helps answer questions regarding post-award activities.

“Tamara has become my key partner in planning for, and building out, a Research Services office that actually delivers highest-standard services to our stakeholders, while at the same time ensuring that all compliance rules and administrative policies are met,” said Professor and Associate Dean for Research J. Stephen Downie, who nominated Roosevelt for the award.

In his letter of support, Assistant Professor Matthew Turk wrote, “Despite the large number of grants that Tamara and the Research Services team guide through the proposal stage, and more to the point the constant pressure I can only imagine she is under, she is always cheerful, engaging, and thoughtful. It is inspiring to work with her, not only because of the way in which she engages with other individuals, but the clear pride and skill with which she engages with her work.”

According to Bertram Ludäscher, professor and director of the iSchool’s Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship, dealing with the complex financial and administrative issues of large, collaborative sponsored research projects can be daunting for principal investigators.

“With her exceptional expertise, experience, and ability to work closely with faculty and personnel in all roles, Tamara has helped us quickly and smoothly navigate these waters, from managing politically sensitive sub-award modifications, to keeping up with shifting grant personnel allocations, to collaborating in the resolution of complex cross-unit cost allowability issues,” Ludäscher said.

Roosevelt is part of the Research Development Community (RDC) on campus and serves on the Professional Development Networking subcommittee. She has shared her research administration expertise with others as a speaker at the National Council of Research Administrators annual meeting and as an instructor in the SPaRC’Ed program.

Talbott receives advising award

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cademic Advisor Katelyn Talbott has been named Outstanding New Advising Professional by IlliAAC, a professional development organization for student and academic affairs staff at the University of Illinois. The award recognizes outstanding academic advising by a University of Illinois employee and IlliAAC member with less than three years of experience.

Talbott, who primarily advises MS/LIS students, joined the iSchool in January 2019.

“Katelyn’s advising load is close to 300 students ranging in age from 21 to 60, half of whom are online studying from a distance,” said Meg Edwards, assistant dean for student affairs.

“Students enter the program either right from undergrad, after having spent 3-4 years in related fields, after having taken a break from the workforce, or having spent 15-25 years in an entirely different profession. To say the advising approach has to be unique for each student is an understatement.”

In her letter of nomination, Edwards called Talbott’s professionalism, empathy, creativity, and responsiveness “exemplary,” noting that she is highly respected and admired by students and faculty.

Talbott launched the Illinois Graduate Professionals Association (iGPA), an extension of IlliAAC, to provide professional development and networking opportunities for Illinois staff who advise graduate students. She has also served as co-chair of the IlliAAC Annual Conference, one of the largest conferences in recent years thanks to the extended invitation to iGPA membership.

“Katelyn believes the more resourceful academic professionals are, the better they are able to assist students to success,” said Karla Lucht, assistant director of MS/LIS advising.

Prior to joining the iSchool, Talbott served as an academic advisor for undergraduates in the Division of General Studies at Illinois. It was the opportunity to work with graduate students that attracted her to her current role.

“Without the help of many other colleagues, departments, and services at Illinois, I, as an academic advisor, could not provide the best services possible to students day in and day out,” said Talbott. “It has been demonstrated time and time again how much of a community there is at Illinois when it comes to ensuring the success of all students.”

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Features

Fifteen iSchool students named 2020-2021 ALA Spectrum Scholars

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As a group, the Spectrum Scholars have been highly successful in completing their programs of study and making significant contributions through their work in the field after

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graduation.

– Moises Orozco Villicaña

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record-breaking fifteen iSchool master’s students have been named 2020-2021 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services. Since 1997, the Spectrum Scholarship Program has promoted diversity among graduate-level students pursuing degrees in library and information studies through ALA-accredited programs.

This year’s scholars were selected based on their commitment to community building, leadership potential, and planned contributions to incorporating social justice as part of everyday work. The highly competitive scholarship program received four times as many applications as there were available scholarships.

Each scholar receives $5,000 to assist with educational costs as well as more than $1,500 to attend the Spectrum Leadership Institute held during the ALA Annual Conference. In addition, the

iSchool provides each recipient with a tuition waiver, and Illinois residents receive a grant from the Sylvia Murphy Williams Fund, given by the Illinois Library Association. Other benefits include continuing education and professional development opportunities, peer mentoring, and access to a large alumni network.

“One of our recruitment and admissions goals is to be the primary destination for ALA Spectrum Scholars,” said Moises Orozco Villicaña, director of enrollment management. “The iSchool has welcomed 101 Spectrum Scholars since 1997, and the incoming class will break our previous highest number of 10, which was set in 2017. As a group, the Spectrum Scholars have been highly successful in completing their programs of study and making significant contributions through their work in the field after graduation.”

Welcome new iSchool undergraduates!

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he iSchool welcomed 119 new BS in information sciences (BS/IS) students in the Fall 2020 semester. The School’s undergraduate enrollment surpassed projected numbers and captures a diverse range of interests from data analytics to user experience. Tony Torres, academic advisor and coordinator of undergraduate affairs, greeted new BS/IS students outside the iSchool building with t-shirts and bags before the first week of classes.

Spectrum Scholarship recipients at Illinois: • Megdelawit Abebe • Alex Aspiazu (ALSC Scholar in honor of Ellen Fader) • Danielle Luz Belanger • María del Carmen Cifuentes Ashley Mitchell After working in public libraries for over 19 years, I finally decided to pursue a degree in LIS to further my career. I’ve worked in many different capacities, mostly in circulation services and periodically as a paraprofessional/library associate when librarian coverage was needed. I currently work in technical services (acquisitions). I really enjoy working in libraries, and one of my goals is to eventually move into library management. I also want to inspire other people of color to pursue a career in LIS by becoming a librarian myself.

Anthony Martínez I chose the iSchool because of its #1-ranked program and top-ranked youth services pathway; positive word of mouth from former students; long history of success with virtual instruction (Leep); and “walk the walk” commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion—specifically the tuition waiver for Spectrum Scholars.

Amanda He I didn’t see many librarians or educators that looked like me growing up or in college.

Representation is incredibly important to shaping minds and opinions. I’m so excited to have the chance to meet and learn from other Spectrum Scholars who have been leaders in fostering diversity and inclusivity within their own communities. I know that being a part of the Spectrum community will enable me to become a better librarian and more effective advocate for diversity.

• Tacia Díaz (LIRT Scholar) • Amanda He • Kyra Lee (ALSC Scholar) • Luisa Leija (ProQuest Scholar) • Krystal Madkins (MLA/NLM Scholar) • Anthony Martínez • Ashley Mitchell (Turock Scholar) • Chinyere E. Oteh • Rayyon Robinson • Mayra Rosas (Gordon Scholar) • Mimosa Shah

Krystal Madkins I am currently a research project manager for HIV/STI prevention interventions for LGBTQ youth. I decided to pursue an LIS degree because it will allow me to marry my interests in health research with the fulfillment that I feel from helping others learn and access information. I also appreciate that the interdisciplinary nature of LIS allows for the application of skills across a variety of settings and topic areas.

It is important to me to do work that has a positive impact on the lives of others.

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Alumni

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Hagar’s crisis informatics research informs COVID-19 challenges

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Libraries have responded

to the challenge well by introducing new services (e.g., curbside pickup), expanding online services (e.g., public wi-fi), and adding virtual programs (e.g., virtual

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story hours).

– Chris Hagar

risis informatics,” a term coined by iSchool alumna Chris Hagar (PhD ’05) and Leysia Palen, professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is now a well-established area of study. Crisis informatics explores the interconnectedness of information, people, and technologies in crises and examines the intersecting trajectories of social, technical, and information dynamics during the full life cycle of a crisis. While Hagar first used the term in her PhD dissertation, which focused on the UK’s foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in 2001, there are many similar information challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The FMD crisis unfolded as a series of information and communication problems, primarily from government to farmers, with consequences for action in a time of crisis,” said Hagar. “As processes and procedures for dealing with infected animals, and biosecurity measures implemented by the government changed, farmers were living in conditions rife with uncertainty. As a means of coping with these conditions, farmers had to decide who and what information sources to trust, and from whom to seek information.”

Hagar noted that the FMD outbreak was a crisis of isolation—places where farmers usually met to communicate and exchange information were shut down in order to control the spread of the disease.

Many farmers were unable to leave their farms for weeks or months.

“With the current COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent isolation of individuals, families, and other groups of people, this study, although concerned

with an animal disease, has particular and continuing significance,” she said.

In addition, because there was much confusion and distrust during the FMD crisis, “rumor and gossip played an important role in the exchange and transfer of information about events and also in people’s behavior and activities.”

Now an emerita professor in the School of Information at San Jose State University (SJSU) in San Jose, California, Hagar has taught crisis informatics courses at both SJSU and Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. Her current course on crisis health informatics examines how information is generated, accessed, organized, coordinated, and disseminated during a crisis. It also explores the multiple roles information professionals and libraries can play in preparedness and response.

Hagar is impressed by how libraries have responded to the current pandemic, making the “extraordinary transition” to provide their services and collections within an entirely virtual environment.

“Libraries have responded to the challenge well by introducing new services (e.g., curbside pickup), expanding online services (e.g., public wi-fi), and adding virtual programs (e.g., virtual story hours),” she said.

Hagar serves on the board of directors of Standby Task Force, a global network of volunteers who assist first response agencies traveling to the site of a disaster.

She is also an Affiliate of the Disaster and Development Network of Northumbria University in the UK, the first and leading international group to work in the disaster and development area.

iSchool alumna works to preserve, celebrate African American history in Bronzeville

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The Society started because my daughters grew tired of hearing me tell them about the many notable people and

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herry Williams (MS ’19) has a personal connection to her work as president and founder of the Bronzeville Historical Society. The Bronzeville neighborhood, located on Chicago’s South Side, was known as the “Black Metropolis” during its heyday in the early twentieth century.

The Great Migration brought many African Americans to Bronzeville, including Williams’ grandmother, who moved to the area from the Delta of Mississippi in 1942.

“I started the Bronzeville Historical Society with the assistance of family and friends in 1999,” Williams said. “The Society started because my daughters grew tired of hearing me tell them about the many notable people and places in the Bronzeville community.”

Bronzeville’s many notable residents include Chicago’s first Black mayor, Harold Washington; journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett; and legendary musician Louis Armstrong. One resident whose name may not be as well known was Nancy Green, the real Aunt Jemima.

“In 2010, I started shaping an Underground Railroad tour in Chicago,” Williams said. “My research of African American historic figures included former slaves who arrived in Chicago years after the Civil War. Mrs. Nancy Green was one of many.”

Through her extensive research, Williams discovered that Green was much more than a smiling face on a box of pancake mix. She was also a philanthropist and founding member of the Olivet Baptist Church in Chicago. When Williams learned that Green was laid to rest in an unmarked plot, she raised funds for a proper headstone.

Quaker Oats recently announced that it is retiring the Aunt Jemima brand and logo. Williams disagrees with the company’s move, believing that removing the image could erase Green’s legacy.

Now located at Illinois Institute of Technology, the Bronzeville Historical Society’s offices were previously situated in the tomb keeper’s house at the Stephen A. Douglas Tomb Site in Bronzeville. This summer, three state representatives called for the statue of Stephen Douglas, a slaveholder, to be removed. The Society is advocating to keep the Tomb Site intact.

“The Tomb Site should have African America historical narrative added. Kiosks should display the names of the 123 slaves that Douglas owned,” Williams said.

In 2012, Williams developed an African Heritage Garden and Migratory Bird Oasis at the Tomb Site.

In the future, the Bronzeville Historical Society hopes to expand its office and classroom space and to create tools that give patrons and researchers access to their digital archives. Williams also looks forward to creating opportunities for the iSchool’s MS/LIS students to participate in hands-on training at the Society.

Watch the ABC News report featuring Williams, “The woman behind ‘Aunt Jemima’” at abcnews.go.com/US/video/woman-aunt-jemima-72316821

places in the Bronzeville

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community.

– Sherry Williams

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Alumni

2020 ISAA award recipients announced The iSchool Alumni Association (ISAA) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2020 ISAA awards.

CREDIT: STELLA KALININA

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Safiya Noble (MS ’09, PhD ’12) is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumna Award. Each year this award is given to an alum who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of library and information science.

Noble is an associate professor of information studies and co-founder and co-director of the Center for Critical Internet Inquiry at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She is a board member of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI) and a research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) at the University of Oxford, where she also serves on the Oxford Commission on AI & Good Governance (OxCAIGG). Noble is the author of the book, Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (NYU Press), which was featured in the New York Public Library’s 2018 Best Books for Adults. In addition to being a prolific author and speaker, she runs a mentoring group for first-generation and underrepresented doctoral students at the UCLA and University of Southern California. Noble was nominated by Sarah Roberts (PhD ’14). ISAA awards committee members agreed that Noble demonstrates distinguished performance and awareness in encouraging her peers and subordinates to examine and meaningfully contribute to topics in the LIS field.

Thomas Padilla (MS ’14) is the recipient of the Leadership Award, which is given to an alum who has graduated in the past ten years and shown leadership in the field.

Padilla is the interim head of knowledge production at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is principal investigator of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported project, “Collections as Data: Part to Whole.” He is the author of the library community research agenda, “Responsible Operations: Data Science, Machine Learning, and AI in Libraries,” which he completed while serving as a practitioner researcher-in-residence at OCLC Research. Padilla’s professional service includes membership on The Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH) Executive Council, WhatEvery1Says (WE1S) Advisory Board, and Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Fellowship for Digital and Inclusive Excellence Advisory Group. “In the six years since completing his MS/LIS degree, Thomas Padilla has emerged as a leader involved in consulting, publishing, presenting, and teaching widely on digital strategy, cultural heritage collections, data literacy, digital scholarship, and data curation,” said nominator Linda C. Smith, professor emerita and interim executive associate dean.

Meg Edwards (MS ’04) is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award. Each year this award is given to an individual who has served ISAA or the School in an exceptional way.

Edwards is the assistant dean for student affairs at the iSchool. She previously served as advising coordinator, senior advising coordinator, and assistant director of advising and student affairs.

As assistant dean, Edwards oversees the work of the Student Affairs team and continues to advise students. “I often receive unsolicited testimonials from students who comment on how supportive Ms. Edwards has been as they made the transition to graduate study (many are returning to higher education after an interval of several years) and made decisions about courses and career paths,” said Linda C. Smith, who nominated Edwards for the award. “She is an excellent problem solver who always seeks to identify strategies to ensure student success in completing our degree programs.”

Benson and Koscielski receive 2020 ILA awards

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he 2020 Illinois Library Association (ILA) award recipients include two iSchool alumni, Sara Benson (MS ’17), adjunct assistant professor at the iSchool and copyright librarian at the University Library, and Roberta Koscielski (MS ’82), deputy director of the Peoria (IL) Public Library.

Benson received the 2020 Crosman Memorial Award, which recognizes the achievements of library workers who are new or relatively new to the field and encourages continued involvement in the profession. While other awards honor those who have accomplished a great deal over a long period of time, this award honors someone who has accomplished a great deal in a short time.

In Benson’s position as copyright librarian, she answers hundreds of complicated copyright reference questions every year. She also provides copyright reference services to the Illinois public.

She continually works to create open access resources that others can easily reuse. For example, Benson has a YouTube channel where she posts open access copyright primers, and she hosts a regular podcast in which she interviews experts and stakeholders about copyright. She is actively involved in open educational resources at the state level, cochairing the CARLI OER Taskforce from 2019-2020.

Benson was recently appointed interim head of the Scholarly Commons at the University Library, and she is the editor of a bestselling ALA publication on copyright, Copyright Conversations: Rights Literacy in a Digital World.

Sara Benson

Roberta Koscielski

Koscielski is the 2020 recipient of the ILA Librarian of the Year Award. This award, presented and sponsored by Today’s Business Solution, Inc., recognizes a librarian’s distinguished service and leadership in Illinois libraries.

In more than 35 years of working in the Peoria Public Library, Koscielski has forged myriad connections with city leaders, groups, and organizations, all helping underscore the library’s importance in the community. She spearheaded the development of Peoria Reads!, a committee uniting a range of local leaders and organizations to collaborate on developing engagement through annual One Book, One City events. Her work to raise public and staff awareness of the opioid epidemic in the community has

led to her recognition as one of the 2018 Library Journal Movers and Shakers and a “new first responder” in the opioid epidemic by U.S. News and World Report.

Beyond these important programs and collaborative initiatives, Koscielski develops a wide range of engaging and meaningful adult programming, such as the Peoria Speaks series, which addresses critical issues such as human trafficking, city policing, local arts, Alzheimer’s care, and civility and empathy in our daily lives.

She contributes to furthering the library profession through multiple presentations at the ILA Annual Conference and contributing material to the ILA Reporter and other publications.

Adapted from an Illinois Library Association press release

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Giving

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Balz scholarship to support returning students

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Our educational experiences may

have been quite different, but the U of I played a similar role in both of our lives, bringing professional opportunities and personal connections of friendship and support from a remarkable group of

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people over many, many years.

– Nancy Balz

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y the time that Nancy Balz (BA LAS ’70, MS/LIS ’72) decided to become a public librarian, over twenty years had passed since she had received her LIS degree. She had worked in an archive, academic setting, and bookstore, serving as a word researcher for the Oxford English Dictionary and as a researcher for book authors. While she was interested in working in a public library, she wondered if she was up to the task, with so much time having passed since earning her degree, along with the increasingly online nature of library work.

“Then one day someone (whose name I can’t recall) suggested I ‘update my skills and look into it,’” Balz said. “Someone else referred to a local branch library as ‘the holy grail of public libraries,’ and suggested I ought to ‘practice what you preach.’”

With encouragement from her family and friends, Balz became a returning student, commuting from her home in Bethesda, Maryland, to the University of Maryland College Park campus for

additional LIS coursework. She started working at the Montgomery County (MD) Public Libraries (MCPL) in 1994 and retired in 2010. In her retirement, Balz enjoys quilting, gardening, reading, and volunteer work.

“After retiring from MCPL, the first thing I did was to volunteer at the Library of Congress (where I had worked in the 1970s), greeting visitors in the Great Hall.

That was fun and brought my ‘public library’ experience full circle,” she said.

Nancy and her husband, Dan Balz (BS Media ’68, MS Media ’72), have established a scholarship in the School of Information Sciences to help make education more affordable for returning students.

“I established this scholarship believing that there are students in the master’s program at the iSchool, coming back to campus or entering an online classroom, who can be helped along their path with professional, excellent teaching, like I was,” Balz said. “I believe the awards committee will find such

students, and I hope they graduate and use their degree from Illinois to provide the excellent library services in the future that people will need wherever they next find themselves.”

This is the second endowment fund the couple has created at the University of Illinois. In 2013, they established their first scholarship in the College of Media, where Dan, chief correspondent for The Washington Post, received his degrees in journalism.

“Our educational experiences may have been quite different, but the U of I played a similar role in both of our lives, bringing professional opportunities and personal connections of friendship and support from a remarkable group of people over many, many years,” Balz said. “Dan and I are happy we have the opportunity to join the many other alumni and friends of the School, to support a future of excellence in learning, scholarship, and information and library services.”

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Scholarship an affirmation, financial boost for Kang

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or MS/LIS student Eunice Kang, receiving the Carl Volkmann Scholarship from the iSchool allowed her to focus on learning and “taking advantage of all the opportunities that the University has to offer,” while also lightening her financial burden. Kang realized soon after earning her bachelor’s degree in advertising from the University of Illinois that she did not belong in that field. After spending time teaching English to lower income children in Korea, she decided to pursue a career where she could help children.

“In Korea, a lot of the learning actually happens after school in private institutions,” said Kang. “Those who can afford it attend the best schools with the best tutors. The lower income families still send their children to tutors because it is ‘necessary’ to keep up in school. This was disheartening to me and made me want to try and provide them with as much of

the same resources as possible, but it was hard to achieve this.”

Since English was not her first language either, Kang understood her students’ frustration at not being understood. She would like to pursue a career as a children’s librarian and continue working with children who are learning English as a second language.

“I would like to work at a public library with a mission statement that aligns with my values, so I am able to grow both personally and professionally. More importantly, I want to work somewhere where I can truly make a difference for children. Ultimately, I would like to move into a director position where I can build a solid long-term career,” she said.

In her free time, Kang enjoys crocheting. She is currently working on a sweater for her 17-year-old dog, who “has

Your gift makes a difference in the educational experience of our students.

When you support iSchool students, you can change the course of someone’s life.

Every gift, large or small, matters.

For more information about giving to the iSchool, or to make a gift, visit go.ischool.illinois.edu/give.

not been very happy with me trying to measure him when he is trying to sleep!”

Kang is thankful for the Volkmann Scholarship and appreciates the donor support that made her scholarship possible.

“Having lost my source of income, this scholarship has helped me in so many ways,” she said. “I had been feeling overwhelmed due to all of the changes and new responsibilities, but this award was an affirmation that I am trying my best and moving forward in the right direction. I hope one day that I will be able to help students achieve their goals, just as this scholarship has helped me.”

Student support provides valuable financial assistance and maintains the excellence of our top-ranked academic programs.

Here are just a few ways your gift can make an impact.

Annual Fund Gifts support a wide range of activities that supplement academic studies and promote the professional development of our students.

iSchool Student Emergency Fund Provides emergency financial assistance for students enrolled in the iSchool.

School of Information Sciences Scholarship/Fellowship/ Assistantship Fund Provides scholarship assistance to students in the iSchool.

Class Notes

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DECADE: 2020s Rebecca Graham (MS ’20) has been appointed assistant professor and instructional design and technology librarian at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania.

Decade: 2010s Emily Adams (MS ’17) started her new position as librarian at Parkview Junior High in Lawrenceville, Illinois.

Jeanie Austin (PhD ’17) has authored a book about library services to people who are incarcerated. The book, with the working title Library Services and Incarceration: Recognizing Barriers, Strengthening Access, will be published by ALA in 2021.

Vanna Bells (MS ’10) graduated from the 2020 Carson City Chamber of Commerce Leadership Institute and celebrated her one-year anniversary as creative learning librarian at the Carson City Library.

Darnetta Bolton (MS ’19), youth services reference librarian at the Orland Park (IL) Public Library, is the recipient of the Illinois Library Association’s 2020 Robert P. Doyle Conference Grant for Support Staff, which is presented by the ILA Reaching Forward Forum.

Heather Campbell (MS ’19) has been named discovery and metadata librarian at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. She also was appointed to the editorial board of ACRL’s College & Research Libraries News and the ALA Publications Committee.

Kristyn Caragher (MS ’14, CAS ’16) and Teresa Moreno (MS ’19) are serving on the new Building Cultural Proficiencies for Racial Equity Framework Task Force.

The task force is a joint initiative of the Association of College & Research Libraries; Association of Research Libraries; American Library Association’s Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services; and Public Library Association.

Lindsey Ann Carpino (MS ’14) has received an Emerging Leader Award from the American Association of Law Libraries.

Katie Chamberlain Kritikos (MS ’10) recently relocated to Burlington, Vermont, and took the Vermont bar exam. She was admitted to practice and sworn in via video conference in May 2020.

Suzanna Conrad (MS ’11) began her new position as dean of libraries at Towson University on August 1.

The Rare Book School has selected Dale Correa (MS ’19) to be part of an inaugural cohort of fifteen Andrew W. Mellon Fellows for Diversity, Inclusion & Cultural Heritage.

Fellows will participate in a three-year program that includes an orientation, Rare Book School coursework, community symposia, and other activities relating to multicultural collections and trainings.

Christine D’Arpa (PhD ’17), assistant professor of information sciences at Wayne State University, has co-authored a juried paper, “‘12pm Eastern, 11am Central, 10am Mountain’: Student Contributions to Research on Rural and Small Public Libraries,” as a result of her IMLS-funded research project, Community Health and Wellness: Small and Rural Public Library Practices, Perspectives, and Programs.

Co-authors on the paper included iSchool alumni Susan Burke (MS ’88), Noah Lenstra (MS ’09, CAS ’11, PhD ’16), and Ellen Rubenstein (PhD ’11).

EvaAnne Johnson (MS ’18) has started her new position as adult services librarian, specializing in Local History and Genealogy services, at Wilmette (IL) Public Library.

Lacey Love (MS ’13) began her new job as library director of the Peters Township Public Library in McMurray, Pennsylvania, on October 19.

Nisha Mody (MS ’17) has been named associate director of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Pacific Southwest Region.

Christy Moss (MS ’17) joined the University of Illinois Alumni Association as vice president of membership and marketing on November 2.

Ryan A. Ross (MS ’10) has been named associate editor of Illinois Alumni, the U of I’s alumni magazine. He also serves as assistant director of history and traditions programs at the University of Illinois Alumni Association and curator of the Richmond Family Welcome Gallery at Alice Campbell Alumni Center.

Ruth Slagle (MS ’17) started her new position as instruction librarian at Jackson State Community College in Jackson, Tennessee, in March 2020.

Dena Strong (MS ’14) and Keith Wessel presented their research on accessible teleconferencing software for inclusive collaboration and presentation at the National Association for Computing Machinery’s special interest group on HPC Education.

Lydia Tang (MS ’15) was awarded the Society of American Archivists’ Mark A. Greene Emerging Leader Award, and three projects to which she contributed received SAA Council Resolutions for the Archival Workers Emergency Fund, Task Force to Revise Best Practices for Accessible Archives for People With Disabilities, and the Accessibility & Disability Section.

Michelle Urberg (MS ’16) received an Early Career Fellowship from the Society for Scholarly Publishing in May 2020. She left the ExLibris Business Unit of ProQuest to move into the consulting space that supports scholarly publishing and is currently doing some work with Maverick Publishing Specialists.

Kayleigh Van Poolen (CAS ’18) is working with The Atlantic on The COVID Tracking Project. As a volunteer on the data entry team, she scours posts from states and territories for information for the project’s website.

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A paper by Melissa Villa-Nicholas (PhD ’16) and Jeanie Austin (MS ’09, PhD ’17, “Information Provision and the Carceral State: Race and Reference beyond the Idea of the ‘Underserved,’” was published in the journal The Reference Librarian and named the winner of the Eighth Annual Library Juice Paper Contest.

DECADE: 2000s Susanne Belovari (MS ’02), archivist for faculty papers at the University of Illinois Archives, won the 2020 Sophie Coe Prize for her work on the forgotten history of Viennese cuisine.

Kathy Edwards (MS ’06) was promoted to librarian at Clemson University Libraries in July 2020. At Clemson, she has been the research and collection development librarian for architecture, art, city planning, and historic preservation since 2008 and was tenured in 2013.

Jeanne Hamilton (MS ’08) was elected president-elect of the Illinois Library Association’s 2020 Executive Board.

Rick Meyer (MS ’09) was elected as a director-at-large of the Illinois Library Association’s 2020 Executive Board.

In December 2019, Annie (Dougherty) Miskewitch (MS ’03) was appointed by the Board of Trustees as executive director for the Schaumburg Township District Library.

Schaumburg Library has three locations just outside of Chicago, Illinois.

Rachel E. Scott (MS ’07) was appointed associate dean for information assets at Illinois State University.

DECADE: 1990s Laura Barnes (MS ’93) was elected as a director-at-large of the Illinois Library Association’s 2020 Executive Board.

Stephanie Davis-Kahl (MS ’98) has been appointed university librarian and copyright officer for the Ames Library at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Darin Fox (MS ’94) has been named interim dean of Oklahoma University libraries.

Michelle Glatt (MS ’93) was elected treasurer of the Association of Illinois School Library Educators’ Executive Board for 20202021.

After many years of teaching a job hunting class, Pamela Posz (MS ’95) has published her book, Power Posz: and other Hacks for Getting the Job You Want.

Jian Qin (PhD ’96) has been selected as the recipient of the 2020 Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology, sponsored by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) and the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA).

Mark Rogers (MS ’94) passed away on September 1. He worked as a library specialist in the Undergraduate Library at the University of Illinois.

DECADE: 1980s Scott G. Burgh (MS ’86) has received the Robert L. Oakley Advocacy Award from the American Association of Law Libraries.

Michèle Cloonan (MS ’84, PhD ’88) has co-authored a new book with Elizabeth Joffrion, Advancing Preservation for Archives and Manuscripts, which was recently published by the Society of American Archivists.

Sara Tompson (MS ’87) retired at the end of January 2020. She has been keeping busy with the Special Libraries Association (she was named an SLA Fellow in 2017), chairing the Engineering Community for 2020. She is also pursuing additional aviation ratings and has a large tomato-dominated garden.

DECADE: 1970s Margaret Bienemann (MS ’76) retired at the end of January 2020 from the University of Texas Libraries.

Charles Headley (MS ’78) retired in March after thirteen years as senior executive director of development services at Southern Methodist University.

DECADE: 1960s Lucy (Becker) Thomas (MS ’68) retired as adjunct librarian at Santa Barbara City College. Previously, she served as director of the Reeves Medical Library and as a school librarian. Her honors include Beta Phi Mu, distinguished member of Academy of Health Information Professionals, and officer of the Faculty Senate. She co-authored Making Informed Medical Decisions, a handbook for consumers of healthcare, with Nancy Oster.

Margaret Thrasher (MS ’64) passed away on April 29, 2020. She was the branch manager of the New Carrollton (MD) Branch Library before retiring in 2000.

Send us your news!

We’d love to hear from you! Send us your updates as well as any employment or internship opportunities, conferences of interest, or opportunities for iSchool alumni to connect in your area.

Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations School of Information Sciences 501 East Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820 ischool-advancement@illinois.edu (217) 300-5746 ischool.illinois.edu/engage/alumni

Grants

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New grants (funding began between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020) Illinois Cyber Security Scholars Program Renewal 2019 (Masooda Bashir)—NSF, $4,000,000 BD Hubs: Collaborative Proposal: Midwest: Midwest Big Data Hub: Building Communities to Harness the Data Revolution (Catherine Blake)— NSF, $2,883,274 Scholarly Communication Notebook (Maria Bonn)—IMLS, $32, 867 ECR Methods DCL: Advancing Computational Grounded Theory for Audiovisual Data from STEM Classrooms (Nigel Bosch, Co-PI)—NSF, $1,313,855 Extension of INDICATOR for Opioid Surveillance (Ian Brooks)—Illinois Department of Public Health, $2,750 Feasibility of Conversational Agents for Older Adult Well-Being (Jessie Chin, Co-PI)—Mather LifeWays, $89,947 Identifying False HPV-Vaccine Information and Modeling Its Impact on Risk Perceptions (Jessie Chin)—NIH, $389,810 Assessing Impact Patterns in Research Texts Applying Corpus Driven Methods (Jana Diesner)—Institute for the German Language, $164,732 Collaborative Research: Accelerating Synthetic Biology Discovery & Exploration through Knowledge Integration (J. Stephen Downie)—NSF, $211,699 Detecting, Characterizing, Tracking and Forecasting Rare Events in Multi-Sourced Networks: An Application in Analyzing Isolated Malicious Activities (Jingrui He)—U.S. Department of Homeland Security, $163,145 Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Cartel Smuggling Study (Jingrui He)—U.S. Department of Homeland Security, $78,917 DARPA - Modeling Adversarial Activity (MAA) Program (Jingrui He, Co-PI)—U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, $560,000 Outlier Interpretation on Time Series for Model Risk Management (Jingrui He)—IBM C3SR Center, $73,000 CAREER: III: Modeling the Heterogeneity of Heterogeneity: Algorithms, Theories and Applications (Jingrui He)—NSF, $415,836 III: Small: Predictive Analysis of Diabetes Dedicated Social Networks (Jingrui He)—NSF, $448,049 Enabling Accessibility and Linking Digital Media Collections in Academic Libraries (Yun Huang)—IMLS, $186,693 I-Corps: Beacon-Enabled Smart Location-Based Service (Yun Huang)—NSF, $30,524 Data Storytelling for Community Organizations (Kate McDowell)—Center for Social & Behavioral Science, $20,000 Games @ Illinois: Playful Design for Transformative Education (Judith Pintar)—Provost Office Special Programs, $456,000 Cyber Risk Assessment for Threatened Environments (Eunice E. Santos)—U.S. Air Force, $225,000 Reducing the Inadvertent Spread of Retracted Science: Shaping a Research and Implementation Agenda (Jodi Schneider)— Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, $174,981 EAGER: Reproducibility in Computational and Data-Enabled Science - Paradigms, Practices, and Infrastructure (Victoria Stodden)—NSF, $300,000 GBMF: yt: Next Phases (Matthew Turk)—Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, $700,000 From Accurate Correlated Quantum Simulations to Mesoscopic Scales (Matthew Turk, Co-PI)—U.S. Department of Energy, $2,750,000 NRT-HDR: Data and Informatics Graduate Intern-traineeship: Materials at the Atomic Scale (Matthew Turk, Co-PI)—NSF, $3,000,000 Broadening Access to Text Analysis by Describing Uncertainty (Ted Underwood)—NEH, $73,122 CAREER: Inclusive Privacy: Effective Privacy Management for People with Visual Impairments (Yang Wang)—NSF, $255,203

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iSchool researchers manage active grants from the nation’s most prestigious funders, with interdisciplinary campus partners, and in collaboration with a broad range of universities, institutions, and organizations.

Funders

University Research Partners

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Basal Cell Carcinoma Nevus Syndrome Life Support Network Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation HathiTrust Research Center Illinois Department of Public Health Illinois Center for Social & Behavioral Science Illinois Global Institute Illinois Provost Office Special Programs: Investment for Growth Institute for the German Language Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Mather LifeWays National Endowment for the Arts National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Library of Medicine National Science Foundation (NSF) Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation U.S. Air Force U.S. Army U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency U.S. Department of Education U.S. Department of Energy U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Department of Astronomy College of Education Coordinated Science Lab Gies College of Business Information Trust Institute (ITI) Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Materials Research Lab Micro and Nanotechnology Lab National Center for Supercomputing Applications Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences Department of Nuclear, Plasma, & Radiological Engineering University Library

Collaborating Institutions Arizona State University Champaign-Urbana Public Health District Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research HRL Laboratories Indiana University McGill University Norman Public Schools North Carolina State University Securboration, Inc. University of Arizona University of California-Los Angeles University of Notre Dame

More information on iSchool research projects is available at ischool.illinois.edu/research/projects

29 $13.8

PROJECTS

MILLION

Our faculty and staff serve as principal investigators on 29 projects totaling $13.8million.

21 $73.3

PROJECTS

MILLION

Our faculty and staff serve as co-investigators or partners on 21 projects totaling $73.3 million.

Non Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 75 Champaign, IL University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 501 East Daniel Street, MC-493 Champaign, IL 61820-6211

The Center for Children’s Books celebrates 75 years A crossroads for critical inquiry, professional training, and educational outreach, the iSchool’s Center for Children’s Books (CCB) will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2021. Please join us for the following special events: • A virtual lecture series in the spring featuring iSchool youth services faculty and alumni speaking about the Center’s history and activities central to its work, with an emphasis on evaluating children’s literature, storytelling, diversity, and literacy as a public health issue. Speakers will include Associate Professor Kate McDowell; Professor Emerita Betsy Hearne; Sarah Park Dahlen (MS ’09, PhD ’09), associate professor of library and information science at St. Catherine University; and Dipesh Navsaria (MS ’04), pediatrician and medical director of Reach Out and Read Wisconsin.

• An online exhibit celebrating 75 years of the CCB in Chicago and Urbana-Champaign in the summer.

• A gala celebration and panel discussion in the fall with CCB Director Sara L. Schwebel; Professor Emerita Betsy Hearne; Deborah Stevenson, editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books; and Roger Sutton, editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc. More information about the anniversary celebration will be available soon on the CCB and iSchool websites.