Williams preserves African American history

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

Sherry 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 startedbecause 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 historicalnarrativeadded.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 researchersaccess 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. “The Society started because my daughters grew tired of hearing me tell them about the many notable people and places in the Bronzeville community.” – Sherry Williams

2020 ISAA award recipients announced

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

CREDIT: S TELLA KALININA

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 thatNoble 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

The 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

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 Roberta Koscielski

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