Fall 2023 Intersections

PEOPLE I INFORMATION I TECHNOLOGY

FALL 2023

Intersections

The iSchool at Illinois educates leaders in the information sciences who impact our communities, nation, and world.

Fall 2023 School of Information Sciences University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Published by iSchool Communications and Marketing. 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, Susan Mumm Photography: Cindy Brya, Michelle Hassel, Amanda Nguyen, Thompson-McClellan Photography, Fred Zwicky

Intersections

Contents

Smith honored with festschrift

3

Surveys track student outcomes

10

Author credits MSLIS degree

13

iSchool celebrates 130 years

17

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

On the cover: Sarah Park Dahlen (MSLIS ’09, PhD ’09), associate professor and co-editor of the journal Research on Diversity in Youth Literature (RDYL), and MSLIS student and RDYL graduate assistant Marycruz Flores Reynoso

NEWS Letter from the Dean

2

Smith honored with Library Trends festschrift

3

New Faces and Faculty Promotions—Fall 2023

4-5

CCB marks the 60th anniversary of the Birmingham church bombing with new website, programs

6

Blake named associate dean for academic affairs

6

Knox receives Beta Phi Mu Award

7

Knox testifies before U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee

7

RESEARCH McDowell examines benefits and obstacles of library data storytelling

8

Developing computational tools to protect Homeland Security data

8

New grants support accessibility in research and teaching

8

Representing underserved groups in AI development

9

Richardson honored for dissertation research

9

Wang authors book on social edge computing

9

New study reveals TikTok’s spread of COVID-19 misinformation

9

FEATURES New graduate outcomes

10-11

ALUMNI Foundation job provides personal connection for Henderson

12

2022 ISAA award recipients announced

12

NYT bestselling author credits MSLIS degree with improving his research, writing

13

CLASS NOTES Celebrating 75 years of the PhD program

14-15 15

GIVING Estate gift a ‘Guru-Dakshina’ for PhD alum

16

iSchool celebrates 130th anniversary

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2

Letter from the Dean

W

ith the fall semester underway, we look forward to another productive year at the iSchool. Classes are in full swing, and it is wonderful to greet new students and faculty

as well as welcome back those who have returned. The campus is buzzing with energy, and the iSchool is filled with activity and the excitement that comes with learning and engagement.

This year, we continue to celebrate the 130th anniversary of our School. Since our founding in fall 1893, the iSchool at Illinois has been the leader in shaping teaching, research, and professional practice in library and information science. We are also celebrating the 75th anniversary of our PhD program, which is the oldest existing program of its kind in the country. Our current enrollment is 30 percent greater than in fall 2022, which demonstrates the program’s ongoing excellence and value in the field of information sciences.

In this issue of Intersections, you will see many new faces. As our enrollment climbs, we continue to hire talented new faculty and staff to provide an exceptional educational

“

experience for our students. Our research has expanded into areas including but not limited

Since our founding in fall

to accessible design, information and technology policy, machine learning, mobile health technologies, data curation, and computational reproducibility. Our School’s ongoing

1893, the iSchool at Illinois

growth and expanded research portfolio reinforces our position as a leader in the field, both

has been the leader in

nationally and internationally.

shaping teaching, research, and professional practice

In the pages that follow, you will read about efforts to protect sensitive government data, ensure accessible design and development in curricula, represent underserved groups in AI development, and utilize data storytelling to benefit libraries. These activities exemplify

in library and information

our School’s commitment to innovation and our confidence in the power of information to

science.

enhance the lives of our citizens and communities.

”

I’d like to thank everyone who has worked hard to bring our School to where it is today: former deans, faculty, staff, alumni, and donors. As we celebrate our 130th anniversary, we can look back on our distinguished history with pride and anticipate the future with optimism and confidence.

Sincerely,

Eunice Santos, Dean

3

I

n honor of Professor Emerita Linda C. Smith’s contributions to the field of library and information science (LIS), Anita S. Coleman and Martha Kyrillidou have coedited “Library and Information Science, Interdisciplinary Perspectives: A Festschrift in Honor of Linda C. Smith,” which comprises Volume 71, Issue 1, of Library Trends. The journal is published quarterly for the iSchool by Johns Hopkins University Press and is available by subscription both in print and online.

The festschrift discusses Smith’s boundary-pushing accomplishments as a researcher, teacher, and administrator for more than four decades. Former doctoral advisees Coleman (PhD ’96) and Kyrillidou (PhD ’09) acknowledge Smith’s influence on their professional success and the “countless ways she has contributed to the discipline of LIS and helped to structure its evolution and growth as a field of knowledge and practice.”

The authors of the festschrift are leading educators, practitioners, and researchers, including Smith’s former doctoral students, current and past colleagues in the iSchool at Illinois, and external collaborators. Essays investigate three themes—library systems, intelligent and interdisciplinary services, and information sciences education—that have been central to Smith’s work. Topics covered include LIS education and accreditation; the teaching of reference and bibliographic searching in light of new information technologies; recent copyright law and serials modeling; data stewardship for interdisciplinary inquiry; and applications of machine learning in libraries.

“Linda’s festschrift reveals her as a humanist, scientist, technologist, and role model, the Renaissance Scholar of LIS,” said Coleman and Kyrillidou. “Her reliable and supportive manner helped colleagues,

“

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Smith honored with Library Trends festschrift Linda’s festschrift reveals her as a humanist, scientist, technologist, and role model, the Renaissance

”

Scholar of LIS.

faculty, and students accomplish their goals. Linda has been an amazing mentor to us, personally, and to the many doctoral students and colleagues we had opportunities to hear from thanks to this festschrift.”

Smith’s career has spanned a time of great change. The festschrift’s essays for the iSchool will help students and experts to better understand the ever-evolving information sciences, challenges of computing to traditional environments, and the possibilities that will benefit from more study.

Smith observes, “Throughout my career in LIS education I have had the privilege of working with and learning from countless students and colleagues at Illinois and beyond. The festschrift offers those who contributed an opportunity to share their scholarship and insights with the readers of Library Trends. I am especially grateful to Anita and Martha for their role in shaping this issue as coeditors.”

Smith is the recipient of numerous honors, beginning with the ASIS Student Member Paper Award in 1974 for her research paper on searching in interdisciplinary areas; ALISE awards for teaching, service, and contributions to LIS education; the ASIS&T Award of Merit as well as Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award; the Beta Phi Mu Award; and Illinois Library Luminary. She is a longtime fellow of AAAS, elected in 1993.

She has authored books, journal articles,

chapters, reports, and conference papers in every subdiscipline of LIS, including the use of artificial intelligence for information retrieval (her dissertation), and she has served as coeditor for five editions of Reference and Information Services: An Introduction (Libraries Unlimited). Smith’s exemplary service includes serving as president of ASIS&T, ALISE, Beta Phi Mu, and chair of the ALA Committee on Accreditation.

Smith holds a PhD in information transfer from Syracuse University, MS in information and computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology, MS in library science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and BS in physics and mathematics from Allegheny College. Smith joined the faculty of the School of Information Sciences in 1977. She has been routinely named to the University’s List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent throughout her tenure and was named a University Distinguished TeacherScholar in 1999. Following her retirement in 2019, she returned as interim executive associate dean, a position she currently holds.

For more than 70 years, Library Trends has explored critical trends in professional librarianship through practical applications, thorough analyses, and literature reviews. The vision for the festschrift was developed by coeditors-inchief Clara M. Chu, UIUC, and Jaya Raju, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

A virtual symposium featuring a discussion with the authors of the festschrift was held on September 28.

Visit the festschrift website: bit.ly/3PzsoIa

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News

New Faces and Faculty Promotions—Fall 2023 Rachel Adler Associate Professor

Joey Kennedy Senior IT Specialist

Focuses on human-computer interaction, accessible design, participatory design, mobile health technologies, and computing education.

Supervises the Help Desk graduate assistants and provides course and general IT support for the School.

Suzan Alteri Assistant Director, Center for Children’s Books

Jiaqi Ma Assistant Professor

Fosters cross-campus and community collaborations around youth media and literature, teaches courses on children’s literature, and manages the Center’s daily operation.

Matt Archer Coordinator of Academic and Student Affairs Supports the social and academic development of students in the PhD degree program.

Hope Bickers Office Manager Provides administrative support for the associate dean for academic affairs and program directors.

Adrienne Gulley Assistant Director of Recruitment and Admissions Supports recruitment for all degree programs in the School, with an emphasis on the undergraduate program.

Focuses on trustworthy machine learning, data-centric AI, machine learning on graph-structured data, information retrieval, and recommender systems.

Patrick Martinez Endpoint Services Specialist Works closely with faculty and staff to assist with their IT issues, needs, and concerns.

Shirley Meyers Grants and Contracts Coordinator Performs pre- and post-award administrative functions related to sponsored research projects.

Dave Mussulman Lecturer Focuses on information technology; IT communications; diversity, equity and inclusion; and mindfulness practice and education.

Lauren Ochs School Librarian Licensure Coordinator Advises licensure/endorsement students about coursework; places, supervises, and evaluates students in field experiences; and aligns program with state and national standards.

Samantha Smith Office Manager Assists the business office with purchases, financial transactions, and financial administrative maintenance.

Craig Willis Teaching Assistant Professor Focuses on changing the peer review process to support the verification and dissemination of reproducible computational research artifacts.

Yang Zhang Teaching Assistant Professor Focuses on human-centered AI and human-AI interaction and collaboration, utilizing crowd intelligence to effectively design, configure, and troubleshoot the AI models.

Meicen Sun Assistant Professor Focuses on information and technology policy, political economy of information, geopolitics of data, and digital economy and trade.

Travis Wagner Assistant Professor Focuses on challenges and opportunities for LGBTQIA+ communities to preserve their culture and identifies institutional responsibilities in that work.

Faculty Promotions The iSchool is proud to announce the following promotions.

Jingrui He Professor He’s research focuses on heterogeneous machine learning, rare category analysis, active learning, and self-supervised learning, with applications in security, social network analysis, healthcare, and manufacturing processes.

Peter Darch Associate Professor

Weslee Walton Associate Director of Finance and Business Operations Oversees the School’s financial operations and guides associate and assistant deans and directors in the development of their budgets.

Darch’s research interests include citizen science, information infrastructures for science, sociotechnical challenges to scientific data curation, and material politics of scientific collaboration.

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News

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CCB marks the 60th anniversary of the Birmingham church bombing with new website, programs

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n September 15, 1963, four little girls had their lives cut short in a bomb blast at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. This tragic event, which drew international attention to the civil rights movement in the U.S., is a pivotal moment in The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963, the Newbery Honor-winning book by children’s author Christopher Paul Curtis. This past September, several organizations, including the iSchool’s Center for Children’s Books (CCB), partnered on events for young people in Birmingham to mark the 60th anniversary of the bombing.

Together with the National Park Service (NPS), the CCB has launched a new Books to Parks website on The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963. According to CCB Director Sara L. Schwebel, the Books to Parks initiative links award-winning, widely taught works of youth literature to lands and historic sites protected by the federal government.

Schwebel developed the content for the website with CCB research assistants (and recent MSLIS graduates) Joshua Altshuler and Mia Walter in partnership with colleagues at the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument and Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

The site includes a reading guide for each chapter of the book with archival images and fact check sections that connect the story to history and introduce primary sources for students to use in answering questions about the book.

“Students browsing through the resources learn to interrogate their perceptions of peoples and places, in particular outlooks of the South. Birmingham reflects a distinct and relevant historical landscape in terms of the civil rights movement in 1963. But users of the site also discover Birmingham’s similarities to Flint, Michigan, as a city shaped by race relations, community, and culture,” said Altshuler, who is now a visiting reference and instruction librarian at Lawrence University.

On September 14, the CCB collaborated with the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, 16th Street Baptist Church, NPS, and other organizations on an event for 4th-8th grade students that was centered on The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963. Christopher Paul Curtis addressed students from the sanctuary of 16th Street Baptist Church, and students participated in hands-on, curriculum-based activities, such as listening to music of the 1960s, playing games like jacks and hopscotch, reading poetry by Langston Hughes, and mapping out the route that the Watsons took from Flint to Birmingham.

“As the Books to Park website launches, we look forward to supporting local partners in their plans for an annual event linked to Christopher Paul Curtis’ novel,” said Schwebel.

“Also in the works is a bus trip from Michigan to Alabama that enables a group of Flint schoolchildren to trace the Watson family’s road trip South.”

Visit the Books to Parks website: bit.ly/48ARwai

Blake named associate dean for academic affairs

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rofessor Catherine Blake has been named associate dean for academic affairs. In this new role, she provides leadership and oversight for academic programs, including program development, curriculum coordination, and continuous improvement of educational experiences.

“I am very excited to be a part of the iSchool’s long legacy of innovation with respect to how faculty engage with students. For example, many people have only recently become familiar with online learning, but the iSchool entered that space back in 1996, with a program that combined residential and online experiences,” said Blake.

Blake’s previous curricula development includes the socio-technical data analytics (SODA) specialization that evolved into the MS in Information Management (MSIM).

Her leadership roles in the iSchool include serving as program director for the MSIM and MS in Bioinformatics programs as well as associate director for the Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship (CIRSS).

“Many of our faculty are thinking deeply about how to mobilize information to help communities, and I am really looking forward to being more involved with how that expertise manifests in our programs,” she said.

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ssociate Professor Emily Knox has been selected as the 2023 recipient of the American Library Association’s Beta Phi Mu Award. This annual award is given in recognition of a library school faculty member’s achievement or another individual’s distinguished service to education for librarianship. The award, which consists of $1,000 and a citation of achievement, is sponsored by the Beta Phi Mu International Library Science Honor Society.

Knox holds an MSLIS from the iSchool at Illinois and a PhD from Rutgers University School of Communication and Information. She has an extensive record of scholarship and has made a lasting impression as a leader, scholar, professor, mentor, and colleague.

Knox is known for thinking critically about issues that will impact libraries in the future—namely, intellectual freedom, accessibility, and diversity. She lends her voice to this canon in libraries across the country and in larger venues such as NPR, The Washington Post, and Slate.

Colleagues and students alike hold her advocacy and mentorship in high regard. Her students appreciate her ability to break down ethical issues related to policy and admire her perspectives on understanding the tensions between policy and justice. They view Knox’s classroom as a safe space to lend their voice to complex issues. Additionally, her colleagues admire her ability to balance administrative roles with classroom responsibilities.

Knox is equally skillful at engaging students and colleagues outside of the classroom and beyond the university.

She held several leadership roles on the Beta Phi Mu International Society Executive Board and currently serves as chair of the National Coalition Against Censorship board. She is an expert advisor to the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Committee on Freedom of Access to Information and Freedom of Expression (FAIFE) and editor of the Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy.

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Knox receives Beta Phi Mu Award

Knox’s scholarship also focuses on advocacy and intellectual freedom. Her publications, which include books such as Foundations of Intellectual Freedom, Foundations of Information Ethics, and Book Banning in 21st Century America, collectively provide a road map for engaging and understanding issues that are critical to the field but also address broader issues of civil discourse in the United States.

Adapted from an ALA press release

Knox testifies before U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee

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ssociate Professor Emily Knox testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary on September 12. She was one of five witnesses offering testimony for the hearing “Book Bans: Examining How Censorship Limits Liberty and Literature.”

In her testimony, Knox addressed the right to intellectual freedom, why people attempt to ban books, and the importance of libraries. A recording of the hearing is available on the committee’s website.

Watch the recording: bit.ly/3PE6vc5

Research

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McDowell examines benefits and obstacles of library data storytelling

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he effective use of data storytelling could positively impact public library managers’ approaches to data collection and their advocacy for libraries, according to Associate Professor Kate McDowell. However, cultural roadblocks to data storytelling must be addressed for the process to be successful, McDowell discovered in a recently completed study.

McDowell discusses her findings in the Public Library Quarterly article, “Library Data Storytelling: Obstacles and Paths Forward.” This work is the result of her research project, “Data Storytelling for Community Organizations,” which received a $20,000 seed grant from The Center for Social and Behavioral Science.

For her project, McDowell interviewed librarians and invited them to participate in a questionnaire, ranking exercise, and workshop discussions.

“Data storytelling could be very valuable for libraries as they communicate their mission and impact and as they advocate for resources. Unfortunately, there are some obstacles that need to be addressed before this will be possible,” she said.

Librarians’ fear of data as unfamiliar or overwhelming, their fear of their story appearing fictionalized, and the connected barriers of time, tools, and training are among the obstacles.

“In order to make the most of the time and effort of data collection, library data must become story. By prioritizing storytelling as a practice that precedes data storage—or simply story before storage— we can better understand what we are accomplishing,” McDowell said.

McDowell gives the example of a library that needs to update its computers because of old hardware. The librarians have data on how often the computers crash and how much it would cost to replace them.

However, this data alone does not provide a compelling story.

“We must think about what the data mean. In this case, working computers mean the ability for people to apply for jobs. The story of even one person who applied for and got a job because of library computers is much more compelling as a justification for the expense of updating the computer lab.

The more people that have applied for jobs using the resources, the more compelling the story,” she said.

Developing computational tools to protect Homeland Security data

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rofessor Jingrui He is developing computational tools to protect against leaks and/or unauthorized use of sensitive data held and distributed among Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies and other parties.

Her project, “Privacy-Preserving Analytics for Non-IID Data,” received a three-year, $651,927 grant from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Center for Accelerating Operational Efficiency (CAOE).

New grants support accessibility in research and teaching

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ssistant Professor JooYoung Seo has been awarded a $649,921 Early Career Development grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS grant RE254891-OLS-23) to research the needs of professional data curators and blind patrons. This project is an extension of Seo’s ongoing project, “MAIDR: Multimodal Access and Interactive Data Representation,” in which he has been developing computer tools that augment visual charts with touchable (braille), readable (text), and audible (sound) representations, to make them more accessible for the visually impaired. In the new project, Seo’s tools will connect the multimodal and accessible data representation with data curators’ day-today reproducible workflows, integrating them into reproducible frameworks and visualization libraries.

In addition, Seo was one of nineteen faculty nationwide to receive a $5,000 grant from the nonprofit organization Teach Access to develop and implement an accessibility module with the goal of infusing accessibility into curricula.

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ssociate Professors Yang Wang and Yun Huang are spearheading a project in collaboration with experts from the University of California-Berkeley and Stanford University to help ensure emerging artificial intelligence (AI) development proceeds in a democratic manner that is mindful of underserved groups. Informatics PhD student Tanusree Sharma is also leading this initiative as a critical component of her dissertation work. OpenAI, Inc., an American artificial intelligence research lab, has awarded a $110,000 grant for the one-year project, “Inclusive AI: A ChatGPT Plugin and DAO for Engaging Vulnerable Groups in AI.”

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Representing underserved groups in AI development

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Richardson honored for dissertation research

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hD student Courtney Richardson has been selected as the winner of the 2023 Litwin Books Award for Ongoing Dissertation Research in the Philosophy of Information. The award, which consists of $1,000 and a certificate, is given annually to a graduate student who is working on a dissertation on the philosophy of information, broadly construed.

In her dissertation, “Art as Information: Re-Reading Quicksand,” Richardson reexamines personal reading and archival practices within library and information science from an artist’s perspective. She demonstrates how art practices (within graphic design and fabric-textile arts) are incorporated into the everyday acts of reading and knowledge production, such as storytelling and personal archiving.

For her dissertation, Richardson uses graphical and textual artworks to reinterpret and analyze stories and archives embedded within Quicksand (1928), a fictional and autobiographical novel by Nella Larsen.

New study reveals TikTok’s spread of COVID-19 misinformation

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new study conducted by PhD student Morgan Lundy, which was published in the International Journal of Communication, reveals how TikTok’s unique features have been used to spread COVID-19 misinformation.

Unlike Twitter, which uses a text format, the micro-video format of TikTok makes it more difficult to detect deceptive information. In her study, Lundy learned that TikTok users who oppose the COVID-19 vaccine use intentionally coded language, misspelled words, and alternate hashtags to evade anti-misinformation efforts. She found that misinformation topics featured in previous COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy literature are still prevalent despite public health efforts.

Wang authors book on social edge computing

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ssociate Professor Dong Wang is the lead author of a book that introduces a new paradigm integrating edge computing, humans, and artificial intelligence (AI). Social Edge Computing: Empowering Human-Centric Edge Computing, Learning and Intelligence (Springer) is coauthored by Daniel “Yue” Zhang, research scientist at Amazon Alexa AI. With the rise in smart devices and advances in AI, data is increasingly being captured, processed, and analyzed near where it is created.

This practice, edge computing, is different from cloud computing, where data is processed in a data center or public cloud. Advantages of computing at the edge include reduced bandwidth cost, improved responsiveness, and better privacy protection. In their book, Wang and Zhang define a new paradigm, social edge computing (SEC), that generalizes the current machine-to-machine interactions in edge computing and machine-to-AI interactions into a “holistic human-machine-AI ecosystem.”

Features

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T

his report shares the outcomes of students who earned their bachelor’s and master’s degrees between August 2021 and May 2022, including the BS in Information Sciences (BSIS), MS in Library and Information Science (MSLIS), and MS in Information Management (MSIM). The majority of data came from a campus-wide survey, which invited graduates to provide information about their postgraduation status at regular intervals for six months following their graduation. In addition, data were also gathered from college reports and a limited use of LinkedIn profiles.

View the full report: bit.ly/3SbhnQ5

The 2023 iSchool Career and Networking Fair was a huge success, with participation by more than 900 students and 50 employers.

Select BSIS graduate employment by industry

25%

35%

10% 10

n

Consulting

n

Finance & Insurance

n

IT & Technology

n

Aerospace & Aviation

n

Utilities

n

Manufacturing

n

Trade

n

Education

n

Arts, Entertainment, Recreation

n

Health

%

20%

BSIS employment by roles 36% 14% 14% 9% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4%

Analytics Cybersecurity IT Consulting Engineering Other Product Software UX Web

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Select MSLIS graduate employment by industry

31%

41%

8%

6%

3

%

n

Education

n

Libraries & Museums

n

IT & Technology

n

Professional Services

n

Trade

n

Arts, Entertainment, Recreation

n

Government & Related

n

Aerospace & Aviation

n

Finance & Insurance

n

Consulting

86% 14%

Higher Education PreK-12

96% Public Libraries 4% Museums, Historical Sites, Libraries

6%

5

%

Select MSIM graduate employment by industry

n Consulting n IT & Technology

30

%

30%

n Finance & Insurance n Scientific and Technical n Government & Related n Health

15%

n Trade n Education n Utilities

4

%

11

%

4% 4%

n Marketing n Agriculture

MSIM employment by roles 24% 20% 15% 13% 7% 7% 4% 4% 4% 2%

Software Data Analytics Nonspecific/Other Business Technology Consultant Data Scientist Product Data Engineer Program Manager AI

Percentages are rounded for illustration purposes. Totals may not equal 100 percent.

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Alumni

Foundation job provides personal connection for Henderson

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than Henderson (MSLIS ’07) is more than a staff member at the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. The funds that he raises as the foundation’s senior director of advancement benefit him personally, as someone with Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s is a degenerative condition of the brain that causes unintended or uncontrollable movements as well as other issues.

It is a lifelong disease with symptoms slowly worsening over time.

The actor Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at the young age of 29. Henderson received his diagnosis at 47, although he had been noticing symptoms seven years earlier. His father, who also had Parkinson’s, was diagnosed later in life.

“Even though it is a neurodegenerative brain disease, you can live a very long and active life. Each day is different. One day I’ll experience no symptoms, while other days it is difficult to get out of bed and start my day,” he said. “Exercise, diet, and medication can give you a great quality of life.”

In his job, Henderson is helping fund scientific research that will one day find a cure for all neurodegenerative diseases. To date, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research has funded almost $2 billion in research. In addition to financially supporting research, people (with and without Parkinson’s) can participate in studies, such as the foundation’s Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI).

Henderson’s foray into advancement started at Georgetown University, when he was the curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts and an instructor.

“I was always asked to talk with donors about their collections and philanthropy, and I really enjoyed that,” he said.

After several years working in advancement, curating archives and special collections, and teaching LIS courses, Henderson joined the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. He and his wife Gretchen moved to Tucson, Arizona, where they have become desert gardeners, planting native species in order to support the Sonoran desert ecosystem. The couple enjoy hiking the trails with their dog Ava and traveling—especially exploring the roads less taken. Henderson remains optimistic about the future.

“Since I exercise frequently, try hard to maintain a good diet, and keep my mind active, I am in really good shape. Of course, there are challenges. I’m conscious of what is down the road, but I don’t let it affect me that much. I have an extraordinary ordinary life,” he said.

2022 ISAA award recipients announced

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he iSchool Alumni Association (ISAA) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2022 Alumni Awards.

Emily Knox (MSLIS ’03) is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumna Award. This award is given to an alum who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of library and information science. Knox, associate professor in the iSchool, has compiled an impressive record of contributions to the field of library and information science through her publications, teaching, and professional service. She is chair of the board of directors of the National Coalition Against Censorship and editor of the Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy.

Pia Hunter (MSLIS ’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. Since earning her MSLIS, Hunter has completed her JD degree and emerged as a leader in law librarianship. She currently serves as teaching professor and associate director for research and instruction at the Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Memorial Law Library at the University of Illinois College of Law. Ruth Shasteen (CAS ’13) is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award. This award is given to an individual who has served ISAA or the School in an exceptional way. Shasteen served as program coordinator for school librarian licensure at the iSchool from 2021-2023. She also served as an adjunct lecturer and led the iSchool/Chicago Public Schools (CPS) cohort project, a new initiative that supports the iSchool’s goal of recruiting diverse representation to school librarianship.

NYT bestselling author credits MSLIS degree with improving his research, writing

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Whether or not you end up spending your career as a librarian, you will never regret gaining the knowledge you’ll get with an MSLIS. You’ll use it for the rest of your life. I can’t think of any other degree I could have earned that would have

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allowed me to say that.

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ccording to Daniel Kraus (MSLIS ’05), the most beneficial course he took at the University of Illinois was Adult Popular Literature (LIS 590), in which students read a book from every popular genre—romance, western, sci-fi, fantasy, and more.

“It pushed me to not only read the genres in which I wasn’t very literate, but to actually fully appreciate them, too,” said Kraus. “I came to love and respect every genre I encountered and still read all of them. That broadness of reading expanded my interests and has undoubtedly improved my writing.”

Now a New York Times bestselling author, Kraus has just published his twenty-first book, Whalefall, the “100% scientifically accurate story” of a scuba diver who is swallowed by an 80-foot, 60-ton sperm whale and has one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out.

“Whalefall is the ideal book to talk about in terms of the Adult Popular Lit class. Librarians have tended to shelve it in different places because it touches upon so many different genres: survival thriller, horror, sci-fi, or even just straight literary fiction. It’s this reach into so many different subgenres that I suspect has been key to its popularity,” said Kraus. Two months after publication, the novel is in its fifth printing and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment has optioned the book for a feature film.

In addition to novels, Kraus also writes for TV and film. With Guillermo del Toro, he coauthored The Shape of Water, based on the same idea the two created for the Oscarwinning film. Also with del Toro, Kraus coauthored Trollhunters, which was adapted into the Emmy-winning Netflix series.

Writing has always been a passion for Kraus.

“I started writing in first grade and never stopped. The first novel I ever wrote, The Monster Variations, got lucky and got published. It came out from Random House in 2009,” he said.

With characters such as aliens, monsters, sentient teddy bears, and an amphibious man, it’s easy to wonder how Kraus comes up with ideas for his stories.

“I position my awareness of the world in a way that allows everyday life to run through a story filter,” he said. “It’s like panning for gold: that filter will catch onto something—a premise, character, piece of dialogue—and alert me that I ought to take notice and write it down. Then I sit on the idea for a month or a year or a decade until something mysterious happens, and it catches fire.”

Kraus’ writing accolades include the Bram Stoker Award, Scribe Award, and two Odyssey Awards. His work has been translated into over 20 languages and appeared multiple times as Library Guild selections, YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, and more.

Kraus spent almost a decade writing for magazines before entering the iSchool for his master’s degree in library and information science.

“I knew a few people who were librarians, and they all seemed to really enjoy the profession. The whole idea appealed to me. I had never entertained going back to school again, but once the idea got into my head, I couldn’t shake it,” he said.

After graduation, Kraus worked in a library for a while and then at the American Library Association. He credits his MSLIS degree with giving him the research skills he still uses in his work today. For example, Whalefall took about three dedicated months to research, Kraus said.

“It has definitely been a degree that has continued to work for me year after year.

Plus, I often speak to groups of librarians, and always get a little cheer when I reveal that I’m one of them,” he said.

“Whether or not you end up spending your career as a librarian, you will never regret gaining the knowledge you’ll get with an MSLIS. You’ll use it for the rest of your life. I can’t think of any other degree I could have earned that would have allowed me to say that.”

Learn more about Kraus’ work at danielkraus.com.

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Class Notes

1960s Gene Dewey (MSLIS ’60) passed away on April 21, 2023, in Madison, Wisconsin.

John Littlewood (MSLIS ’61) passed away on July 19, 2023.

Eunice Weech (MSLIS ’69) passed away on October 16, 2022.

1970s Kathryn Harris (MSLIS ’71) has been named interim director of Lincoln Library, the public library of Springfield, Illinois.

1980s James A. Edstrom (MSLIS ’84) has received the Russell P. Strange Memorial Book of the Year Award from the Illinois State Historical Society for his book, Avenues of Transformation: Illinois’s Path from Territory to State.

Sandra Levy (MSLS ’89), associate Slavic librarian emerita at the University of Chicago Library, passed away on March 12, 2023.

1990s Deb Bier (MSLIS ’94) retired from the Peoria Public Library in September 2023.

Brittney Goodman (MSLIS ’96) passed away on March 8, 2023.

Gwendolyn Harrison (MSLIS ’97) has been elected as a director-at-large of the Illinois Library Association (ILA).

Robert Hu (MSLIS ’92) has authored a new book, Research Guide to Chinese Patent Law and Practice, 2nd Edition, which was recently published by William S. Hein & Co., Inc. Karen Schneider (MSLIS ’92) has been appointed to the American Library Association (ALA) Executive Board to serve a two-year term, beginning July 2023.

2000s Joshua Finnell (MSLIS ’07) has been appointed to a three-year term on the Depository Library Council (DLC) of the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO). DLC members advise the GPO director on policy matters relating to the Federal Depository Library Program and access to U.S. government information.

Leah Gregory (MSLIS ’04) has joined Illinois Heartland Library System as the membership Coordinator-schools liaison.

Michelle Kazmer (PhD ’02) has been named dean of the College of Communication and Information at Florida State University.

In October, Ellen Knutson (MSLIS ’02, PhD ’08) co-presented at the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation on how libraries can build community in times of chaos.

Sara Benson (MSLIS ’17) has received the 2023 Emerging Award for Excellence in Public Engagement from the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign.

Katie Kraushaar (MSLIS ’04) has been appointed as dean of library and information services for Quincy University.

Michael DeNotto (MSLIS ’12) has been appointed the acting head of research and instruction at the Van Wylen Library at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

Sarah Lin (MSLIS ’06) has authored a new book, Hands-On Data Science for Librarians, which was recently published by CRC Press.

Karla Lucht (MSLIS ’07) was selected to participate in NASPA’s (Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education) 2023 Asian Pacific Islander or Desi American Leadership Academy (APIDALA). Participants build critical competencies with APIDA professionals who are dedicated to leading in a vibrant, diverse, global, and socially-just higher education environment.

Robert Peck (MSLIS ’08) passed away on July 30, 2023.

Catherine (Cathy) Ritchie (CAS ’00) has received the International Association of Audio Information Services’ 2023 award for recording the year’s best audiobook for the blind, Call The Midwife. She records for the Illinois Radio Reader, housed on the UIUC campus.

Heidi Smith (MSLIS ’05) was featured in the Illinois Library Association’s Member Spotlight for the week of September 25, 2023.

Michael-John Voss (MSLIS ’04) recently joined the faculty at Saint Louis University School of Law as an assistant law professor and law reference librarian and was appointed to serve on the Steering Committee for the Library Faculty Assembly.

Marlo Welshons (MSLIS ’02) has been named assistant executive director for the University of Minnesota Office of the Board of Regents.

Rachel I. Wightman (MSLIS ’09) has authored a new book, Faith and Fake News: A Guide to Consuming Information Wisely, which was recently published by Eerdmans Publishing.

2010s Caitlin Archer-Helke (MSLIS ’15), acquisitions and content support specialist at Dykema Gossett PLLC, was featured in an Illinois Library Association Member Spotlight for the week of May 8, 2023.

Ann Baillie (MSLIS ’17) was featured in an Illinois Library Association Member Spotlight for the week of April 24, 2023.

Thomas Dousa (PhD ’14), metadata analyst librarian at the University of Chicago Library, received the 2023 Mary A. Grant Volunteer Service Award from the Catholic Library Association.

Hope Dunbar (MSLIS ’15) recently accepted a new position as university archivist at SUNY University at Buffalo in Buffalo, New York.

University of Illinois librarians María Emerson (MSLIS ’14) and David Ward (MSLIS ’98), in conjunction with Urbana’s Wesley Food Pantry, opened a new food pantry to fight student hunger.

Brian Flota (MSLIS ’13) has co-edited the essay collection, Comic Books, Special Collections, and the Academic Library, which will be released by ACRL Publications in December.

Jeff Ginger (PhD ’15) is serving as a research scientist for two NSF-funded projects, What-if Hypothetical Implementations in Minecraft (WHIMC) and the INVITE Institute.

Sarah Hare (MSLIS ’15) has started a new job as the open educational resources librarian at the University of California Santa Cruz.

Taylor Kirch (MSLIS ’14) started a new position in March as a metadata technologist focused on Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence and Human-in-the-Loop data curation at Netflix.

Shuyi Liu (MSLIS ’19, CAS ’23) began her new role as a faculty librarian in health sciences at California State University, Fresno in August 2023. Previously, she served as the international outreach services librarian at the Illinois Fire Service Institute Library at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Gail Murray (MSLIS ’15) recently accepted the position of electronic resources and serials librarian at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Sarah T. Roberts (PhD ’14) was elected vicepresident of the Association of Internet Researchers (AOIR). She will transition to lead the organization as its president in 2025.

Andrea Thomer (MSLIS ’12, PhD ’17) received the 2023 Best Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology (JASIST) Paper Award for her paper, “Integrative data reuse at scientifically significant sites: Case studies at Yellowstone National Park and the La Brea Tar Pits.”

alum of the program at Illinois?

Melissa Villa-Nicholas (PhD ’16) has authored a new book, Data Borders: How Silicon Valley is Building an Industry around Immigrants, which was released in July 2023 by UC Press.

Harriet Wintermute (MSLIS ’11) has been appointed chair of acquisitions, cataloging, metadata, and e-resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries.

Ann Zettervall (MSLIS ’18) started a new position as a librarian at Hennepin County Library in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

2020s Ellen Clark (MSLIS ’21) works as a children’s outreach librarian at Kokomo-Howard County Public Library in Kokomo, Indiana. She interacts with hundreds of children through her visits and programs such as the library’s new sensory storytime.

Rebecca Greenlee (MSLIS ’21) started her new position as a law librarian in Danbury, Connecticut, in October 2023.

Cordiah Hayes (MSLIS ’22) has been promoted to teen librarian at the Woodson Regional Library in Chicago. She previously served as the branch’s library associate.

Joanna Jourdan (formerly Quint) (MSLIS ’22) was promoted to metadata librarian at William & Mary Law School’s Wolf Law Library.

Alex Kennedy-Grant (MSLIS ’22) became head of the Avery Fisher Center for Music & Media at New York University in April 2023.

Lydia Ochs (MSLIS ’23) has started a new job as a children’s librarian at Brooklyn Public Library.

“The most delightful part of graduating from Illinois has been seeing all my PhD colleagues succeeding in the profession. The iSchool at Illinois is exemplary at preparing students for the scholarly and practical aspects of being an academic, and the lovely consequence is seeing so many peers throughout your professional life.”

—Peter Organisciak (PhD ’15), Associate Professor, University of Denver

“Being an alum of the iSchool at Illinois has truly been an amazing experience. I still feel very connected to the cohort of peers from my PhD program and also feel a kinship to the alumni I meet. Illinois gave me so many opportunities that were integral to shaping the scholar and teacher that I have become, including opportunities to travel, present research, teach, be mentored by legends in our field like Dr. Linda C. Smith, and forever be a part of the legacy of the program.”

—Miriam Sweeney (PhD ’13), Associate Professor, University of Alabama

Caelin Ross (MSLIS ’20) became the performing arts librarian at Arizona State University in March 2023.

Send us your news!

We’d love to hear from you! Send us your updates as well as any employment/ internship openings 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

“Illinois has provided an amazing network across a wide variety of contexts. I can find Illinois alums in any kind of library, producing groundbreaking and influential scholarship, or in leading industry positions. I’ve been able to connect with current students to fill practicum opportunities as well as with senior colleagues.

Even long after I graduated from the program, I’m still learning from this community.”

—Richard Urban (PhD ’12), Senior Program Officer, OCLC Research Library Partnership

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Celebrating 75 years of the PhD program What has it meant to you to be an

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Giving

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Estate gift a ‘Guru-Dakshina’ for PhD alum

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I would not have earned my doctoral degree without the

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advice, patience, and wisdom that Lancaster and Smith displayed toward me.

”

ccording to Chandra Prabha (PhD ’84), in traditional Indian culture, a student offers a gift in gratitude to the teacher who has played an important role in his or her life. This practice, called “Guru-Dakshina,” inspired Prabha to make an estate gift to the University of Illinois in honor of the professors who most influenced her PhD studies—F. W. “Wilf” Lancaster and Linda C. Smith. Her gift will be split between the Wilf Lancaster Scholarship and the Linda C. Smith Doctoral Student Endowment Fund in the School of Information Sciences.

“I would not have earned my doctoral degree without the advice, patience, and wisdom that Lancaster and Smith displayed toward me. Therefore, it was natural for me to select the funds named after these two teachers,” said Prabha.

Prabha earned her BS in elementary education and MS in library science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then worked as a children’s librarian for

two years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Later when she lived in India, she worked in the newly established Sorghum and Millet Information Centre at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), in the newly founded University of Hyderabad in India, as well as in the American Studies Research Center.

During this period Prabha decided to pursue a PhD. Prabha credits the iSchool (then GSLIS) with preparing her for a successful research career in librarianship.

“Four research projects, one each semester, were designed as preparation for dissertation research. I found the research process so absorbing that I dropped the idea of working in a library once I completed my degree. I wanted a career in library research,” she said.

It was through one of these research projects that she first became acquainted with Lancaster. Prabha broached him

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.

about a project that involved gathering data from senators through a mail survey. This interaction led to Prabha completing several projects under his direction.

Lancaster also introduced her to Jim Evans, a professor of agricultural communications, who provided Prabha with financial assistance through assistantships. Over the course of her doctoral studies, Prabha played a key role in setting up the Agricultural Communications Documentation Center at the University of Illinois.

While she never took a course that Smith taught, Prabha said can’t imagine going through the doctoral program without Smith’s continued support.

“Linda’s commitment to help students is unparalleled. She was available at her office in David Kinley Hall from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., sometimes even later, including weekends and holidays. The only exceptions were when she was teaching a class or in meetings. Linda’s office doors were open to any student who wanted to consult with her,” said Prabha.

It was Smith who recommended Prabha for a postdoctoral fellowship in the Office of Research at the OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), a global library organization that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large. Prabha got the job and ended up working over two decades as a research scientist for the OCLC. “The estate gift is a gift of gratitude or ‘GuruDakshina’ to my teachers at UIUC,” she said.

School of Information Sciences Annual Fund Supports students through scholarships, annual student awards, new technology, and conference travel.

Linda C. Smith Doctoral Student Endowment Fund Provides support for doctoral students demonstrating financial need.

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

iSchool celebrates 130th anniversary

T

he iSchool hosted 130th anniversary celebrations on June 25 at the American Writers Museum in Chicago and on October 2 at the I Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign. The Chicago event, which was held in conjunction with the American Library Association Annual Conference, included a keynote address and presentations, along with time for guests to mingle and explore the museum.

At the event, Professor Emerita Linda C. Smith was presented with a Library Trends festschrift by issue editors Anita Coleman (PhD ’96) and Martha Kyrillidou (PhD ’09), and the 2022 iSchool Alumni Association (ISAA) award recipients were recognized.

The Champaign event included a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the PhD program. Presenters included Dean Eunice E. Santos, Professor and PhD Program Director Michael Twidale, Assistant Dean for Advancement Eileen Prillaman, and Adjunct Lecturer Anita Coleman.

CHICAGO

Affiliate Professor Clara Chu, director of the Mortenson Center and Mortenson Distinguished Professor; Professor Emerita Linda C. Smith (MSLIS ’72); and Barbara Ford (MSLIS ’73), Mortenson Distinguished Professor Emerita

Past and present deans: Leigh Estabrook, Allen Renear, and Eunice E. Santos Anita Coleman with former Dean Leigh Estabrook and former Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Curt McKay (MSLIS ’88)

CHAMPAIGN

Former K-12 Program Coordinator Georgeann Burch (MSLIS ’04) and former Program Coordinator for School Librarian Licensure Ruth Shasteen (CAS ’13)

Director of Human Resources Melissa Madsen, Director of Budget and Planning Vicki Van Uithoven, former Assistant Dean for Advancement and Alumni Affairs Diana Stroud, Assistant Dean for Advancement Eileen Prillaman, and Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations Danielle Wilberg

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

The iSchool welcomed new students to campus on August 18. Freshmen learned about welcomed newand students tothrough campusa Candyland-themed on August 18. Freshmen learned Welcome students! The iSchool the School’s programs services scavenger hunt. about Welcome students! the School’s programs and services through a Candyland-themed scavenger hunt.

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