Seventeen iSchool master's students have been named 2023-2024 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services. This "Spectrum Scholar Spotlight" series highlights the School's scholars. MSLIS student Zaria Whitlock earned bachelor's degrees in philosophy and sociology from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

PhD student Morgan Lundy won first place in the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) /Jean Tague-Sutcliffe Doctoral Student Research Poster Competition for her poster, "'Have a flare with me!': A content analysis, grounded theory, and collaborative design approach to disability storytelling on TikTok." For the competition, posters were judged on practical/theoretical significance, design and method of research, the student’s oral presentation, and the organization, clarity, and aesthetics of visual materials.

Informatics PhD student Daniela Markazi has been named the doctoral student winner of the 2023 Graduate Student Leadership Award from The Graduate College. The award recognizes two graduate students (one master's and one doctoral) who have exhibited outstanding services that has positively impacted the UIUC campus and wider communities.

Associate Professors Halil Kilicoglu and Jodi Schneider are part of a team of researchers who have received a three-year, $947,925 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM) to improve upon a tool clinicians, researchers, and systematic reviewers use to retrieve biomedical articles from bibliographic databases.

Nine iSchool instructors were named in the University's List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for Summer 2023. The rankings are released every semester, and results are based on the Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) questionnaire forms maintained by Measurement and Evaluation in the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. Only those instructors who gave out ICES forms during the semester and who released their data for publication are included in the list.

Fifty iSchool instructors were named in the University's List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent for Spring 2023. The rankings are released every semester, and results are based on the Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) questionnaire forms maintained by Measurement and Evaluation in the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning.

Former students, colleagues, and friends will gather to celebrate Professor Emerita Linda C. Smith's contributions to the field of LIS at a virtual symposium on Thursday, September 28, at 12:00 p.m. Central Time.

Several iSchool researchers will be playing an active role in projects that recently received funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

MSLIS student Andrea Serna has been selected to participate in the 2023-2025 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Kaleidoscope Diversity Scholars Program. The Kaleidoscope Program offers financial support to scholars as well as leadership development through the ARL Annual Leadership Symposium, a formal mentoring program, career placement assistance, and a site visit to an ARL member library.

Assistant Professor JooYoung Seo has been awarded a $649,921 Early Career Development grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, under the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, which supports "developing a diverse workforce of librarians to better meet the changing learning and information needs of the American public by enhancing the training and professional development of librarians, developing faculty and library leaders, and recruiting and educating the next generation of librarians."