2017 News
December 19, 2017
Claudia Gollop, Associate Professor at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), has been named the 2018 winner of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) Award for Professional Contribution.
The award is presented to ALISE members for regular and...
December 19, 2017
Maggie Hite (MSLS ’06), Front Desk Coordinator for the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), was presented the SILS Staff Excellence Award at the holiday party on Dec. 9. The annual award recognizes SILS staff members who have demonstrated commitment, teamwork, and outstanding...
December 19, 2017
Five of the 50 library and information professionals selected for the American Library Association (ALA) 2018 class of Emerging Leaders are graduates of the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS).
The Emerging Leaders program enables participants to contribute to problem-solving work...
December 18, 2017
UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) Associate Professor Melanie Feinberg came to SILS in 2015, hoping to establish relationships with other scholars who share her diverse interests. The interdisciplinary nature of SILS’s faculty has enabled her to do just that.
Dr. Melanie...
December 15, 2017
The UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) had a great year in 2017. Watch the video and find summaries and links to more information below.
FACULTY LEADERSHIP AND RECOGNITION
Jaime Arguello and Mohammad Hossein Jarrahi win University Teaching Awards
Two SILS faculty members received...
December 13, 2017
Check out these recently published titles authored or edited by UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) alumni and faculty.
Mary Grace Flaherty, SILS Assistant Professor
The Library Staff Development Handbook: How to Maximize Your Library’s Most Important Resource.
“Librarians and...
December 1, 2017
Although she only in began pursuing her Master of Science in Library Science (MSLS) at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) this year, Erin Rutherford is no stranger to cataloguing, curating, and supervising collections. She arrived with nearly a decade of experience in...
November 27, 2017
In November of 2016, SILS Assistant Professor Mary Grace Flaherty was looking forward to traveling to Malawi to fulfill both the research and teaching goals of her Fulbright Award. Her plan to research how people with HIV acquire and evaluate health information sources hit a bureaucratic snag, and...
November 27, 2017
What story can you tell in 10 seconds or less? UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) master's student Kelsey Hammer and alumna Jennie Goforth (MSLS ’10) were confident UNC students could share the Carolina story in creative ways using the popular and rapidly evolving GIF format. ...
November 27, 2017
Storytelling may be a universal human impulse, but styles and forms can vary greatly from culture to culture. In the provinces of China that SILS Associate Professor Brian Sturm visited this summer, tales are generally related through shadow puppets or marionettes, traditions more quiet and...
November 10, 2017
As her first year at SILS came to a close in spring 2016, Meggie Lasher was looking forward to the summer and taking over as coordinator of the Community Workshop Series, a long-running volunteer program that provides basic technology and computer classes at local public libraries. Then came the...
November 8, 2017
SILS celebrated the public launch of its comprehensive campaign, part of the historic Campaign for Carolina, on November 4 in Manning Hall. The event gave alumni and friends an opportunity to learn more about the School’s current programs and initiatives, and allowed the School to thank its...
November 7, 2017
The UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) is a partner on an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant that is supporting two paid public broadcasting preservation fellowships for SILS master’s students in spring 2018 and summer 2018.
SILS is working in conjunction with...
November 7, 2017
Data-intensive research is becoming the new model in STEM, but the majority of graduate students do not receive formal training in data science best practices, instead learning by trial and error. Arcot Rajasekar, Frances McColl Distinguished Term Professor at the UNC School of Information and...
October 31, 2017
UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) Associate Professor Zeynep Tufekci’s latest TED Talk, “We’re building a dystopia just to make people click on ads,” is now available online.
During the talk, Tufekci explains how algorithms developed for advertising products can be easily used by...
October 30, 2017
The UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) Library hosted its first Harry Potter night on Oct. 27, 2017.
At the beginning of the event, participants were sorted into one of the four Hogwart's houses. The house teams then competed for points at four different stations, including potion...
October 30, 2017
Xueli Fan, a master’s student at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), was recently named the 2017-18 recipient of the Thomas M. Carsey Scholarship in Data Science.
MSIS student Xueli Fan
The scholarship program gives talented UNC-Chapel Hill students the chance to work on...
October 30, 2017
GIFABLE UNC, a project led by UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) master's student Kelsey Hammer and Research and Design Services Librarian Jenni Goforth (MSLS ’10), was featured by The Daily Tarheel in October.
The project gives students an opportunity to expand their design...
October 30, 2017
UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) PhD student Charlene Finley and MSLS student Eleanor Mullens were two of the three UNC students interviewed for a video by the UNC Graduate School that highlighted resources for military-affiliated graduate students.
Finley, a U.S. Air Force...
October 30, 2017
Project READY is a three-year program funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) that aims to create a professional development curriculum for school librarians and other educators focused on racial equity and culturally sustaining pedagogy.
Watch this video to hear Wake County...
October 30, 2017
The UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) now has four bikes for students, staff, and faculty to use around campus. The bikes are ‘comfort’ bikes with nice seats, three gears, fenders and chain guards, and coaster brakes. SILS community members can simply unlock the bikes, take them...
September 28, 2017
Leslie Thomson, a PhD candidate at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), has been awarded the 2017 ASIS&T Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Scholarship. Her proposal, “Investigating Information Creating and Informal Information Providing: A Grounded Theory Study of the...
September 28, 2017
Have you ever been struggling to find information on a particularly complex topic and thought “I can’t possibly be the first person to look for this”? You probably were not, and the searchers who preceded you may have left valuable “search trails” – including queries issued, results clicked, pages...
September 28, 2017
Graduate-level research is almost always mentally challenging, but Natalie Ornat found pouring through documents for her master’s paper emotionally taxing as well. Ornat, who graduated from the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) in May, focused her research on the siege of...
September 27, 2017
Amelia Gibson, Assistant Professor at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), has received a 2017 North Carolina Library Association (NCLA) Round Table for Ethnic Minority Concerns (REMCo) Library Education Roadbuilder’s Award for 2017.
Dr. Amelia Gibson
The Roadbuilder’s Award...
September 27, 2017
SILS Dean Gary Marchionini opens the Banned Book Reading.
On an early fall day as a cool breeze bristled the leaves and the grinding sounds of construction echoed across the courtyard in front of Manning Hall, volunteers from the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) and the...
September 26, 2017
Richard Le and Karley Wheeler, two newly-admitted Bachelor of Science in Information Science (BSIS) students at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), have been selected to receive $1,000 scholarships for the fall semester. SILS awards the merit-based scholarships in the fall and...
September 26, 2017
Zeynep Tufekci, Associate Professor at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), continues to be a go-to source for media outlets looking for insights on the impact of social media and the growing influence of machine algorithms. Headlines dominating the September news cycle lent...
August 30, 2017
As cofounder and president of the Early Modern Paleography Society (EMPS), a student organization at UNC-Charlotte focused on studying and transcribing manuscripts from the early modern period, Nadia Clifton had examined a variety of digitized materials from the Folger Shakespeare Library. Viewing...
August 23, 2017
Before Nicole Pawelski began contemplating a professional career in archives, she made a very personal connection with an online archive affiliated with the Near East Relief Society, which helped rescue children, including Pawelski’s paternal grandfather, during the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
SILS...
August 22, 2017
The UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) hosted its annual orientation day for new Master of Science in Library Science (MSLS), Master of Science in Information Science (MSIS), and doctoral students on Monday, August 21.
New SILS students discuss which animal
best represents their...
August 21, 2017
JoAnne Marshall
SILS Distinguished Research Professor Joanne Gard Marshall is first-author on a research paper selected by the Medical Library Association (MLA) as the second best among those presented at the MLA 2017 annual meeting in Seattle. The paper, titled “The Role of MEDLINE in Patient...
July 25, 2017
When Matthew Johnson registered the new Fitbit his parents had given him for Christmas, he was surprised to see data from a Fitbit scale he had owned three years earlier automatically connect to the new account.
Matthew Johnson (MSLS '18)
“That got me interested in how long companies are keeping...
July 24, 2017
This summer, UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) students participated in a brand new international seminar that took them to the booming tech cities of Berlin and Dublin. Led by SILS Professor Paul Jones, the program focused on the ways information gathering, dissemination,...
July 22, 2017
With the support of scholarships funded by Baker & Taylor, three UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) master’s students gained professional and international insights through three different SILS summer seminars in Europe earlier this year. Mary Kallem traveled to Prague,...
July 21, 2017
The UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) invites applications for two tenure/tenure-track faculty positions with a starting date of July 1, 2018. Candidates at all ranks are welcome to apply.
1. Academic and Research Library Innovation
Faculty seek an outstanding colleague with...
July 18, 2017
The Carolina Health Informatics Program (CHIP) has received a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-National Library of Medicine (NLM) T15 Biomedical Informatics and Data Science Training grant. Only a handful of U.S. organizations were selected for this highly-competitive and prestigious award,...
July 12, 2017
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has selected Elaine L. Westbrooks, associate university librarian for research at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, as its new University librarian and vice provost for University Libraries, effective August 15. Westbrooks will also have an...
July 5, 2017
Christopher A. “Cal” Lee, Professor at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), has been named the next editor of the The American Archivist, the premier professional journal in the archives field. The Society of American Archivists (SAA) recently announced Lee's appointment, which...
July 3, 2017
Kathy Brennan and Emily Vardell, doctoral candidates at the UNC School of Information and Library Science, have been awarded Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships for 2017 from Beta Phi Mu International Library and Information Studies Honor Society. The $3,000 fellowships provide...
June 21, 2017
David Gotz, Associate Professor at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) and Assistant Director of the Carolina Health Informatics Program (CHIP), has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant worth over $1 million to develop a set of contextual visualization methods...
June 20, 2017
Two UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) faculty members have received a Diversity Research Grant from the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services. SILS Professor Sandra Hughes-Hassell and Assistant Professor Amelia Gibson will use...
June 19, 2017
UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) Associate Professor Zeynep Tufekci was the focus of a PBS Newshour segment that aired on June 10. Tufekci discussed her new book, Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest, which explores how the internet and social media...
May 31, 2017
Drs. Barbara and Robert “Bob” Martin (PhD ’88) have made a commitment to establish the Honorable Robert S. Martin Distinguished Professorship in Librarianship at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS). The School celebrated the Martins’ generosity earlier this spring at a formal...
May 25, 2017
Christopher A. “Cal” Lee, Professor at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), will be inducted as a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during a ceremony at the SAA Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, July 23–29. The distinction of Fellow is the highest honor...
May 23, 2017
Alumni, students, friends, family, faculty, staff, and UNC administrators gathered on May 9 at the Carolina Inn to recognize the many years of exceptional service by UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) professors Barbara Moran and Barbara Wildemuth, who will retire this summer....
May 17, 2017
Lukasz Mazur, PhD, will join the faculty of the UNC School of Information in Library (SILS), effective July 1, bringing expertise in engineering management as it pertains to patient safety and human-computer interactions in healthcare settings. Mazur will have a joint appointment as an assistant...
May 17, 2017
UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) Assistant Professor Amelia Gibson has received an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Laura Bush 21st Century Early Career Award to support a project titled, "Deconstructing Information Poverty: Identifying, Supporting, and Leveraging...
May 16, 2017
The UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) hosted its annual spring commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 14, to celebrate its 2017 Bachelor of Science in Information Science (BSIS), Master of Science in Information Science (MSIS), Master of Science in Library Science (MSLS), and...
May 15, 2017
Dr. Sandra Hughes-Hassell & Trent McLees after
the SILS Commencement on May 14.
Trent McLees (MSLS ’17)
Master’s Paper Title: “Examining the Cultural Accuracy of Masculine Performances by Diverse Comic Book Superheros”
1. What was your favorite course, favorite faculty member, OR best...
May 5, 2017
The Educopia Institute and the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) have been awarded a grant worth over $681,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for OSSArcFlow, a project to investigate and support the adoption of open source tools for libraries, archives,...
April 19, 2017
Traveling to Las Vegas earlier this month, Rashnil Chaturvedi had his sights set on a big prize, but he and his teammates were not relying on luck. They brought months of in-depth data analysis, a sophisticated modeling approach, and a polished presentation to compete in the INFORMS O.R. and...
April 17, 2017
Sangeeta Desai, a Master of Science in Information Science (MSIS) student at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), wants scientific data collected by government agencies to be preserved, protected, and publically accessible. Unfortunately, she worries the current presidential...
April 14, 2017
The term spring break often conjures images of unwinding at the beach or relaxing on the couch, but many university students now opt to spend their brief vacations contributing to the public good through alternative spring break programs. This year, four master’s students from the UNC School of...
April 10, 2017
It’s a six-floor trek up to the Birds Library at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Becca Greenstein, a Master of Science in Library Science (MSLS) student who interned at the Smithsonian Libraries in the summer of 2016, found the journey surreal as she travelled up the...
April 7, 2017
Like many second-year Master of Science in Library Science (MSLS) students, Stephen Krueger is regularly perusing job postings, planning for life after he graduates from the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) in May. Krueger said he is glad to see that many of these job...
March 15, 2017
Brendan Nyhan, Professor of Government at Dartmouth College, will deliver the 2017 OCLC/Frederick G. Kilgour Lecture on March 31, closing the half-day conference “What Should We Be Worried About?: Information and Media in the Trump Era.” The UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) and...
February 28, 2017
UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) Professor Sandra Hughes-Hassell and Postdoctoral Research Associate Casey Rawson (MSLS ’11, PhD ’16) have been awarded a Carnegie-Whitney Grant from the American Library Association for their project “Creating Equitable and Inclusive Libraries...
February 27, 2017
Three UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) alumnae have been selected to participate in the 2017 Archives Leadership Institute (ALI) at Berea College. Sofía Becerra-Licha (MSLS ’12), Jessica Sedgwick (MSLS ’08), and Kate Stratton (MSLS ’10) were chosen through a highly-competitive...
February 15, 2017
The First Destinations report, compiled and published by the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), provides an overview of the initial career paths taken by December 2015, May 2016, and August 2016 graduates of the School’s Bachelor of Science in Information Science (BSIS), Master...
January 18, 2017
Two UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) master’s students, Kimberley Henze and Kodi Saylor, have received scholarships from the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) to attend the ACRL Conference, March 22-25, 2017, in Baltimore, Md. The scholarships cover...
January 18, 2017
Jennifer Embree, a first-year MSLS student at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), recently won an essay contest sponsored by the Student Chapter of the American Library Association (SCALA), earning Embree a spot in the ALA’s student-to-staff (S2S) program.
Jennifer Embree...
January 18, 2017
Gabrielle Matalon and Dylan Tastet, two newly-admitted Bachelor of Science in Information Science (BSIS) students at the UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS), have been selected to receive $1,000 scholarships for the spring semester. The merit-based scholarships are awarded in the...
