MLIS alumna named UW's 2018 Distinguished Librarian

Friday, June 15, 2018

Leslie Hurst, a 2003 alumna of the Information School’s Master of Library and Information Science program, has won the 2018 University of Washington’s Distinguished Librarian Award for her work as head of teaching and learning at the UW Bothell and Cascadia College library. The honor for Hurst was among the Awards of Excellence announced recently by UW President Ana Mari Cauce and Provost and Executive Vice President Jerry Baldasty. The award recognizes excellence in librarianship, as it benefits the academic community through innovative approaches to practice, research, teach

Nature app wins funding to explore commercial potential

Thursday, June 14, 2018

NatureCollections, an app developed by researchers at the University of Washington Information School and School of Environment and Forest Sciences, has been a hit with parents and kids during trials. Now it’s taking a step toward reaching a bigger audience. The team behind the app recently won a $50,000 award to explore its commercialization potential. The Population Health Innovation Award, funded jointly by UW CoMotion and the Population Health Initiative, supports entrepreneurial innovations that seek to improve people’s health and well-being. The funding is intended to bridge t

Library Journal features Rolf Hapel, iSchool's next professor of practice

Monday, June 11, 2018

Rolf Hapel, the University of Washington Information School’s incoming Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, was featured in a recent Library Journal Q&A, in which he fielded questions about the challenges and opportunities for libraries around the world. Hapel has a distinct perspective on the future of libraries. He was a driving force behind the creation of the Dokk1 library and cultural center in Aarhus, Denmark, where the library plays a central role in civic life. “For me librarianship is very much about developing democracy and developing an ongoing conversation around

Informatics student leaders to serve as gonfalonieres at UW Commencement

Friday, June 8, 2018

Graduating Informatics students Ethan Anderson and Joycie Yu will represent the Information School as gonfalonieres — banner carriers — at the University of Washington Commencement ceremony on June 9 at Husky Stadium. Gonfalonieres are nominated by their program advisors and must exemplify graduate education at the UW: excellence in learning, teaching, mentoring and/or research. They are announced by name as they lead their school’s graduates into the stadium. They are also featured in the commencement program and sent to the news media for recognition. Anderson describes himse

Convocation celebrates hundreds of new iSchool grads

Thursday, June 7, 2018

The UW Information School honored more than 480 graduating students from its undergraduate and graduate programs on Saturday, June 2, at its 2018 Convocation ceremony. Graduates include 213 earning their bachelor’s degree in Informatics; 130 earning their master’s in Library and Information Science; 130 earning master’s degrees in Information Management; and nine earning their Ph.D. degrees. Numbers are subject to change as the academic year comes to a close. About 350 of the graduating students took part in Convocation. Ellenore Angelidis, Amazon’s global director for Kindle con

Capstone 2018 features student projects with impact

Thursday, May 31, 2018

The iSchool’s 2018 Capstone event, held May 30 at the University of Washington HUB, featured 123 poster presentations and 17 online ones from more than 300 graduating students. Projects were judged for awards in several categories, including social impact, commercial potential, research, service, innovation/design, and diversity. Additionally, students in each program awarded a Best in Class prize to their peers. (Many of the winners are pictured above.) Held annually, Capstone showcases the breadth of skills and expertise students develop in the B.S. in Informatics, M.S. in Information M

iSchool MLIS student earns scholarship to attend ALA Annual

Friday, May 25, 2018

Information School student Dovi Mae Patino has been selected as the recipient of the 2018 Gordon M. Conable Conference Scholarship. The scholarship, given by the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF), will cover Patino’s expenses to attend the American Library Association’s 2018 Annual Conference in New Orleans. Patino is a first-year, first-generation student in the iSchool’s Master of Library and Information Science program. As a Filipina-American, she aspires to be a public librarian committed to ensuring equitable access to information and resources in underrepresented communities.

Students set for showcase

Friday, May 25, 2018

The Information School Capstone event, our annual showcase of student projects, takes place on Wednesday, May 30, in the HUB on the UW campus. You can join us in person starting at 6 p.m. in the HUB Ballrooms on the second floor. All are welcome to attend: industry professionals and employers; UW and iSchool alumni, students, faculty, and prospective students; and family and friends of the presenting students. The highlight of the evening is an award ceremony showcasing presentations of premiere projects that were determined by judges. Capstone project collaborators include organizations

TASCHA explores public libraries' role in civic engagement

Friday, May 25, 2018

What role should public libraries play in civic engagement? That was the question posed to a cross-section of leading thinkers — invitees from public libraries, civic media, technology, collective action, the arts and other fields — at a gathering hosted by the Information School’s Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA). At a time when society is increasingly divided, libraries remain trusted institutions that seek to serve the public good, but how far should their efforts go? And should librarians be asked to serve as instructors and advocates? A new TASCHA report documents

Children's Literature Association honors Michelle Martin with Mentoring Award

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Michelle Martin, the Information School’s Beverly Cleary Professor for Children and Youth Services, is this year’s recipient of the Children’s Literature Association’s Mentoring Award. The award recognizes Martin’s work encouraging and nurturing scholars in the children’s literature field. Martin focuses primarily on helping young scholars of color, particularly African American women, when they seek support and advice. The number of full professors in the U.S. who are black women is so small, “we could probably all fit into one conference room,” she said. In fact, only

Informatics students help KEXP keep its human touch

Thursday, May 24, 2018

A music collection is full of emotion. At KEXP, a public-radio station based in Seattle, that’s particularly true. For years, the station’s staff have been carefully curating the best music; the KEXP library is full of the history and context of that music. It’s a place where it’s easy to find an emotional connection. A group of three Informatics students is working on a project to preserve that emotional power of the KEXP library, while adding the benefit of working in a digital space. For their Capstone project, Adam Bourn, Monica Cao and John Harrison are creating a prototype

Designed for evil: How to make bad technologies better

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Many of today’s technologies leave users feeling like they got lost in a time vortex — they resurface hours later with no memory of what just happened to them. But it doesn’t have to be that way, according to Alexis Hiniker, an assistant professor at the University of Washington’s Information School. That’s why she developed a new upper-level class that gives informatics majors a crash course on ethics. Then they can use these ideas to combat potentially problematic new technologies. Through Designing for Evil, which is unique to the UW, Hiniker’s stu

MSIM team digs into T-Mobile's data to spot malicious traffic

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Timothy Pace likes to sink his teeth into big data. Dania Tanzil gravitates toward cybersecurity. Manas Thakre has a knack for business analytics and project management. For their Capstone project, the trio of Information School Master of Science in Information Management (MSIM) students joined forces to help T-Mobile tackle a rising problem: malicious data that clogs mobile networks and poses a security risk to smartphone users. With people increasingly glued to their smartphones for both communication and entertainment, more and more unauthorized advertisers and bad actors are targetin

Informatics team elevates Airlift Northwest's use of technology

Monday, May 21, 2018

The list of Airlift Northwest missions is long: wilderness rescues, plane crashes, car accidents, strokes, heart attacks, neonatal emergencies. Since its founding in 1982, the nonprofit air ambulance service has transported more than 100,000 critically ill and injured patients to medical centers throughout Washington, Alaska, Idaho, and Montana. Speed and efficiency are critical to patient outcomes. That girl who slipped off a cliff may have only an hour to live without life-saving rescue and medical treatment. Time is of the essence. So the air ambulance service was game when a team of Inf

Students' superpower: bringing LGBTQ comic books to light

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

“Representation matters. It’s a cliché, but it’s definitely true,” said Le Button. Button and Aydin Kwan, both Information School Master of Library and Information Science students, have combined their academic knowledge with their personal interests in LGBTQ representation and comic books for their Capstone project. Together, they have created a database and website that will help readers, librarians and booksellers discover comics that tell a wide range of LGBTQ stories. “For us, it’s very easy to find queer comics because we already speak the language of queer comics,”