Hosted by the University of Washington Information School, the LIS Forward initiative funded by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) sought to respond to the following urgent question: As the field of library and information science (LIS) evolves “within the context of iSchools, how do we best position our…
CFP: Digital Divide to Digital Literacy, Equity and Inclusion
CALL FOR PAPERS: Digital Divide to Digital Literacy, Equity and Inclusion Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) January 6-9, 2026 Hyatt Regency Maui The ever-changing landscape of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their increasing importance in life are widely recognized as integral to academic, economic, and civic advancement in society. However, the digital divide…
Promotion to Associate Professor at UIUC
I’m absolutely thrilled and honored to share that I’ve been promoted to Associate Professor with indefinite tenure in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The University of Illinois Board of Trustees approved my tenure yesterday during their March meeting. I am extremely grateful to my colleagues in the School of…
#SaveIMLS: How the IMLS Shaped My Career and Why We Must Save The Agency
On Friday night, the President released yet another Executive Order, titled “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy.” Section 1 of the order states that the following “elements” of our U.S. government are “unnecessary” and orders that the “head of each government entity” in the list below has 7 days to submit a report to…
Investing in the Human Infrastructure of Broadband
I’m excited to announce that our collaborative final report, co-authored with Dr. Revati Prasad (Benton Institute for Broadband & Society) along with significant contributions from Dr. Caroline Stratton (National Digital inclusion Alliance) and Larra Clark (American Library Association) on the Human Infrastructure of Broadband is out today! The report, titled “From the Ground Up: investing…
New Article in Public Library Quarterly
My new article, titled “Public Libraries, Digital Equity Coalitions, and the Public Good” was published this week in Public Library Quarterly. The article features findings from a 2024 study of U.S. public libraries. The goal was to gain a deeper understanding of their role in digital equity coalitions, as the National Telecommunications and Information Administration…
20th Anniversary Issue of The Journal of Community Informatics Published
I am thrilled to announce that Peter Johnson and I just published the 20th anniversary special issue of The Journal of Community Informatics. As we explained in our editorial, the first issue of The Journal of Community Informatics was published by Michael Gurstein on October 1, 2004. Since then the journal has remained an open…
New Job Announcement: Joining the Faculty at UIUC!
I am incredibly excited to share the news that I have accepted an offer to join the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on January 1, 2025 as an Associate Professor in the School of Information Sciences!!! The appointment is conditional upon the University of Illinois promotion and tenure process and subsequent Board of Trustees approval. Therefore,…
Defining Digital Equity Ecosystems
As I shared in a previous post last year, I am writing on book on Digital Equity Ecosystems that will be published by the University of California Press. As I have been working on the book, I realized that the definition that I’ve been using from my work with Susan Kennedy, published by the Benton…
Special Issue on Homelessness and Mobile Media Published
My article, titled “‘It’s one of the most important things we carry for us”: How mobile hotspots support people experiencing homelessness” has been included in the new Special Issue on Homelessness and Mobile Media just published in volume 12, issue 2 of Mobile Media & Communication. The article, first published last November, presents findings from…