Help Desk Newsletter- October

Welcome to our iSchool Help Desk monthly newsletter!! We use this to share updates about what we’ve been up to. Whether you’re a current student, faculty, or staff member, or maybe even an alumni or friend of the iSchool Help Desk and want to keep in-the-know about us, we’re glad to have you! You can expect updates about the major initiatives and projects we are working on, pictures and updates from our fun social events, and anything else up and coming at the iSchool Help Desk!

October Help Desk events: Banned Books Week & Halloween!

This past month, we put on two successful events: Banned Books Week and our Halloween-themed event “Don’t Be Scared of Mapping the Printers”. Thank you to everyone who came and participated in our events! We love interacting with our iSchool community.

The week of October 5th-11th was Banned Books Week! To celebrate freedom of speech, we had an interactive display at the Help Desk all week that our iSchool friends helped us to fill in by adding their own favorite banned books to our bookshelf. Thank you to everyone who showed up to celebrate reading freely with us!

And for Halloween, we addressed one of the spookiest horrors that we all face in the academic world- printing! Thanks to everyone who came by the Help Desk on Halloween for help with mapping the iSchool printers to your personal laptop, and some free Halloween candy, of course! Remember- no need to be scared when you have your friendly local Help Desk around 🙂.

Exciting News

As I mentioned when I posted our September newsletter a little late, both of us GAs who normally write our newsletters- Elliot and Saira- had some very exciting things going on during October, hence the delay.

Both of us got married on October 25th (to different people)! Both weddings went well and we are feeling very loved and happy- and relieved to be done with wedding planning and to try to get back into the swing of things.

The GAs Recommend

We all need more positivity in our lives! If you need a recommendation for a new piece of media, something to do, or something to try, check out all of our GA’s Recommendations on our social media (or on our digital signs at the Help Desk), and keep an eye out on our social media each Monday for more fabulous recommendations yet to come!

Accessibility Advocate Shoutouts

We have been helping support the iSchool as they work towards more accessible class materials to meet changing federal standards. We would like to celebrate those who have been stepping up to become Accessibility Advocates at the iSchool – whether they have been educating others about accessibility for years, or they’ve recently made the commitment to jump in and try their best, we think it’s important to recognize the effort and amazing impact that we can make as an iSchool community if we all do our part!

Feel free to email us at ischool-support@illinois.edu to nominate any instructors or TAs and let us know their impact!

Graphic reading "Send Nominations! Do you know an instructor or Teaching Assistant who are making an effort to increase accessibility in the iSchool? Please let us know to shout them out! https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/pHmJfNeeZp".

Pets of the Month!

Congratulations to our October Pets of the Month, Saturn & Shadow! Here at the Help Desk, we want to feature and celebrate your pet as the iSchool Pet of the Week! Send us a submission of your adorable furry, feathery, or even scaly sidekick by emailing us at ischool-support@illinois with their name, pictures, and any fun facts or stories you would like to share!

Help Desk Social Event- Halloween Party

Our Help Desk GAs had another very successsful team-bonding social event- a Halloween party, of course! It was full of tricks and treats alike. We hope you all had a wonderful Halloween as well- let us know what you got up to!

Upcoming…

Thank you so much for reading our newsletter, and for all of your support! We are excited to be able to keep everyone updated on the fun things happening at the Help Desk and in our community. Keep an eye out for next month’s newsletter!

Fall 2025 Help Desk GAs posing at the Help Desk, holding various frog stuffed animals and toys and smiling. From left to right: Saira, Catherine, Daniel, Maggie, Kyleigh, Fatihi, Elliot, Britany, Bashi, Evan, and Cecelia.

Help Desk Newsletter- September

The GA’s Recommend

Accessibility Advocate Shoutouts

Feel free to email us at ischool-support@illinois.edu to nominate any instructors or TAs and let us know their impact!

Pets of the Month!

Congratulations to our September Pets of the Month, Saturn & Shadow! Here at the Help Desk, we want to feature and celebrate your pet as the iSchool Pet of the Week! Send us a submission of your adorable furry, feathery, or even scaly sidekick by emailing us at ischool-support@illinois with their name, pictures, and any fun facts or stories you would like to share!

Help Desk Social Event- Pottery Painting

This month, the Help Desk GA’s painted their very own pottery items at the Pottery Place in Champaign! We had a blast getting to select our own piece, paint, and decorate it. If you’re looking for something fun and artistic, we recommend you check this place out!

Upcoming…

Help Desk Newsletter – August

Welcome to our iSchool Help Desk monthly newsletter!! We use this to share updates about what we’ve been up to. Whether you’re a current student, faculty, or staff; or maybe even an alumni or friend of the iSchool Help Desk and want to keep in-the-know about us, we’re glad to have you! You can expect updates about the major initiatives and projects we are working on, pictures and updates from our fun social events, and anything else up and coming at the iSchool Help Desk!

Meet the GAs!

We are so excited to welcome our 5 new Help Desk GAs, who are already doing phenomenal work supporting the iSchool community! Check out this semester’s “Meet the GAs” bios to learn just a little bit about all of our GAs, both new and returning, and come say hi to us anytime from 8:30am-5:30pm (4:30pm on Friday) to get to know us even more!

Accessibility Advocate Shoutouts

Feel free to email us at ischool-support@illinois.edu to nominate any instructors or TAs and let us know their impact!

iSchool Resource Zine

Last Spring, our wonderful former GA Delia created and illustrated this beautiful “Welcome to the iSchool” Zine. It is full of resources and information for iSchool students, covering everything from advising contact information to food and housing resources to how to get involved in the iSchool. We are excited to announce that they can now be found not only on our community shelf at the Help Desk, but also at the old iSchool building; in the reception area of the advising suite; and even in some advisor’s offices! Keep your eyes out for these, whether you’re a new or returning student, faculty or staff who want to have some on hand, or just a lover of adorable art!

If you are an iSchool faculty or staff member and would like to stock more than a few in your office or space, reach out to us at ischool-support@illinois.edu and let us know how many you’d like, and we would love to get you set up with some!

Small Zine with illustrated art of animals reading books & hanging out on the front. It reads “Welcome to the iSchool Future Librarians! A Resource Guide for Students in Information Sciences. Written and Illustrated by Delia Kerr-Dennhardt. Sponsored by the ALA & QLA in collaboration with the Help Desk.”

Pet of the Week

Calling all pet parents! Do you have an adorable furry, feathery, or even scaly sidekick that deserves the spotlight? The iSchool Help Desk wants to feature your pets as iSchool Pet of the Week! Send us an email at ischool-support@illinois with their name, pictures, and any fun facts or stories for their nomination!

Check out last week’s featured pet!

Graphic featuring a black cat. It reads "Pet of the week: Shadow (AKA Shadillac). As a retired barn cat he spends his days snoozing in various soft locations and watching birds through the window! Submitted by: Ava C. Submit your pet(s) to school-support@illinois.edu". — Graphic featuring a black cat. It reads “Pet of the week: Shadow (AKA Shadillac). As a retired barn cat he spends his days snoozing in various soft locations and watching birds through the window! Submitted by: Ava C. Submit your pet(s) to school-support@illinois.edu”.

Upcoming…

Help Desk Newsletter- February

Welcome to our NEW iSchool Help Desk monthly newsletter!! We will be using this to share updates about what we’ve been up. Whether you’re a current student, faculty, or staff; or an alumni or friend of the iSchool Help Desk and want to keep in-the-know about us, we’re glad to have you! You can expect updates about the major initiatives and projects we are working on, pictures and updates from our fun social events, and anything else up and coming at the iSchool Help Desk!

We’ve been keeping very busy this semester with lots of new projects. One of our largest projects has been to provide resources and support for the iSchool as the university begins working to meet new upcoming digital accessibility standards. You can learn more about how the U of I is preparing for digital accessibility compliance here. Updating all course materials to meet these standards by April of next year is a big undertaking, and we are working in many different ways to provide support throughout this process.

Our GAs have created, written, and led monthly workshops for faculty and Teaching Assistants about topics such as PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, and Canvas accessibility practices and tools. We have also offered drop-in hours where instructors can bring in any materials that need updating or questions and get one-on-one help with them, and will continue offering these regularly.

Blind Date With a Book

On Valentine’s Day, the Help Desk hosted a Blind Date with a Book event, which was a hit! Lots of students came by and were paired with a new, free book (or two) from our little free library, all wrapped up and decorated with adorable designs! We had so much fun meeting students and helping them make new connections.

Collage of photos of students checking out our shelf full of books that are wrapped in tissue paper with cute illustrated designs.

Bluesky!

Did you know that we are on Bluesky now? While we have not completely transitioned away from other social media platforms, we are excited to try out this new platform and make new connections there! You can follow us at @uiuchelpdesk.bsky.social! You can check out our recent series of posts to help you get to know all of us GAs a little better! Here’s an example:

Photo collage with an image of our GA Delia in the center. It reads “Meet Delia” at the top and “She likes soup and recommends reading *The Marvelous Invention of Hugo Cabret*” at the bottom.

Social Events

Every month, the iSchool Help Desk GAs have a social event together to have some fun and enjoy time together as a team! This month’s event was a mystical Fortune Telling Tea Party, complete with snacks, crafts, and some fun activities! Enjoy some photos from this below.

Photo collage of some of our GAs hanging out with a fortune telling cake, tarot cards, and a cup of tea.

Graduation

As graduation is swiftly approaching for about half of our GAs, our second-years are working hard on their job searches. Join us in wishing them all good luck in finding the right next steps in their journeys! We know they will all be doing amazing things in the future, and we will continue sharing any exciting updates as they come!

In this process, our second-year GAs have also been putting together a compilation of career resources, including successful application materials and other useful information that will help future Help Desk GAs in their career preparation.

Community Shelf

Another great example of one of our GAs working to make things better for other students is our new Community Shelf! This is located next to the Help Desk, and Delia has worked hard to put together free resources for any students to give and take. There will also be a beautiful new zine full of resources and information about the iSchool coming to the shelf soon, and a shelf for people to leave notes and writing/art projects to share! Come check it out next time you’re near the Help Desk.

Upcoming…

Thank you so much for reading this, and for your support! We are excited to be able to keep everyone updated on the amazing things happening at the Help Desk and in our community. Keep an eye out for next month’s newsletter, as we have many exciting new things coming up!