I wish you a happy and productive May. This has been a difficult year for us all, with much uncertainty thanks to changes at the federal level. Thank you for continuing to push me for good information and for taking such good care of each other. I appreciate the stories and the concerns you have shared with me directly and hope our informal check-ins and more formal conversations in various settings are helping as much as anything can right now.

This is a month of major annual transitions: spring semester races to its conclusion, we celebrate in many ways, and we transition to the often slower pace of the summer term. While this year we have the comfort of those same transitions, we also have unusual transitions, including bidding farewell to Chancellor Jones. I hope you will be able to join our annual faculty and staff appreciation lunch (the Summer Social) this month. I will be celebrating a personal Illinois milestone: on May 16, I celebrate two years as Dean and UL, and I continue to be energized by the opportunity to be here working with all of you.

This month, I had a chance to delve deeply into the concept of trust with my colleagues at the Association of Research Libraries spring meeting. While it often feels as though trust is sliding rapidly through our fingers, the actual research about trust contains good news for scholarly researchers and for libraries. Trust in science and in scientists remains remarkably high globally, and citizens are hungry for high-quality information. These two things can naturally converge at libraries, but it is up to us to forge the path that effectively transcends the many challenges that continue, or that are growing, in the 2025 global information ecosystem. Among the continuing opportunities: connecting well with our broader statewide community and finding ways to continue to connect with the strong desire to get information from peers. Those in our organization who study information literacy, community engagement, and student success, among other phenomena, will not be surprised by this! As we engage in earnest in our strategic directions these next few months, let’s remember to make time to hear from our own internal experts, and to think about how to expand our support for their efforts.

All the best for a smooth end to the semester and hope to see you soon.

Claire Stewart
The Juanita J. and Robert E. Simpson Dean of Libraries and University Librarian