Adolescent resources on puberty are lacking in public libraries. Information is scattered, outdated, and non-inclusive of LBGTQ+ children and children of color. All adolescents need more relevant, accessible information on sexuality, reproduction, gender, and their changing bodies. This project assessed over 200 books and online resources for sexual and ethnic diversity. The Lake Oswego Public Library collection was improved with materials purchased, consolidated call numbers, annotated booklists, and a blog. A toolkit was created for use by other libraries. The library’s collection now reflects the experiences of its diverse patrons, with better access to resources for their safety and well-being.

Our research found an information gap on research concerning how librarians serve teens with disabilities in libraries. To address this issue, we developed and produced a live recording of a WLA CAYAS sponsored webinar that promoted our best practices to help librarians serve teens with disabilities. Our Webinar helped librarians learn how to more effectively serve teens with a wide range of disabilities in public and school libraries. We covered best practices for interacting with this population, how to help them access relevant information, programming ideas, how to build accessible and inclusive spaces, and discussed funding opportunities.

Little Seedlings Bilingual Preschool is a new preschool in the Renton, WA, and has no budget to establish a Vietnamese and English library for their preschool students. The Director hopes to expand their small library with not only Vietnamese and English books, but also collect read-along books to stimulate their students’ literacy skills and boost independent reading. Through this project, iSchool Student Charlene developed a Collection Development Policy for the library, fund-raised $275 for the Listen Center, cataloged and weeded 400+ books using LibraryThing, and organized the library space for better access and browsing for students.

Autism spectrum disorder is a difficult condition to diagnose, due to the lack of conclusive medical test. My team in Seattle Children's develop a game designed to measure children’s executive function (EF) score, which is fitted into a machine learning model to accurately diagnose autism. I created a secure channel to transfer the EF data from client’s devices to the Seattle Children’s in compliance to HIPAA. I also researched and implemented various rewards mechanics designed to make these games as appealing to children as possible. This project will serve as an improvement in the way ASD is diagnosed.

Sidney Huntington School in Galena, Alaska has a thin collection of Graphic Novels and Manga. A majority of high school students read below grade level making it essential to explore how graphic novels could aid in literacy development and increase lifelong readers. I surveyed students regarding their interests, researched how graphic novels impacted literacy, found the best resources in determining the quality of graphic novels, created a policy for future collection development, and built a Must-Have list. SHS will acquire these titles to provide resources for classroom use, choices for reluctant readers, options for current fans, and offer new experiences.

Lakewood High School students reported browsing for fiction books in the library, as well as searching for fiction books in the library’s online catalog, to be cumbersome. Library staff planned to genrefy the fiction collection to address this issue. However, their full workloads left them unable to start on the project. Our team, then, carried out this genrefication. We assigned genre classifications and added genre labels to the roughly 3,000 books in the fiction collection. We also updated those books’ catalog records to reflect proper subject headings and keywords. Now, users can more efficiently browse and search this collection.

My project focused on teen library services in Mohave County, Arizona. Teen usage has dropped off over the last few years and my task was finding ways to better engage with them. My research, done via countywide survey, indicated that teens want to engage more with digital technology, and that many are unaware that the libraries have teen centers. My report indicated that an emphasis on technology and more outreach would bolster library usage. My research helps the library to create a stronger informal learning environment tailored to their interests, and one empowered by keeping teen voices in mind.

Nevermind is a video game targeted towards youth, that aims to entertain and introduce the very serious topic of mental health in an immersive, authentic, and meaningful way. Mental health refers to one’s psychological, emotional, and social well-being, all of which can influence one’s mood, behavior, and decision making. We found that there is a still lack of resources for youth to feel comfortable talking about mental health and getting help. By experiencing Nevermind, youth will be introduced to the topic of mental health in a way that will spark more thoughtful conversation within their age group.

The information problem for our capstone project focused on the creative work of Otherworld Media, a nonprofit educational group focused on encouraging reading and creativity in elementary aged children. Judith Walcutt, the creative director of the nonprofit, had created a radio play with the intent of touring and visiting public libraries to show children the wonder of reading and books. However, she needed resources that libraries could use to promote and use this radio play. We created an age-appropriate methodology using common core standards, and then created an annotated list of resources based on the content of the radio play.