iSchool Capstone

2015

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Creating an Academic Library in a Women’s Prison

Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS) is a nonprofit organization that provides college classes leading to an Associate of Arts and Sciences degree at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor, WA. Classes are taught by faculty from local colleges and universities with the same academic expectations they would have in a typical college setting. Students work hard to meet and exceed these expectations, but they have limited information resources available to support their studies. We have partnered with FEPPS to address this information gap by creating a small academic library for the students inside the prison. Over 1,000 donated books have been gathered, sorted by subject, and entered into a basic inventory catalog. We have established circulation policies and procedures, and have created collection development and maintenance guidelines. Students are already making good use of the library for class assignments and independent learning.
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Creating an Archive Plan: The Edwin Monk, Sr. Collection

Edwin Monk, Sr. was a prolific naval architect in the Seattle area whose collection of over 6,000 ship plans, along with several artifacts, reference books, and photographs, was donated to the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society (PSMHS). Since the donation, PSMHS has received numerous reference questions and requests for copies of the plans. Although the collection is housed onsite, access and retrieval of information has been challenging. The collection needs to be cataloged in the organization’s database and rehoused according to best archival practices. Our project goal was to provide PSMHS with a processing guide for future volunteers and interns, a project timeline and an estimated budget. PSMHS will use these documents to develop a grant proposal for obtaining funding and resources needed to process the entire collection. Rehousing and cataloging the collection will help assure long-term preservation and enhance the accessibility of the collection.
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Dango

Go is a complex strategy game that requires consistent study in many different areas; by nature, it is difficult to practice and improve one’s skill level. Building an effective static practice routine can be difficult, due to the natural complexity of the game and the many different areas to study. Additionally, the online Go community is scattered and relatively sparse. Dango improves the experience and effectiveness of Go study by solving these problems. Students can track routines and visualize improvement, optimizing study plans and focusing them on areas that yield the best results for them at any given time. Dango also provides the tools that instructors need to teach students, in a single location--facilitating better student-teacher interaction and community bonding. By allowing players to improve both individually and together, Dango provides a valuable tool for all Go players to improve the quality of their Go experience.
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Data visualization of Financial data

CoreConnex Incorporated is a business data analysis company that produced information visualization through its subsidiary company Corelytics. The data visualization market has shifted from classic platforms such as charts and static graphs. In today’s fast paced information economy, many visualization tools are available to increase the potential for profit. Therefore, Corelytics has propagated its own dashboard to perform data analysis that outputs the results of analysis in the form of basic visualizations like charts and graphs. As such, this project was motivated by Corelytics’ question, “What are some of the innovative techniques to visualize financial data?” To address that query, this project created visualizations of Corelytics output using non-Corelytics dashboards. Based on the results, this project will make recommendations on which techniques the company may adopt to increase potential of their overall visualization experience.
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Dawg Data

Title: UW Athletics CRM Project Description: The University of Washington (UW) Athletics department has long been seeking a tool that has the ability to store and filter all of the data that they collect at various sporting events. Our solution is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that the UW Athletics marketing department/analysts can use to increase sales on game day. Examples of searches that users will be able to conduct include: fans that have used the WiFi, fans that live in Bellevue, and fans that have been season ticket holders for 10 years. Our project will make a difference in the UW Athletics department by being able to conduct targeted searches on fans. The athletics department will have information on every fan that has ever been to a sporting event at the UW. By having access to this information, it will make the customer data more transparent and thus increase sales for the department. Team Members: Kevin Le and Mitchell Klein Program: Informatics
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Diversity in LIS Education: Are We Preparing Students for the 21st Century Workplace

We are performing a critical examination of the curricula of several of the top Information Schools, as determined by US News & World Report. Our intent is to determine whether these schools are addressing issues of diversity in ways that will prepare MLIS students for the 21st century workplace, where diversity is increasing and increasingly important. Our analysis is based upon the available literature as well as syllabi from the various schools in our sample. We intend to address possible omissions, areas for improvement, and places where diversity-related content can be integrated into already existing classes. We have compiled a resource list for instructors wishing to integrate more diversity-related content into their classrooms.
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Do Something!

There is well documented anecdotal evidence that people often experience difficulties establishing and maintaining new friendships in an unfamiliar place. In Seattle, the colloquial term for this phenomena is “The Seattle Freeze.” The Stranger, a popular internet magazine and blog describes The Seattle Freeze as a “belief that it is difficult to make new friends in Seattle” and describes Seattleites to be “standoffish, cold, distant, and not trusting.” Do Something! is a mobile application for Android Phones that seeks to thaw the Freeze. Do Something! is a mobile application for the Android platform that provides an activity planning service that facilitates real-world interactions through user defined activities and events. People use a map interface with contextual icons to quickly find and participate in activities they are interested in. Do Something! reduces the social overhead in finding new friends and makes it easier for friends to quickly organize activities.
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Early Childhood Literacy Storytime

Early Childhood Literacy Storytime Aaron Negron, Online MLIS Early childhood literacy refers to the foundational elements that children learn about reading and writing before they can actually read and write. Parents and caregivers are a child’s first facilitators and they have the opportunity to support the development of early literacy skills through daily interactions. Public libraries are positioned to model and promote story time practices that stimulate early childhood literacy skills. This project resulted in a partnership between the Austin Public Library and the Young Fathers Program at LifeWorks Austin. A story time was presented for Young Fathers Program clients where they learned skills and techniques they could practice at home during their own story times with their children. The participants were enthusiastic about the opportunity to learn and expressed excitement about gaining new skills that would benefit and entertain their children. They also appreciated learning new ways to spend quality time with their children.
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Early Literacy Portal: The Five Practices

Parents and caregivers are their child’s first and best teachers. The first 2,000 days of a child’s life (birth to the time a child enters Kindergarten) are critical for cognitive, social and emotional development. Therefore, early learning plays an important role in preparing a child to be successful in school. Early literacy is a component of early learning that encompasses the skills needed for children to communicate and understand language before they can read and write. There are five fun and simple practices that can be incorporated into daily routines beginning at birth to raise successful learners: talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing. This project focuses on educating the community about these five practices, specifically through the use of a short video series that can be linked and distributed through many channels. Community education will provide people with the knowledge to help make a positive impact on young learners.
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Enriching the Joy of Reading for Young Adult Readers in Ghana

Today’s generosity for book donation is well-intended, yet there is a disparity between the books donated by NGOs compared to the need and relevance of receiving young adult readers in Ghana, Africa. Two critical components to the book donation process is missing. First, communication between the school in need of reading materials and the organization providing reading materials are not aligned. Second, donated books do not include briefing materials to help the educator or librarian make recommendations to readers. This Capstone project, Enriching the Joy of Reading for Young Adult Readers in Ghana recommends adding relevant steps and content to the process. By including a “book kit” sticker inside donated books or electronically loaded in the donated Worldreader e-reader, deeper insight to the content will result in a productive, perhaps exciting, reader services exchange between librarian and young adult reader and serve as a means to increase literacy.