With this project, I have conducted a literature review of academic library outreach and how it needs to adapt to entice Millennials and the popularity of nonacademic outreach. I also looked at how libraries have readily adopted tabletop game nights and use this to actively engage with their community of users. Overall, tabletop game night nights in academic libraries is an interdisciplinary topic that draws on scholarship from a variety of fields. I brought these threads together to make the case that academic libraries should consider tabletop game nights as a positive and successful outreach opportunity.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S.T.E.M.) programming is becoming increasingly popular in public libraries. However, facilitating these programs can be expensive and smaller libraries, including Gretna Public Library's teen department, often struggle to fund them. By interviewing other teen librarians in similar situations and researching community resources, I was able to create a S.T.E.M. focused programming guide for the Gretna Public Library teen department. This guide specifies the budget, materials, time, and space needed for each program, as well as other resources they can share with their teens.

There's one document everyone in the United States should have access to: a college degree. UndocUHelp supports students on their path to educational success. Our platform brings together organizations that support undocumented students to share information and resources in a single, easy-to-navigate directory, helping students discover the help they need, when they need it.

Web Wizards is a web application that allows children to learn web development through the use of a simple drag-and-drop interface without the current challenges of typing, navigating a computer, and remembering syntax. Users are able to drag customizable blocks to build their websites with their own personalized design. By creating new websites and interacting with the application, users can earn points to unlock new avatars.

The Shorewood-Troy Public Library serves a young adult population of approximately 7,762. The library has created a dedicated teen space, Studio 650, and offers a small number of young adult programs, but there is an evident lack of teens regularly visiting the library. This project identifies ways to increase Studio 650 usage and program attendance during outreach visits. Based on results, several focalized factors have been brought to the attention of the sponsor to help them hire a new teen librarian, redesign Studio 650, and plan programs revolving around the needs and wants of young adults in Shorewood, IL.

Youth Led Libraries began as a partnership with Kitsap Regional Library to strengthen communication between the Kingston location and area youth. In collaboration with branch manager Leigh Ann Winterowd, we built relationships with teens and community partners, conducted micro community listening sessions, and engaged in participatory design work with students from the North Kitsap Boys & Girls Club and Kingston High School. To support the continuing dialogue between Kingston youth, the library, and community partners, we developed an online toolkit which can be accessed at youthledlibraries.org.

CoSphaera is an online language community that connects college language professors nationally in an effort to break down the anxieties associated with learning a new language. Learning a second language is as important now as ever; however, in today’s universities students struggle to practice their conversational skills due to the anxiety of this social interaction and fear of making mistakes in front of their peers. CoSphaera will allow language professors to connect with compatible classrooms in the US, in an effort to provide students with a “revolving-door” experience to conversational language practice, thereby connecting classrooms and breaking down these social anxieties. Nerds R Us | Halle Friedland, Chris Leatham, Adam Sebetich, & Heng Yon | INFO

This project creates guidelines to help preschool teachers build a diverse, quality collection of books for use with preschool children as the children develop emergent literacy skills.

Sand Point Campus, run by Solid Ground, provides both permanent and transitional housing, and offers multiple services to its 500 residents. The campus library, located in Santos Place, provides daily programs for the children and teens. Using observation, query, and data analysis, we determined that the library is not utilized to its full potential. The data allowed us to create an Action Plan that provides a synthesis of our findings, offers various program proposals, and makes suggestions for improvement, which the staff may reference for future planning.

Language. Race. Culture. Socioeconomic status. These factors often result in children from low-income families entering school unprepared to thrive. Early learning research demonstrates that storytime positively impacts readiness to read and succeed in school. To bring storytime to an underserved community, our team delivered early literacy programming at Lake City Court, a Seattle Housing Authority low-income apartment complex. Our goals: aid the children’s healthy development; foster a love of reading; and demonstrate to the community the value of families learning together to build literacy skills.