Seattle Public library is interested in purchasing technolgies for the youth which can be used for learning. One of the projects is the Minecraft club. It is a learning sessions for youth to learn the process of designing characters, prototyping, and creating a story out of the character. In implementing the project, there are information gaps in the management and implementation process. The first one is between librarians familiarity with the content and the purpose of the project. And the other one is between librarians facilitation skills with technology and youth development. To fill these gaps, our capstone group will look at the curriculum of the 3D printer club and try to find ways to revise the curriculum which will make a successful session for the children.

Conducted for the International Student/ELL Subcommittee of the UW Libraries’ Teaching and Learning Group, this mixed-methods study examines international students’ perception and use of the UW-Seattle Libraries. International students have been identified as a group that need unique support on campus, and Libraries staff are concerned international students are not engaging with Libraries resources and services as fully as they could be. International student enrollment jumped from 6.5% to 15.2% of the total UW-Seattle student population from Fall 2006 to Fall 2015, according to the Office of Planning & Budgeting. How can library services and resources be more attuned to these students’ information needs? What can the Libraries do to support international students’ sense of inclusion and belonging? Triangulating undergraduate and graduate focus group, wayfinding, and survey data, this project offers an initial set of recommendations to address the diverse needs of the local international student community.

Today, indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest are already experiencing the effects of climate change because their livelihood, customs and traditions are deeply tied to their environment. However, current climate change planning tools are designed for and by users with scientific backgrounds and are generally hard to scale in way that maximizes their potential impact. In collaboration with the CTERRA group from the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences and students from Chief Kitsap Academy in Poulsbo, WA our team created a proof of concept application to address this information gap. ClimateImpact is a mobile and web application which includes a carbon accounting tool, visualization of environmental data, and encourages sustainable activities to users. In addition to bringing together quantitative data from various sources, our tool also places emphasis on the values and traditions of native communities in relation to environmental sustainability.

The instruction librarians at Gonzaga University’s Foley Center Library provide learning opportunities to students on campus in classroom settings. Since 1988, they have extended those services to distance students. More recently, they have aligned themselves with programs offered online by the university to provide asynchronous and synchronous instruction opportunities for students attending school online. With these desires in mind, this project has focused on investigating web conferencing technology and developing a webinar template for the instruction librarians to use in conjunction with online library orientation activities in order to better serve the distance students at Gonzaga University. This enables distance students to connect with each other as well as the library and librarians. The program allows students to tailor their own learning experience, adding another layer of unique interaction to their education. Using this innovative program method, instruction can occur online in a community-oriented setting.

Community members turn to their public libraries for reliable health information. Public library staff must remain aware of the most relevant resources and services to refer their patrons to, though many libraries have limited resources to dedicate to staff continuing education on this topic. The National Network of Libraries of Medicine Pacific Northwest Region (NN/LM PNR) meets this need by providing free continuing education support regarding consumer health to public library staff and other information professionals in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington states. This project engaged public library staff in Idaho in focus groups and interviews to learn more about their current efforts, needs, and perceptions regarding community health information and services. An analysis of these findings led to recommendations for NN/LM PNR to strengthen their outreach to public libraries in Idaho and elsewhere, to enhance local library responsiveness to community health information priorities.

Research and professional journals confirm micro and small businesses lead the way in Web 2.0 adoption. Although these businesses “are increasingly using social media technologies as part of their business activities… [it is] often as a supplemental promotional tool and without any clear idea of how to measure performance” (Atanassova & Clark, 2015). Many lack a strategic plan guiding their social media practices in a manner supporting their overall mission and goals. The barriers creating these gaps are often identified as lacking time, budget, and technology skills. Knowledge barriers include a limited awareness of information resources, software and platform features, implementation strategies, and best practices for user engagement and interface design. Our workshops help business owners overcome these barriers by providing a methodical approach, information resources, and analytic training with the goal of integrating social media as a tool into their overall business plan.

LIBROS is a digital toolkit which was created to address a gap in children’s services in the North Central Regional Library system (NCRL). Although many households in NCRL’s service area are bilingual or Spanish-speaking, the majority of library branches don’t offer dual-language storytime programs. Staff cited two main reasons for this: lack of confidence in their own Spanish skills and not knowing how to select Spanish-language storytime elements such as books and songs. Several employees simply said, “I just don’t think I can do it. LIBROS aims to solve this issue by acting as an online resource where library staff can learn how to incorporate basic Spanish words and concepts into storytime. Interactive modules provide storytime examples, suggested books and media, and downloadable files. The end goal is multifaceted: to empower and encourage librarians, increase library patronage, and touch the lives of families through the magic of libros—books.

Colegio Anglo Colombiano is an International Baccalaureate school located in Bogota, Colombia. The Anglo did not have a clear scope and sequence or curricular framework for MYP (grades 5-9, 6-10 in USA) research and information literacy skills. This capstone will address that void. Following the development of the scope and sequence, the ultimate goal would be implementation in all MYP classes, not just in the library. I will continue at the school next academic year to ensure this. There is also a PR element of the project, letting teachers know that the document exits and how they can use it even if the librarian is unavailable. Teachers will be highly encouraged to partner with me for at least one project in the year en order to ensure students are coming into the library and being exposed to the program regularly. Student’s information literacy skills will greatly benefit from this program.

Students are not being exposed to user-centered design and other Informatics topics in high school. We have found that many currently in the field did not discover such topics until their second year in college. With the demand for user focused critical thinking on the rise, Project Spark hopes to bridge the gap by introducing these topics earlier in the education system in order to spark interest. We bring college students to the high school classroom in order to give high school students a taste of what they can do with user-centered design. Our goal is to simply get more students interested in design thinking within the context of technology in the information age.