The East Bonner County Library District (EBCL) is a mid-size public library system based in Sandpoint, Idaho. In response to the EBCL administration’s expressed need for a strategic plan, I researched industry standards and best practices for creating a public library strategic plan, gathered existing data, carried out additional qualitative research based on staff input, and created a full strategic plan outline with detailed recommendations for the project’s completion. Laying the groundwork for this project helped the library staff and administration view the strategic planning process as inclusive and inspirational, instead of intimidating. A thoughtfully-created strategic plan will help the East Bonner County Library District prioritize its decision making to better align its goals with that of its community, allowing it to achieve the highest levels of effective service possible.

Callison Architecture specializes in designing built environments, including projects in retail, hospitality, healthcare, and mixed-use. Headquartered in Seattle, it employs over 1,000 architects, designers and support staff worldwide. Yet despite its large size and the complexity of its projects, Callison has never centralized its project information into a single dedicated location. Recognizing the opportunity to assist in knowledge organization efforts, this project captures and collects data that is a) currently scattered across various internal servers or b) has remained unrecorded. This carefully curated data is critical in launching the beta mode of Callison’s first project database. As a master repository of project information, the database presents a quick snapshot of any given project within the firm. This is essential in saving the time of the architects and the staff who support them and, on a broader level, ensuring that the institutional knowledge of the firm’s forty-year history is preserved in one authoritative location.

Kōjām is a Marshallese word for a door, doorway, or gate. This project, developed in partnership with the U.S. Embassy Majuro, has resulted in a new virtual portal – a single, straightforward website that directs students and educators in the Republic of the Marshall Islands to thousands of eBooks currently available for free from a variety of online sources. It gathers links to these sources together and describes them in one convenient place. In the future, if additional funding is secured, this portal is poised to link to even more titles available via an OverDrive subscription. The Marshall Islands are extremely geographically isolated, but their relationship to the U.S. remains close and unique. Enhancing educational opportunities available to Marshallese students is a priority for the United States. The U.S. Embassy Majuro seeks to increase student access to eBooks and to encourage digital reading. Kōjām is an important part of this effort.

When searching for opportunities to learn to speak any language, the resources available are scarce, at best. Learning what words mean is one step, but being able to converse in the language is a difficult and crucial task for any language learner. This is something that requires lots and lots of practice, ideally in a face-to-face conversation. This is where Lamunity comes in. We built a website that will enable users to search for other members of their community, meet with them, and practice speaking together.

In the field of art and art history, an exhibition is not only an event which provides access to a specific selection of objects, but it is itself an important resource that provides additional context for understanding artists and objects, illuminates the current research on a particular topic, and marks our contemporary understanding of art at a particular moment in time. The exhibition-as-resource requires adequate accessibility and discoverability like any other library material, though has not yet received a standardized formatting method that can be applied to all exhibitions. In an effort to shed light on an under-researched area of both the art and library worlds, this project examines the current state of exhibition-focused research and resources through a multitude of perspectives: conversations with researchers and librarians, a case study harnessing the past exhibition information of the artist-run SOIL gallery, and an examination of a few access solutions implemented by museums and libraries.

Let’s Ride! : A Better Riding Experience Chenglu Chai (Full-Time MSIM), Xinwei Liu (Full-Time MSIM), Wenjing Yang (Full-Time MSIM) If you want to find bike rides for sightseeing in Seattle, what would you do? Would you spend time searching the information for bike rides online? If you did, you could end up with incomplete or even incorrect information. You could buy guidebooks, however, you may find them expensive, outdated and heavy to carry. Now, you have a better option: “Let’s Ride!” This iOS app offers comprehensive information of bike rides in Seattle, including attractive images, maps, overall ride difficulties, estimated time, estimated length, terrain and road conditions. “Let’s Ride!” gives you the best riding experience in Seattle directly to you via your iPhone. Great experience and adventure are waiting for you.

With the onset of near-instant communication via mobile devices, many platforms have been developed to enhance our collaborative abilities. People are able to collaborate with their schoolwork with Google Docs, but there are currently very few platforms that tackle creative collaboration. Loop Space is a mobile application designed for casual musicians to collaborate on a global scale. There is a messaging system that allows users to find local musicians to encourage real-time collaboration as well in order to expand beyond the constraints of our app. Our app is a musical sketchpad for multiple users to be able to collaborate effectively and spontaneously.

For every book it’s reader, for every online dater their perfect match? More and more people are turning to dating sites and apps to find true love, but finding that match can be incredibly difficult. In 1931, Ranganathan, devised the Five Laws of Library Science, which connect books and readers. Using Ranganathan’s Laws as the theoretical framework, the team tackled these questions: How do people use online dating profiles? What attracts people to certain profiles? How can Ranganathan’s Laws of Library Science be adapted to online dating profiles to help users find each other? By conducting a literature review and interviews, the team delivers the “Five Laws of Online Dating Profiles” and recommendations on getting a profile noticed. This information can help researchers who are interested in studying online dating, developers of online dating apps and websites, and online daters looking to improve their profiles.

With over 400 permanently sited artworks in their collection, the Office of Arts & Culture has advanced Seattle’s reputation as a cultural center for innovation and creativity. Increasing accessibility to this unique cultural collection introduces a new audience to the collective history of the artworks and the history of Seattle. One of the ways this has been achieved is by showcasing artworks on the Public Art Archive, a national online database of public artworks. By designing a digital curation of content from the collection, the artworks can be used for educational purposes, research, and artistic inspiration. The curation of art objects included preparation and organization into an established dataset. Each object entry includes information about location, description, artist statements, and images. Digital curation of this collection demonstrates how to provide a framework for collection accessibility while highlighting how the Office of Arts & Culture has invested in public art.

If non-profits were able to analyze their financial data and predict future trends, would they know whether they are on the road to fiscal health or financial failure? Using historical accounting data on non-profit organizations from the Corelytics financial dashboard, we undertook an observational study that identifies key indicators of financial health in non-profits. A novel ranking system was created through appraising each non-profit on key metrics identified and weighted through qualitative research conducted using interviews with industry experts. We provide recommendations to Corelytics on how they can improve their services to non-profit clients, and to non-profits on how to better use Corelytics to track key financial health metrics. The services provided by these non-profits to the communities they reach out to can ultimately be improved through this informed and scientific approach to tracking their fiscal health.