Library of Congress Subject Headings perpetuate the biases of the sources used to establish them. For Indigenous and other peoples, standard research practices using written reference sources may result in subject terms that do not reflect what people call themselves or wish to be called. Changing our approach to gathering and prioritizing information can result in more ethical and accurate representation of people and peoples in library catalogs.

We acknowledge that librarianship is subjective, but subjectivity invites potential for artistry, esotericism, provocation which I feel is sorely underexplored. My project encompasses four works of library art - art which critically and creatively engages with the theory, practice, politics, culture, technology, and mechanics of libraries and information. My work includes exploratory information technology and design experiments and ideological messaging, but above all it is art, aimed at intangible enrichment of the self and others.

The Washington Talking Book and Braille Library (WTBBL) needs diverse collections in order to meet its users’ needs. In order to expose gaps in WTBBL’s holdings, our team conducted a diversity audit of the young adult collection. We found that the authors and main characters in the collection are overwhelmingly white, cisgender, and heterosexual. We recommended ways to make the collection more representative of Washington’s population and improve the library’s subject headings. With these recommendations and the data to justify them, WTBBL will be better equipped to serve its users with diverse, representative collections.

This project was focused on exploring what libraries are doing to serve people experiencing homelessness - and if there is more that the Sacramento Public Library can do to address the issue of homelessness in their communities. A literature review, Sacramento-specific report, and accompanying slide deck were created as tools and references for staff at this organization; these and our recommendations will hopefully lead to additional services and direct impacts to those experiencing homelessness on the streets and shelters in Sacramento and beyond.

Population projections are estimates of the future population. As part of planning, states and localities across the country develop population projections on a regular basis, but methods and resources differ by area, making quality difficult to evaluate. This State and Local Population Projections Database, stored as part of the Applied Demography Toolbox, brings together state and local population projection information and materials from different sources through survey responses and file sharing. The database can be used by population projection developers and researchers for the study and analysis of population projection methods and associated uncertainty.

Until my capstone, there were no finding aids on the chosen topic: desegregation and busing in Seattle Public Schools. Researchers did not have as much access to this information. Physical materials on this highly requested topic can now be presented to researchers. Hopefully, this finding aid will lead to more transparency and accountability for both helpful and harmful actions committed by the Seattle Public Schools.

This project will develop transcription and captioning procedures for UC Berkeley’s impressive collection of recorded video lectures and interviews given at the campus. Once captioned, these recordings can be streamed as open-access videos on the Berkeley Library servers so that researchers may have access to this rich collection.

The University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections holds several incredible collections of women filmmakers. To bring attention to these collections, I helped create the podcast series Beyond Scope and Content: Hidden Histories in the Film Archives. In addition, I uploaded videos from the collections to the Internet Archive, providing rich metadata for each video to ensure their discovery and descriptive closed captioning to allow for greater accessibility. As a result, anyone listening to Beyond Scope and Content can check out videos referenced in the podcasts and watch the amazing work of these women.

This capstone focuses on developing an Arizona offline digital library for tribal communities that will aid in building towards a pilot project in areas with limited access to a reliable internet connection, especially where infrastructure support for reliable internet service may be a long-term goal. A beta digital library has been created, and resources focused on language, and cultural preservation for the Hualapai tribe continue to be curated for the collection. The project will provide an opportunity for communities to access various resources created by and relevant to their community without needing access to the internet or electricity.

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is a biomedical research institution. Arnold Library is the main information hub for the research workforce. Medicine and biomedical research have a dark history of neglecting the needs of certain people, even mistreating or subjecting them to unethical practices to benefit the powerful. White, heterosexual, cis-males were long the primary concern, becoming the “normative” model. Arnold Library rejects that legacy by working to integrate DEI. The library is improving its collections and services, and I collaborated by auditing the book collection for DEI materials and writing a new DEI section in the collection management policy.