Current discussions about ethical use of artificial intelligence for cultural heritage focus on bias, privacy, and surveillance. This paper illustrates how ethics of heritage AI should expand beyond those themes into broader human and environmental exploitation AI causes that put it at odds with efforts toward decolonization. This paper suggests a holistic, interdisciplinary approach that examines the broader effects of AI used for heritage work and focuses on AI that is used for collections and exhibits. It focuses on AI use by heritage organizations such as libraries, museums, and archives, in addition to non-heritage groups participating in heritage work.

Diverse BookFinder critically reframes diversity in picture books through identifying trends in BIPOC representation and providing resources for creating intentional collections that decenter whiteness as the dominant narrative. This capstone initiates developing asynchronous teaching and learning resources that complement existing tools. Through a sorting activity that connects dominant messaging trends and race/culture narratives, librarians, educators, and caregivers will grow their awareness of the impact of BIPOC representation and develop skills to expand their own collections. This project highlights the necessity of active engagement and reflection around which books we read, whose stories we value, and how experiences inform narratives.

Green Hill School is a juvenile rehabilitation center serving young men. The library receives limited funding and struggles to maintain a current and relevant collection. Books serve as a valuable tool for emotional regulation, self-awareness, academic and personal growth, and pleasure. Access to books that meet their interests is crucial to the success of the residents. We utilized social media to crowdsource monetary donations and direct purchases from a curated wishlist. Eighty-seven percent of our wishlist was purchased, and we raised $2,160 in monetary donations. This will ensure a thorough library collection for current and future residents.

The Brigantine Yankee Catalog Project aims to catalog and embed metadata for photographs documenting the sixth sailing voyage of the Brigantine Yankee through the Pacific Islands. The photographs had been digitized but were not cataloged at the Burke Museum, making them inaccessible. By cataloging the photographs, our team was able to increase this collection’s accessibility not only for the museum staff but also, more importantly, for Pacific Islander communities. These communities feature prominently in the images but their identities and cultures were not always documented properly; providing access and inviting input from them will lead to more accurate and respectful representation.

Sno-isle Libraries, which serves Snohomish and Island counties in Washington state, has seen a dramatic increase in the number of patrons who are struggling with homelessness due to the Covid-19 pandemic. To address the needs of this vulnerable population, I have compiled a community asset map by identifying local nonprofits, government agencies, shelters, McKinney-Vento Liaisons, social workers, and public schools that work with individuals and families struggling with homelessness. This document will be distributed to all managers and librarians within the Sno-isle Libraries system and will be used for future outreach to create a stronger, better social safety net.

Japanese seed beads are identified by the color code assigned to each product. Three primary manufacturers assign their own alphanumeric codes, while a wholesaler combined all three identification systems into a new system. This creates confusion among consumers because these systems are not well understood and are not yet cross-referenced. My ontology is the foundation of a knowledge base that will aid in more accurate identification of colors between manufacturer numbers and the corresponding product in the wholesaler’s system. This resource will facilitate accurate color-matching and increase awareness of the variety of seed beads available.

The Geology Library Database was created for students, staff, and volunteers in the UW Burke Museum Geology and Paleontology Department to facilitate library resource discovery. The database was created in FilemakerPro and utilized linked data to allow for easy browsing. It also makes use of its own controlled vocabulary and fully documented schema. As part of its creation, over 250 records were entered to test its capabilities. Once it is fully populated, the database will increase ease of access to materials for the volunteers who do not have the same level of access to UW Libraries as their paid colleagues.

St. Mark’s Cathedral has limited record management and archives. Many important records, documents, and artifacts have been kept in boxes located in storage rooms and employee offices. I assessed Cathedral records and completed an in-depth finding aid on the archive and its contents. The resulting finding aid will provide a framework for future students or other archivists on where the project has left off and possible next steps. St. Mark’s stakeholders will have an accessible, easy-to-navigate aid of what contents are in the archive and the future work needed to complete the archive.

The University of Washington Libraries' vision is to become an inclusive and equitable organization. Through our capstone, we highlight the historical, political, and cultural aspects of Black experiences and envision the impact of showcasing student and community research in library spaces. Through interviews and in partnership with the Research Commons, the Open Scholarship Commons, and the Assessment and Planning department, our project frames how to implement programming and outreach inspired by the voices of UW’s Black community. We present four recommendations to UW Libraries addressing space, community engagement, and the power of listening to and affirming Black perspectives and experiences.

In order to provide inclusive service, UW Libraries needs to provide diverse collections with plentiful materials by, for, and about historically underrepresented groups. Most collection diversity resources are aimed at school and public libraries. My project focused on researching how other academic libraries have addressed DEI in their collections in order to provide methods suitable for UW’s large scholarly collection. I analyzed collection development policies incorporating DEI and conducted a literature review. With information about assessment methods and strategies to obtain more diverse materials, UW Libraries has access to a menu of possibilities to enhance collection diversity.