Working for the Book Club of Washington, a bibliophile society dedicated to book collecting and book arts, I created an online public access catalog for the organization's independently published periodical, the Journal of the Book Club of Washington. To do so, I used LibraryThing to create bibliographic records for over 300 of the Journal's articles from its debut in 2000 to Spring 2023. I then organized those records into an OPAC utilizing LibraryThing's TinyCat software. Additionally, I digitized each issue that lacked a digital copy and made the digital versions available to the public via the online catalog.

The Alliance of Angels (AoA) is an angel investor group that provides funding and guidance to emerging startups. While email notifications and website updates are utilized to inform members about meetings and events, there are challenges in securing the attendance of investors and managing RSVPs. In response to this problem, we integrated a calendar into the AoA website for a streamlined way to find events and submit RSVPs efficiently. Additionally, to maximize attendance and engagement, we incorporated dedicated sections highlighting the startup companies that are presenting at each meeting.

Librarians manually keyword large datasets to enhance information findability in IHME’s catalog. Automating this process could significantly streamline the cataloging workflow. This project documents data characteristics of IHME’s collection to inform an automatic solution. Research revealed that an auto-keywording tool which could process ALL data types would require large investment into a sophisticated computational linguistics solution. This project delivers a practical solution focused on a few specific data types to immediately save Librarians hours of work per data set. The project also provides documentation as lasting evidence for future development and/or funding of a larger Language Learning Model project.

The “Cataloging Community Stakeholders” allows WCLS staff to catalog information on significant relationships with key community stakeholders in Whatcom County. Staff members can input contact information for community stakeholders, as well as basic information about the organizations, areas of expertise, or topics that they represent. The project took the form of an Airtable where information about key community stakeholders is housed and searched based on criteria determined by WCLS staff. This tool supports outreach and relationship building between WCLS and the Whatcom County Community by centralizing information and easing the burden for new and veteran staff collaborating with community partners.

This capstone project wanted to determine characteristics of materials shared internationally by libraries’ interlibrary loan (ILL) departments, seeking to determine drivers behind such resource sharing and whether any interesting or useful patterns in the practice could be identified. By interviewing institutions who participate in international ILL, we found that the experience, and number of resources shared by the participants varied greatly and were the result of differing circumstances. It was determined that participants faced similar challenges the world over, but that the responsibility ILL teams feel to their users to provide the best access to resources is universal.

The Tri-Cities community has a growing need to address the digital literacy gap. With over 50% of Hispanic households without a desktop or laptop, it was important for us to create a product that could help individuals obtain the knowledge needed to build digital literacy programs. To achieve this, we partnered with Yekaterina Yefimova, a Ph.D. candidate at the iSchool, to develop a site with an interactive map that displays local infrastructures, a data insights page, and a sustainable resource page. By implementing these features, we aim to contribute to the addition of digital literacy programs in the Tri-Cities.

Currently, migration to the new Epic Developer Community platform is underway and the current metadata management system and list are not effective for technical writers.Our project aims to create scalable and intuitive designs for the convenient and efficient application of metadata and the effective management of that metadata. Our projected future state includes compiling a complete set of metadata terminology, prototyping metadata application in the new EDC Authoring tool, and prototyping a new metadata manager through a novel platform.

I developed a seminar that teaches undergraduate students, specifically English majors, about a newer form of cataloging in a way that negates the need for any prior knowledge about cataloging. My seminar takes a look at the folksonomy created and maintained in the popular fanfiction website Archive of Our Own (AO3) and how it is different from other forms of cataloging. I do this in part by emphasizing the difference between folksonomies and taxonomies and by comparing the AO3 folksonomy to the library of congress subject headings (LCSH). This seminar is able to be taught anywhere at any time.

I worked with the Orbis Cascade Alliance Cataloging Standing Group (CSG) to build on a series of Homosaurus training sessions they recently facilitated with a retrospective implementation project. Working with sets of legacy records in the consortial catalog identified by the CSG, I performed subject analysis on a record-by-record basis and added terms from the Homosaurus as appropriate. I also contributed to the creation of training materials for other students and non-cataloging staff participating in the project. Through this work, I helped enhance discoverability of LGBTQ+ records in the Alliance catalog, contributing to the Homosaurus community of practice.

HuskySync serves as a centralized hub for students navigating the challenges of rigorous introductory courses at UW. First-year students encounter prerequisite courses with large enrollments, which can feel overwhelming in regards to performing well. Managing both the academic workload and the social dynamics can significantly impact one's ability to study effectively. To address this challenge, we developed a platform where students can collaboratively engage with study materials. By enabling multiple students to upload their study notes, HuskySync generates personalized quizzes tailored to each user. In essence, we transform individual tests into shared quests, fostering a collaborative approach to learning.