University of Washington Libraries’ Special Collections is the largest repository of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. After receiving a Capital Projects Award from UW Libraries to fund the installation of compact shelving in a room in the sub-basement of Allen Library, it added 3,000 cubic feet of shelving space for its archival collections. With newly acquired archival collections arriving daily and available space at a premium, the department needed a plan for how this new space was to be used and a person to help implement that plan. For my project, I analyzed collection data, environmental reports, and staff input to develop a criteria for determining which collections should be moved into this new space. Using that criteria, I identified collections to be moved, prepared them accordingly, and moved them to the new space-updating database records and creating a shelf-list and shelf-map in the process.

During the Japanese occupation in the early 1900s, around 300 Koreans fled the homeland to Cuba to find a better life. Since 2015, University of Washington East Asia Library (EAL) has collected digital photographs of these Korean immigrants in Cuba. The library needed metadata for this collection and was hoping to develop a research guide on these immigrants. To meet these needs, I organized the collection and created metadata for each photograph. In addition, I researched resources on these immigrants and organized them by the media type. To maintain continuity for future projects, all the processes and rules were documented as well. This Capstone project shed light on the lives of the earlier generations of Korean immigrants in Cuba and their family gatherings. EAL webpage now provides online access to the digital photograph collection and a list of research resources regarding these immigrants.

As the county’s legislative branch, the King County Council represents the people, interests and issues of county constituents in Washington State. The resultant working papers of Council members, committee meeting minutes and agendas are archived at the King County Archives. Although arranged according to the principle of provenance and described at the series level, Committee meeting records and Council member files lack consistency across Committee and Council member names, dates, and covered topics. Finding Aids are also brief or unavailable, making this collection difficult to use. To address these information problems, our project designed templates for Finding Aids and Processing Plans along with a taxonomy for use by Archives staff to effectively integrate new accessions and structure existing collections for comprehensibility. These information organization tools will facilitate the work of Archives staff while making the Legislative Collection more accessible and user-friendly for researchers and the general public alike.

The Wilhelm Hester Photography Collection is a vital resource for both maritime and local historians, as well as a valuable asset to UW Special Collections. Unfortunately, as is frequently the case in large academic institutions, time constraints and financial pressures mean that the initial processing was basic, resulting in a poor-quality finding aid and inadequate document housing. Improper housing placed the photographs at risk from acidification and mechanical damage, whilst the inadequate finding aid dramatically reduced their accessibility. Our sponsor decided to completely restructure the collection and asked our team for help. We laid the foundation for this project by rehousing over 300 photographs and revamping the online description with enhanced metadata for a more intuitive user experience. Our work will transform the user’s first point of contact f into a gateway for collection discovery, enhancing its usability and maximizing our university’s contribution to research.

Trek.fm is an expansive podcast network of over 20 different podcasts that cover every corner of the Star Trek universe and beyond. Since 2010 the network has been consistently growing as thousands of listeners download Trek.fm podcasts each month to engage in fun, engaging, and thought-provoking discussions with other listeners. My project is focused on increasing the accessibility of the Trek.fm website. I cultivated data on the core series-focused podcasts on the network and developed a tagging system to better serve the users needs. This tagging system will make it easier for hosts to understand how to tag their own content in the future to keep the website cohesive as it grows. There are also new dedicated lists and guides for each show to act as a reference for listeners browsing for content as well. With this project Trek.fm is more accessible to both search queries and browsing.

The aim of our capstone was to create a sustainable backlist digitization solution, with supporting procedural documentation, for the University of Washington Press. Our work initiates a process that will give new life to thousands of out of print books and enhance the Press’s long-term product pipeline. Founded in 1915, the University of Washington Press has accumulated a backlist of books, spanning decades of important scholarly and cultural conversations. Our work extends the reach of Press, by renewing access to currently out of print titles, increasing opportunities for tie-in promotions, and generally allowing UWP to leverage their entire collection in new and exciting ways. In addition to providing benefit for the Press and their authors and publishing partners, increasing global access to UWP’s unique collection through libraries, retailers, academic institutions, and community partners will be a value add for scholarly and cultural conversation around the globe.

The Vermont Queer Archives contains the records and materials of the queer community in Vermont. Historically, the queer community is underrepresented in institutional archiving, and the preservation of its culture falls on the community itself. Providing access to the archives is important so that community members and researchers are able to appreciate queer history in Vermont. The archives is a large 30 box collection consisting of organizational records, event posters and handouts, and over 50 queer-related newspapers and magazines. Access to the archives was limited because of a lack of organization or a catalog and a lack of awareness. Additionally, boxes were dispersed throughout the building because there was not enough room to store them together. To solve this problem, I arranged and organized the collection of 30 boxes, initiated a blog, and created new procedures related to collection to help maintain the archives for the future.

Video Game Metadata Schema (VGMS) Publishing Print cataloging has a long and standardized tradition to draw from, but with the emergence of interactive media, the same standards do not translate. The GAMER (Game Research) Group, led by University of Washington’s Jin Ha Lee, has been actively creating a schema called the Video Game Metadata Schema (VGMS) that captures concepts that are important to those who research video games. Our project will make this schema publicly available and understandable to all who would like to implement it. It will be especially useful for catalogers, metadata specialists, and information architects working with interactive media. In addition to publishing the VGMS, we are creating a publishing toolkit for future use as the schema is still an evolving project for the GAMER Group.

Hillel UW maintains a small library (currently roughly 1600 volumes), but lacked any inventory record or formal policies. Our team used LibraryThing to catalog the collection and create a searchable online catalog with bibliographic information, subject tags, and appropriate classification, while reorganizing and weeding the collection as we went. We also worked with Hillel staff to draft a collection development policy that formalized the library’s subject scope, gift policy, and criteria for future collection building and weeding. Together, the catalog and reorganization improve access to the collection for those who wish to use the library as a research resource and for Hillel staff and community members’ daily needs. The collection development policy provides a formalized statement of procedural expectations for staff working with the library, which will increase the consistency of their application and clarify library needs for staff and members of the public interested in contributing to the library.

Woodhaven is a neighborhood with a rich history in the New York City borough of Queens. In 2008 the Woodhaven Cultural and Historical Society created a community wiki but within a year it fell into disuse. Due to recently increased interest in local history, including a library-driven "memory project" and a middle school history club, the organization was eager to make the wiki more accessible to the community. My project consisted of reorganizing the wiki with linking and tagging, publishing guidelines for editing and submitting articles, and using those guidelines to create new example articles. The recent uptick in interest demands an accessible tool where community members can share acquired knowledge of the area’s history and culture. Knowledge of local history enriches the experiences of both communities and individuals alike. This project will help facilitate increased community awareness and sharing of local history by providing an easy to use platform.