iSchool Capstone

2023

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Lambert House Library Assessment and Improvement

The Lambert House LGBTQIA+ Youth Center houses a large special collection of queer and trans books but has lacked a clear classification system with a functional digital, remotely accessible catalog and check-out capabilities. I built off of previous work by adding or amending approximately 400 digital records to the public-facing collection, recommending subject heading changes to increase accessibility for intersectional identities, and weeding almost 300 materials for archival, donation, or disposal. I am continuing work with Lambert House to develop clear documentation of policies, ensuring a smooth transition to future volunteers and better serving LGBTQIA+ youths’ information needs.
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LangTime Engine: Simplifying Conlanging, One Word at a Time

Responsible for languages such as Klingon and Dothraki, constructed language creators invent the grammar, phonology, and lexicon of fictional languages - a practice known as “conlanging”. Despite the growing popularity of conlanging, conlangers lack sufficient tools to document their languages. In turn, conlangers devote significant time and effort towards recording information by-hand. In this capstone project our team collaborated with renowned conlangers David Peterson and Jessie Sams to create LangTime Engine, an application that simplifies the process of recording a conlang’s lexicon. As a result, we hope to ease the manual burden of conlangers and to make conlanging more accessible.
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LangTime Engine: Simplifying Conlanging, One Word at a Time

Responsible for languages such as Klingon and Dothraki, constructed language creators invent the grammar, phonology, and lexicon of fictional languages - a practice known as “conlanging”. Despite the growing popularity of conlanging, conlangers lack sufficient tools to document their languages. In turn, conlangers devote significant time and effort towards recording information by-hand. In this capstone project our team collaborated with renowned conlangers David Peterson and Jessie Sams to create LangTime Engine, an application that simplifies the process of recording a conlang’s lexicon. As a result, we hope to ease the manual burden of conlangers and to make conlanging more accessible.
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Laying the Foundation Between the Library and the Mam community

During a visit to our sponsor library we became aware of the resource needs of the Mam and how we as a group can help the library to meet those needs. Through our work we were able to create resource and suggestion lists as well as finding literature which surround the Mam community and immigrants as a whole. We also were able to conduct surveys and interviews to gauge perceptions of the library system. Our project is impactful to the Mam community as it hopefully creates a helpful guide for future collaboration between the library and the community.
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Long COVID Open Source Research System

(1 of 2 identical entries to list all students.) The Long COVID Open Source Research System is a team of 14 undergraduate students from the University of Washington Information School coming from all different backgrounds and concentrations. Led by Frank Martinez and Dr. Leo Morales, in partnership with the UW Latino Center for Health and Adios COVID, we have been brought in to research Long COVID—a little-known problem affecting communities across the world. Being from a Washington-based University, it was decided that we would uncover how Long COVID is affecting the population in our great state, in particular, Latinos in Eastern Washington. Throughout our 10-week quarter, we have developed this website and created an open-source research system, collecting data from both field and pre-existing research.
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Long COVID Open Source Research System

(1 of 2 identical entries to include all students.) The Long COVID Open Source Research System is a team of 14 undergraduate students from the University of Washington Information School coming from all different backgrounds and concentrations. Led by Frank Martinez and Dr. Leo Morales, in partnership with the UW Latino Center for Health and Adios COVID, we have been brought in to research Long COVID—a little-known problem affecting communities across the world. Being from a Washington-based University, it was decided that we would uncover how Long COVID is affecting the population in our great state, in particular, Latinos in Eastern Washington. Throughout our 10-week quarter, we have developed this website and created an open-source research system, collecting data from both field and pre-existing research.
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LookingGlass: Take a look into your fridge and your food waste habits

Designed for young adults who are living away from home for the first time, LookingGlass helps those living in shared households reduce food waste and over purchasing. App features include food inventory tracking, the ability to sort inventory by different categories such as expiration date, quantity, and location, joining a shared fridge with other members in your household, and offering up and claiming any extra or unused food from your roommates. These features allow users to track what's in their fridge while also encouraging sharing in order to reduce food waste.
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Make It in the MakerSpace: Projects and Programs for High School MakerSpaces

With students turning to school libraries as a space for time away from the more academic aspects of school, MakerSpaces are increasingly popular. Five high schools in the Seattle Public School District (SPS) currently have resources dedicated to MakerSpace activities. MakerSpaces provide students with a creative outlet and opportunities for de-stressing, social emotional learning, and collaboration. This project set out to design facilitated and unfacilitated projects and programming for students at Ballard High School through the library MakerSpace. Informed by student feedback, the result is a project bank of activities, kits and workshops that can be used in MakerSpaces anywhere.
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Making Connexions: Poisonous Books, Repatriation, and Rare Book Catalog Records

Rare books require special considerations when creating catalog records - ones that modern monographs do not. Working with Washington University’s Olin Library and their department of Special Collections, I learned about various fields that are of note in rare book cataloging, such as those regarding provenance and binding descriptions, as well as training on using OCLC Connexion and MARC. I demonstrated this training through projects such as identifying arsenical books (Winthrop’s Poison Book Project), identifying rare Jewish books and their provenance for repatriation, and cataloging a backlog of donations from the Hochschild family.
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Marine Rescue: The Sea-quel

There is not enough emphasis on learning about the ocean in and outside the classroom. This, combined with rising concerns about climate change, inspired us to continue developing Marine Rescue. Marine Rescue is a game for elementary students to learn about human impacts on marine wildlife in the Pacific Northwest. Through interactive stories and short games, students build empathy for native species such as salmon and seagulls, and helping to solve their problems through fun, educational games. We hope that this will inspire the next generation to take action against ocean pollution and help solve climate change.