iSchool Capstone

2023

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Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You Weed?

Maintaining preschool libraries is important for early childhood development; it is an area that is unsupported by administration. We cataloged, categorized, and weeded the WCCC library, emphasizing socioemotional themes and titles that represented the student body. We cataloged the existing library and determined new categories books would fall under; then color coded them, giving them new places on labeled shelves. We also determined which books from the collection would be weeded out either due to content or condition. We recommended books that fit the goals of the school and met student needs, providing this list to the school’s administration.
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Budget Builders: A Participatory Budgeting Game

Budget Builders is a board game that teaches players of all ages about participatory budgeting (PB) in an engaging way. Created in partnership with the Black Brilliance Project, the game promotes civic literacy and awareness of PB, which may be a method used by the city of Seattle to distribute public funds. Players debate city projects, vote, and answer trivia questions to earn funding for their budgets. Budget Builders offers a creative solution to the lack of awareness surrounding PB in Seattle, educating players about civic engagement through a hands-on experience.
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Building a Storytime

Building a Storytime was born of the reported discomfort and lack of preparedness experienced by storytellers when first presenting storytimes. This project sought to answer these concerns by observing veteran storytellers present storytimes for a range of ages and formats. This observation was coupled with an informal survey sent to storytellers across the US inquiring about their training experiences. The results of the observation and research were compiled and quantitative and qualitative data were extracted. The resulting data was presented and used to create a website with advice, resources, and sample storytime plans to help support new storytellers.
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Building a Tag Protocol for Washington State’s Open Data Program

Data.wa.gov is a digital catalog of open data and consists of a collection of data sets and visualizations uploaded by independent authors. These assets have nearly 1,200 tags applied to them as user input is uncontrolled, leading to numerous duplicates and variants that have reduced the effectiveness of the tags as a whole. We created a tag protocol that consists of defined rules and edge cases along with a dashboard and future recommendations. This solution provides structure to their tag list, and increases data quality, searchability of assets, and sustainability, by reducing tag maintenance and preserving tag effectiveness.
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Building Early Literacy Skills: The Family Place Play Space at Penrose Library

The Family Place program of the Pikes Peak Library District is a district-wide initiative aimed at fostering early literacy from birth to age five. One of the goals is to enhance the play area of Penrose Library. A 5-year plan is now implemented to continually review and improve the space and purchase new toys and furniture that entertain families and support early childhood development. The purpose is to create unique experiences for children and families. As a result, the library has become a popular destination for patrons who enjoy returning.
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BuyScout

Due to COVID-19, the current economy's regression is having a significant impact on people's daily lives, with profound effects. Particularly as production capacity is insufficient, individuals are struggling to find effective ways to browse and shop. This browser extension provides users with up-to-date product inventory information, assisting them in making shopping decisions that greatly enhance their overall experience.
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Cataloging Resources for All

The New Mexico State Library provides free cataloging resources for librarians, however, its collection was in need of detailed guidelines on the RDA (Resource Description & Access) descriptive cataloging standard. The Cataloging Instruction Guide aimed to address this through the curation and compilation of instructions from freely-available digital resources. The new guide on the State Library’s website defines and describes frequently-used RDA elements and explains how to formulate bibliographic data in accordance with RDA. It also provides access to valuable reference links for librarians at public, small and rural libraries looking to further explore specific cataloging scenarios.
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Celtic Arts Foundation's Oral History Project

Following the 25th anniversary of its founding, the leadership at the Celtic Arts Foundation wanted to preserve the experiences of its founding. A pilot program lead by volunteers and an iSchool student was then launched to perform Oral History interviews and establish a procedure for future capture. A Policies and Procedures document was produced outlining the project for replication and many ideas for subsequent iterations were developed. The creation of Oral Histories at CAF will record Scottish culture in America for scholarly study as well as preserve institutional memory.
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ChatDWG

ChatDWG provides a unique opportunity for learners to engage with the cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology of ChatGPT. Through an educational game and collection of resources, learners can explore the capabilities and limitations of this technology in order to gain a deeper appreciation for its ability to shape the future of communication. This web app is consequently a powerful tool for anyone seeking to integrate AI technology into their lives alongside the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.
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Children's Theme Kits for the Ledding Library

The Ledding Library has provided children's theme kits to patrons for the last 20+ years. Consistently popular, these theme kits now show the normal wear of age. They also no longer fit library space or goals. This proposal contains ten updated kits, including book lists, manipulatives, activities, storage, and a publicity plan. These kits will give parents and caregivers easy options to create fun learning environments. The updated title selections reflect the rich array of books published within the last ~10 years and focus on fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion at the library. This project will serve library funding discussions.