Today, indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest are already experiencing the effects of climate change because their livelihood, customs and traditions are deeply tied to their environment. However, current climate change planning tools are designed for and by users with scientific backgrounds and are generally hard to scale in way that maximizes their potential impact. In collaboration with the CTERRA group from the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences and students from Chief Kitsap Academy in Poulsbo, WA our team created a proof of concept application to address this information gap. ClimateImpact is a mobile and web application which includes a carbon accounting tool, visualization of environmental data, and encourages sustainable activities to users. In addition to bringing together quantitative data from various sources, our tool also places emphasis on the values and traditions of native communities in relation to environmental sustainability.

Co-Aud focuses on fostering a creative incubator for those interested in animating, game developing, and voice acting. Co-Aud aims to create a simple interface that will make collaborating between content creators and voice actors as easy as possible. Co-Aud will streamline the process for content creators to post an opportunity and to find the right voice actors/actresses the role. In addition, this will provide voice actors/actresses a way to increase their experience and skills. Not only will Co-Aud act as a central hub, it will also challenge the community with monthly contests. The goal is to connect communities in an organized and efficient manner to reach out and collaborate on communal projects. We would also like to provide a platform through which amateur voice actors can showcase their talents and contact others who are trying to get into the industry, and network with content creators who provide projects and feedback.

This project took place within a rural public library that serves approximately 6,500 city residents, as well as visitors and out-of-town patrons. The library’s non-circulating collection includes local archives and government documents; the weekly newspaper on microfilm; reference books; and maps and atlases. The purpose of the project was to improve the relevance and accessibility of these library holdings for patrons and staff. A collection assessment was followed by the drafting of development and maintenance recommendations, and implementation of proposed changes. As a result of these activities, missing and out-of-date items were removed from the collection and replaced with current, useful titles for general and geographic reference. In addition, cataloging and classification practices were standardized and documented within each sub-collection in order to better facilitate user access, with a particular focus on improving records and classification for archives materials, both in the catalog and on the shelf.

Kitsap Regional Library, as part of its Vision 2020 Strategic Plan, seeks to build community through a series of community conversations where participants will be given the opportunity to share their aspirations for their communities and identify community needs. This project will operate within the spirit of this initiative by identifying the needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer-identified (LGBTQ) youth population in the area, a population that has historically been underserved in our broader society and whose needs have not been overtly sought after and met by this institution, and determine what existing or new library services might help to address those needs. A combination of surveys and personal conversations will be administered to gather input from youth on their various information needs. From there, an intervention will be designed to address an identified information gap, which will be available for future use and implementation by Kitsap Regional Library.

Tasked with re-envisioning the access points of Seattle Public Library Special Collections’ resources, we first accessioned the the newly acquired O'Hanrahan Estate letters and photographs using SPL’s current standards. We then re-evaluated these standards and made recommendations for increasing the discoverability of SPL Special Collections by a broader audience. Finally, we built a multi-media book to showcase the O’Hanrahan collection. This online book serves as a conceptual model of enhanced bibliographic access for Special Collections as SPL approaches an upcoming website re-design.

The instruction librarians at Gonzaga University’s Foley Center Library provide learning opportunities to students on campus in classroom settings. Since 1988, they have extended those services to distance students. More recently, they have aligned themselves with programs offered online by the university to provide asynchronous and synchronous instruction opportunities for students attending school online. With these desires in mind, this project has focused on investigating web conferencing technology and developing a webinar template for the instruction librarians to use in conjunction with online library orientation activities in order to better serve the distance students at Gonzaga University. This enables distance students to connect with each other as well as the library and librarians. The program allows students to tailor their own learning experience, adding another layer of unique interaction to their education. Using this innovative program method, instruction can occur online in a community-oriented setting.

We set up a “Creative Corner” craft table in the Suzzallo and Odegaard Libraries to explore how encouraging librarians to “play” and be creative in the workplace affects creativity, stress levels, and the workplace environment. Research has shown that giving employees time to take a break and do a non-work related activity with their co-workers can improve office relationships and foster more creative approaches to problem-solving. We implemented a 6 week program of rotating crafts and also provided supplies such as coloring sheets and crayons for staff to use at the table. In the last week of the program we sent out an email survey to assess what people thought of the Creative Corner tables and how it affected their moods and stress levels. We documented the process and our recommendations on how this program could be continued at UW Libraries in the future for the benefit of library employees.

Although the internet provides a wide breadth of information in an extremely easy manner, a common issue people face -- regardless of the type of information -- is an overabundance of information. Services like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and GoGoBot provide lots of information, but do not always provide an easy way to whittle restaurant/activity choices to help a user make a decision. Moreover, the results of a search may not always be relevant to that user’s personal interests, due to how general the results are. Curato attempts to provide a single, convenient application to help users find businesses and points of interest relevant to their interests by taking advantage of simple machine learning algorithms.

From 1979 to 1992, El Salvador was engulfed in a bloody, political civil war, with over 75,000 civilian casualties. In the early 1990s, several NGOs and a UN Truth Commission began systematically documenting human rights atrocities perpetrated during the war, using personal testimonies, military records, and other documents. Each database was designed differently, utilizing the technologies available at the time. These files changed hands multiple times over the next 25 years, with limited accompanying documentation; information about metadata values has long been lost. Working with the UW Center for Human Rights and the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, our team developed a data management plan and an initial data dictionary for one database. Researchers ultimately hope to examine, standardize, and map fields across databases, providing a fuller picture of the human rights violations committed and supporting the efforts of surviving family members, scholars, and legal teams for truth and accountability.

For decades, Kitsap Regional Library staff have saved materials related to the library’s organizational history, and these materials have evolved into the Kitsap Regional Library Collection. But without the benefit of clear policies outlining its scope and boundaries, physical storage has become a problem, and staff lack guidance for the final disposition of materials that may not belong. Our work began by defining its scope through the expansion of a collection policy. We refined existing inventory tools into one inventory and assessment tool that describes currently held materials and structures the processing of future additions, and we produced documentation to guide staff through its use. Finally, we created a finding aid to provide a high-level overview of the collection. Our work defining and describing the Kitsap Regional Library Collection will leave staff able to identify, locate, and use its holdings, and with access to easy-to-use tools to continue processing efforts.