The Colonial Theater in Idaho Falls, Idaho is turning 100 years old. The Idaho Falls Arts Council needed assistance in archiving and compiling photographs and documents to create a commemorative book for this 100 year mark. I arranged and conducted research at The Colonial Theater and The Museum of Idaho. I discovered, scanned, documented, and transcribed photographs and relevant records. I presented my findings to the Arts Council and they were pleased with the images and accounts that I discovered. Now there is more than enough content to create a book to celebrate this staple of the Idaho Falls community.

Hamilton, WA, a small town in Skagit County, is devastated by flooding every 3.5 years. Since 1975, residents have contemplated moving the town. Forterra, a non-profit land conservancy, wants to help. Community Storytelling in Hamilton, WA is a project initiated by Forterra, in order to better understand the community, through personal narratives and history. My involvement with this project included creating an interview guide, conducting interviews, compiling recordings, and completing a final report on my observations and common themes. This report, and the residents’ stories themselves, will assist Forterra’s continued work with residents through this transition.

The Aleutian and Pribilof Island Association’s cultural heritage collection contains materials pertaining to the history, language, and traditions of the Unangax peoples of the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands in Alaska. The collection was not inventoried or classified, making finding items in the collection challenging for patrons. I performed an exhaustive inventory of the collection; created a culturally appropriate classification system based on DDC; and organized the collection and designed signage to encourage easy browsing and location of materials. The collection is now more accessible, allowing patrons to access important information about Unangax cultural heritage and history.

Since 1912, Wallingford United Methodist Church has served the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle. Their archive serves as a witness to the work of the congregation for LGBT inclusion since 1984, as well as other social justice movements and the daily life of a local congregation. However, the archives have not been well maintained, nor inventoried. My project identified and processed the archives while developing a finding aid which the congregation hopes to post online. In the future, both members and outside researchers will be able to access the archives while allowing the congregation to retain their records.

The Arizona Memory Project (AMP) is a digital platform providing access to primary sources from contributors across the State of Arizona. My project focused on Arizona Related Federal Publications, a collection of federal materials contributed by the State of Arizona Research Library. The collection, comprising over 1,500 federal publications, was too large to navigate easily and contained inconsistent and missing metadata records. To improve accessibility, I created a multi-stage plan to: i) begin organizing the large collection into smaller, topical collections, ii) standardize metadata to meet Dublin Core and AMP standards, and iii) digitize additional relevant federal publications.

Adolescent resources on puberty are lacking in public libraries. Information is scattered, outdated, and non-inclusive of LBGTQ+ children and children of color. All adolescents need more relevant, accessible information on sexuality, reproduction, gender, and their changing bodies. This project assessed over 200 books and online resources for sexual and ethnic diversity. The Lake Oswego Public Library collection was improved with materials purchased, consolidated call numbers, annotated booklists, and a blog. A toolkit was created for use by other libraries. The library’s collection now reflects the experiences of its diverse patrons, with better access to resources for their safety and well-being.

Descriptive standards used to develop archival descriptions—also called finding aids—are well-suited to describe the fundamental documentary elements of collections of analog materials; it becomes necessary to assess these standards’ applicability for born-digital materials, which are being ingested into repositories with increasing frequency. After writing archival descriptions of a born-digital collection which is to be accessioned by UW’s Special Collections, I have evaluated where these standards do not address the fundamental documentary elements of born-digital materials. I have also developed a set of recommended adaptations to these standards, so that they can adequately convey relevant information about born-digital materials.

For my project I have designed a ten week, graduate level course in descriptive bibliography. Descriptive bibliography is the art of describing books in the hand press period of printing. The course will provide exposure and hands-on experience to the basics of bibliographic description. The course focuses on the five main components in descriptive bibliography; format, collation formula, statement of signing, number of leaves, and pagination statement. The goal of this project is to showcase bibliographic description and the need for courses in the field.

Our research found an information gap on research concerning how librarians serve teens with disabilities in libraries. To address this issue, we developed and produced a live recording of a WLA CAYAS sponsored webinar that promoted our best practices to help librarians serve teens with disabilities. Our Webinar helped librarians learn how to more effectively serve teens with a wide range of disabilities in public and school libraries. We covered best practices for interacting with this population, how to help them access relevant information, programming ideas, how to build accessible and inclusive spaces, and discussed funding opportunities.

Women, POC, and LGBTQIA+ individuals are critically underrepresented in video game protagonists, while straight, White male protagonists dominate the medium. This inequality not only alienates players, but also makes marginalized individuals less likely to pursue game development as a career. By conducting a historical overview of the customizability, species, gender, complexion, race, age, and sexual orientation of video game protagonists, we aim to quantify this inequality to establish the need for change on the part of developers. The goal of this research is to effect positive change in representation and inclusivity both on-screen and behind the scenes.