As Washington Trails Association’s (WTA) hiking guides and user-submitted trip reports are mostly created by those who have been a part of the outdoor community for a long time, there is often a natural and unconscious bias imbedded within the information resource. This project helped WTA gain insights on how they can effectively design a content standard for their user-generated Trip Reports so that in turn, the system can be more inclusive, empowering, collaborative, and accessible. Some proposed solutions were to incorporate enhanced search capabilities of trip reports, trip reporter identifiers, and a revised trip reporting framework for quick reporting.

Being able to browse print collections is an important step to discovering information. This project explores the impact of using virtual bookshelves at ASU Library to create a browsing experience for those not in physical library spaces. The Library’s development team has agreed to redesign an existing virtual bookshelf application to meet the goals of this project. This project identifies communities to share this tool with and outlines a specification document to aid the development team in their redesign. This application will allow the Library to build partnerships across campus and provide opportunities to browse and discover information.

Missoula Public Library in Missoula, MT is building a new library website for 2020. Our capstone team sought to better understand the content, context, and users of the library’s website to improve the information architecture. We restructured the global navigation to have a topical organization scheme and eliminated ambiguous terms. We also developed a written report with a summary of our research, recommended information architecture, best practices going forward, and curated data for future analyses. The result being a "digital branch" that builds community, enhances library services, and saves the time of the user.

Often, librarians create information literacy resources based on what they deem to be essential. We took a different, collaborative approach. Partnering with Highline College and the Puente Cultural Cohort, we produced 14 information literacy videos and infographics tailored to the Puente Cohort’s wants and needs, based on informal interviews, student feedback, and beta tests. Our videos aren’t just about information literacy skills. They are about creating culturally sensitive products that highlight and celebrate Highline’s diverse student body. The items in this toolkit give students and instructors the resources they need for both now and the future.

Literacy Source is an educational non-profit in Lake City that offers classes in English for speakers of other languages and adult based education to low-income adults. Though they have a Reading Library with many great materials for students and tutors, circulation is low. We worked with Literacy Source and the various users of the Reading Library to gather data and perspectives, leading to a re-design of the space. As a result of more concrete leveling criteria, re-organizing the ways books are shelved, and inclusive signage, users are now able to more easily browse the library space independently.

Developed in Spring of 2019, this proposal provides the foundational intellectual groundwork for the establishment of a library collection for the Synapse Circus Center in the city of Auburn, Washington. Synapse Circus Center teaches students (from 2 to 75 years old) a wide range of circus performance arts. This proposal is intended to not only guide but also justify the necessary investment of money and time into the creation and management (via a custom-built basic circulation database) of a small library collection. Drawing on research and analysis, we are confident our findings represent valuable educational and inspirational resources.

UW Alum, Joe Karpen, donated the photographs documenting his years at the Seattle campus university between 1968 and 1972. His collection includes seven boxes of negative film, copy sheets, prints, and enlarged mounted photographs. Student events, concerts, construction, protests, rallies, and speakers were captured by his camera. These moments caught on film deserve to be protected, preserved, and processed. Current student, Kelly Omodt, is processing his work to ensure its viable use in the future. Besides following UW standards for processing a collection, Kelly researches places, people, and events to create context for the collection.

Lakewood High School students reported browsing for fiction books in the library, as well as searching for fiction books in the library’s online catalog, to be cumbersome. Library staff planned to genrefy the fiction collection to address this issue. However, their full workloads left them unable to start on the project. Our team, then, carried out this genrefication. We assigned genre classifications and added genre labels to the roughly 3,000 books in the fiction collection. We also updated those books’ catalog records to reflect proper subject headings and keywords. Now, users can more efficiently browse and search this collection.

Library Outreach to Unhoused Populations is an analysis of best practices for Bellingham Public Library. BPL wanted to find ways to better serve this growing part of their community. Research into programs in libraries, interviews with community members experiencing homelessness, and conversations with experts in the field, led to a report of practices that work well dealing with this complex issue. The recommendations that comprise the final report will enable the library to implement new initiatives based on compassion, empathy, and equity. Most importantly, these recommendations mean moving toward a climate of inclusivity for all members of the Bellingham community.

This study investigates how academic libraries can advocate for students experiencing mental health obstacles while promoting academic success. Student mental health distress may stem from a diagnosis, academic stress, unmet basic needs, or life circumstances. We explore what barriers staff encounter in these scenarios, and how academic libraries can build upon existing resources and practices to offer increased support for students’ well-being. Based on our research and interviews with academic library staff, we have developed a set of best practices that can be used by academic libraries to better advocate for and support higher education students experiencing mental health hardships.