In response to a school librarian’s concern about underutilization of library resources and services, we developed surveys to gather baseline qualitative and quantitative data about student and faculty use and expectations of the library. We found that many students and faculty lack the time to seek out meaningful relationships with the library, contributing to inconsistent information literacy instruction and underutilization of library resources and services. We reviewed the data with our sponsor and co-developed ideas for addressing barriers to library usage, including partnering with student groups to brainstorm outreach initiatives and advocating for an integrated information literacy curriculum.

This project focused on moving Douglas County Libraries away from solely using circulation outputs as the means of understanding their collection's success. Using interviews, surveys, and research on existing scholarship, the project provided the library system with new ways of thinking about collections and their success in meeting the needs of the library's community. Recommendations provided by the project focused on gathering qualitative data from the library's users to understand and evaluate why users interact with library collections and how collections facilitate or do not facilitate positive change in the lives of patrons.

What does library access look like for incarcerated youth? There have been few studies on this subject. What we do know is that there is no legal entitlement to library resources for detained youth. This means incarcerated youth have no right to independent legal information, independent sexual health information and even recreational materials. Because Juvenile Justice Systems differ from state to state, the best way to access this information gap is to look at each state individually. The State of Utah served as a pilot study to find the best way to research this area of library science.

This project developed a new capital planning strategy for Hennepin County Library. HCL previously planned building projects for its 41 libraries based on a time-schedule, which proved to be too prescriptive and did not account for varying building use and impact. This new capital framework uses a data-driven approach to determine capital improvement projects. Weighing three sets of data—community disparities, library usage, and asset condition—this holistic approach allows HCL to plan building projects in a more proactive, equitable, and sustainable way.

Students studying lighting design have limited opportunities to publish their work in an academic setting. Very few institutions publish theatrical design documentation as they are not considered student research in the traditional sense. This project sought to showcase how Institutional Repositories are a perfect solution for this publishing gap. The results included the publication of the design process work of an undergraduate student for three separate productions. Furthermore, Boise State University's Institutional Repository is now better equipped to support student research in the Arts & Humanities, allowing them to diversify their collections.

The hardworking board members and volunteers of the Washington National Guard Museum have dedicated themselves to collecting, preserving, and displaying the rich history of Washington State’s brave military personnel. By continuing initial cataloging efforts of the Museum’s vast photographic collection, and beginning to make the entire collection available through an online database, our team helped further the Museum’s mission to instruct, inspire and educate all citizens. This project ensures the Museum’s goal of becoming an essential research library will soon become a reality.

Children’s collection development and programming is implemented by adults based on librarians’ knowledge of what children might need. Libraries are missing direct input from elementary-aged children regarding books and programming. Our Capstone team created a research-based framework to implement Children’s Advisory Boards (CABs) in libraries. In a CAB, a group of children advises the library on collection development and programming. Using best practices that emerged during our eight test CABs, we created a toolkit for our sponsor, the Collaborative Summer Library Program. Librarians nationwide can use this toolkit to invite children’s voices into their libraries.

The Clark Library serves over 5,000 patrons at the University of Portland. I conducted a collection assessment to understand user behavior and determine areas of growth for ebook resources. I compared usage of ebooks and print books by subject area using ILS data, consortium reports, and vendor reports. The assessment revealed valuable relationships between format preference, users, and subjects, especially in the humanities disciplines. The strengths and weaknesses of each subject area and format will inform collection development decisions for future budget years and will benefit the library patrons by more closely meeting their research demands.

For my capstone project, I processed and created finding aids for five visual materials collections from UW Special Collections. As a result of this project, materials that were previously inaccessible to researchers are now contextualized and fully searchable through Archives West and UW Digital Collections. Multiple steps had to be taken in order to make the materials accessible: researching and arranging materials, housing materials in appropriate archival housings, encoding materials using the XML publishing program XMetaL Author, scanning images and creating digital surrogates, and revising finding aids based on the feedback of UW’s Visual Materials Curator Nicolette Bromberg.

The responsibility for Spanish story times at Provo City Library has rested on one native Spanish-speaking storyteller for many years. To ensure the ability to provide continuing Spanish programs, the Children’s Services Manager desires to expand Spanish programming staff to also include non-Spanish-speaking librarians. I therefore researched best practices for story times, observed bilingual programs at nearby libraries, and created a set of bilingual story time scripts for use by non-Spanish-speaking librarians. This will make a difference for the city’s Hispanic and Latino population who will gain confidence in the library's commitment to their families.