Grief is a unifying human experience that is notoriously hard to quantify and express. It is also highly contextual, shaped by our environments, identities, and relationships to the object of our grief. Research shows that reading fiction as bibliotherapy supports grieving children’s ability to express emotion, develop positive coping skills, make meaning, and heal. Unfortunately, grief in children’s fiction is inconsistently categorized, making it difficult to find resources that reflect specific grief experiences. Grieve with Me is a series of book lists that connect grieving children with fiction that depicts authentic representations of diverse identities, grief experiences, and healing narratives.

Musical instruments are expensive, resulting in many people being unable to afford music education. Musical instrument lending collections can make music education more accessible. Seattle-based nonprofit Music4Life had a surplus of guitars and amplifiers which they wanted to gift to a library. We began a relationship between Music4Life and a public library to start the process of integrating this collection. We also created an informative document about implementing a musical instrument lending collection. Our work will benefit the library’s community, increasing arts accesibility, and could benefit public libraries that are interested in offering musical instruments as well as their communities.

Public librarians have an obligation to acknowledge the sovereignty of Tribal nations and to provide culturally responsive library services to Indigenous patrons. Our project emerged from the recognition of a scarcity of resources to assist library staff in meeting these obligations. Through iterative research, we identified initial key topics, fully developed two learning modules, and commenced curating existing resources aimed at enlightening non-Indigenous LIS professionals on the significance of upholding Tribal sovereignty in public libraries. The image utilized is a text-free rendition of the Indigenous Systems of Knowledge model crafted by our sponsor Dr. Sandy Littletree (2018).

I worked with the Orbis Cascade Alliance Cataloging Standing Group (CSG) to build on a series of Homosaurus training sessions they recently facilitated with a retrospective implementation project. Working with sets of legacy records in the consortial catalog identified by the CSG, I performed subject analysis on a record-by-record basis and added terms from the Homosaurus as appropriate. I also contributed to the creation of training materials for other students and non-cataloging staff participating in the project. Through this work, I helped enhance discoverability of LGBTQ+ records in the Alliance catalog, contributing to the Homosaurus community of practice.

Last year, the High Point Public Library began hosting its House of Arts club to promote access to art within the community. To encourage the club’s scope, the Library needed to raise awareness via social media and enhance its offerings through community partnerships. Through this capstone, the Library developed a stable internet presence through their existing Facebook and a new but growing Instagram. Additionally, the club gained three art professionals who have led or will lead workshops for the community. These efforts have ensured that the High Point community has an accessible and high-quality option to explore their artistic interests.

The purpose of this project was to research and produce a proposal for implementing the Brian Deer Classification System (BDCS) in the Archives and Library in the Atwood Resource Center at the Anchorage Museum. The intended changes will improve the searchability of library holdings and more respectfully reflect the diverse communities the museum serves and the knowledge that it stewards. This project is in line with the museum’s stated goal to support and implement decolonizing practices.

The Military Legal Resource Collection was adopted by the LoC, originally from the William Winthrop Memorial Library at the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General (JAG)’s Legal Center and School. Over time the collection has grown by building on top of it's legacy information architecture, and thus this project aims to review this collection in its entirety to propose changes for a more uniform, accessible, and comprehensive navigation and user experience for LoC visitors. Additionally, due to the collection's history with JAG, this capstone will be mindful its historical legacy to JAG and make appropriate suggestions with care and respect.

The Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations digital collections in the Law Library of Congress require updated organization and metadata to optimize user experience. This project reviewed these and other FR / CFR collections to identify solutions for improving UX / UI design. The primary deliverable of this Capstone project is a whitepaper report highlighting opportunities for improvement and providing recommendations to enhance accessibility, organization, and navigation in the collections. The project will broaden access to free legal resources that researchers—particularly nonprofits and small organizations—can use to further their work, saving them time and resources.

This project was intended to evaluate the existing status of digital course material accessibility to better understand potential points of improvement the iSchool can make. We found that while Canvas site design almost always met the standards recommended by Washington State Policy #188, text materials and video content had areas where they lack. The results of this project will allow the iSchool to better understand where to begin remediating its courses to align with legal accessibility standards and accessibility best practices, ensuring disabled iSchool students get the support they need.