The pandemic affected almost every part of our lives, especially social services that were delivered in person. We conducted a longitudinal research study interviewing 20 Washington State public librarians during the pandemic and tracked how their programming shifted throughout the year. We found three main themes that surfaced in our data – job satisfaction, changes to programming, and rethinking the profession once the world is "back to normal." We plan to ultimately disseminate our findings in a published paper to help librarians learn successful programming options to meet the needs of their communities.

My Capstone Project was concerned with information literacy among public library users, and produced educational and informational resources. These resources consisted of two public programs concerning the ways in which people navigate and share information online. The first provided an online security overview, focusing on how cookies and personal data are used by websites and social media, along with tools to protect their privacy. The second covered digital minimalism, helping attendees find and discuss ways to achieve a healthier balance in their online activities. Both programs were well received and have resulted in patrons taking control of their online behavior.

Queer Air is a podcast that explores queer archival materials within the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections, alongside guest speakers who are also involved within the archival field and/or queer community. Queer Air’s second season is a continuation of a previous Capstone project and seeks to create more visibility for UW’s queer collections and provide alternative ways to access resources. Queer Air lets patrons interact with the UW’s queer collections by allowing them to listen to the podcast’s hosts discuss collection materials, their provenance, and the significance of these histories for the past, present, and future.

Similar race and ethnicity classifications are needed to identify health disparities between different groups. There are 3 broad categories of race and ethnicity classifications - surveys using versions of the OMB 1977 standards, using versions of the OMB 1997 standards, and datasets with non-standard classifications. Even datasets that use an expanded version of the OMB 1997 standards (with specific ethnicities) exclude some identities. Using specific ethnicities that people identify as results in fewer blank and “Other” responses for race and ethnicity questions. A more inclusive and consistent collection of race/ethnicity data would support research to address health disparities.

Pasadena City College offers a Library Technology Certificate Program which prepares students for Library Paraprofessional positions in all types of libraries. Currently, the required coursework includes introductory classes to library services like reference, access, and technical services. As a former participant of this program, I saw an opportunity to design lesson plans and assignments within the courses offered that incorporate digital storytelling and instructional design concepts. The curricular content developed for this project will help students learn practical skills to design digital resources and apply strategies for storytelling that create personal connections, regardless of their role in a library.

Currently, the iSchool capstone archive is stagnant and fails to facilitate connections with industry partners and showcase students’ work beautifully. It is difficult to navigate and find interesting projects, and the project pages show a limited view of the team’s work. We decided to redesign the navigation to allow users to excitingly explore projects, and make an individual project page that gives students flexibility in displaying content. With our redesign, audiences and potential sponsors can find projects easily and students are able to show projects in a richer way, which allows the website to be more accessible and useful.

Renton Technical College takes pride in the racial diversity of its student body. But is the library’s fiction collection representative of that diversity? In this audit, it was found that while RTC’s student body is 69% students of color, 88% of books in the fiction collection have White authors, and 81% have White main characters. This resulted in our recommendation to RTC’s library: increase the percentage of books by BIPOC authors by 10% by the end of 2022. This audit data will help inform the library’s collection development in the future to better meet student needs.

According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, approximately "three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihood." Therefore, it is critical that we do our part to maintain the cleanliness of our oceans and lakes. Our solution is a gamified website aimed to raise public awareness of beach cleanups in order to combat the growing threat of pollution. Through our website, users have the opportunity to grow a community and obtain achievements for finding and attending local beach cleanups with their friends.

Epic Games maintains documentation and learning courses for Unreal Engine, a 3D creation tool. Many users find it difficult to search and navigate between these materials. We developed a unified data model that identifies overlaps in the metadata and relationship classes between documentation and online courses. This model formed the foundation of a knowledge graph of 2,700 documentation pages and 130 courses built with Neo4j. Analyzing the knowledge graph reveals dynamic connections. As Epic continues to build on our framework, content creators will be able to identify tags and linkages, bringing relevant material together and delivering relevant content to users.

The fashion industry is the second largest polluter in the world. A large contributor that many people buy into is fast fashion. We found that college students often participate in fast fashion due to practicality and lack of knowledge on the negative environmental and societal impacts. To raise awareness and encourage sustainable habits, we created a Google Chrome extension called Root that rates clothing brands based on their sustainable and ethical practices. Root also provides users suggestions for alternatives and more in-depth information on our ratings.