In this project, we identified potential digital safety concerns in the metaverse based on current trends in Web 2.0. We first develop three use cases in the healthcare, social, and entertainment sectors with specific scenarios. Then we identified current compensating controls to propose mitigation strategies for each risk in all three scenarios. Lastly, we categorised common risk categories to inform areas of concern and potential impact in the metaverse for general users.

In 2018, the Camp Pendleton Libraries (CPL) assessed the needs of homeschooling families through an anonymous survey. The survey results revealed that CPL homeschoolers needed more than just books to enhance their learning. The creation of Discovery Kits serve these needs and encourage patrons to learn new hobbies, skills, and topics without encountering the financial barriers or commitment involved when learning something new. This project resulted in the creation of 60 Discovery Kits offering a range of themed materials across different ages. They work to enrich the learning endeavors of parents, teachers, homeschoolers, and independent learners in the CPL community.

Divergent Academia is a resource guide for librarians and instructors to better support neurodivergent student learning in higher education. Neurodivergence can include autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and learning differences such as dyslexia, as well as some processing and mood disorders. The Divergent Academia guide takes the form of an open access literature review of articles and resources, ranging from time management tools for students to best practices in instructional design. Using this guide, academic librarians and educators can alleviate stress and dismantle barriers of access for students who would otherwise have to expend energy to advocate for themselves.

dService provides international students with detailed information and personalized insights on over 50 US-based data science master's programs. The "by students for students" project simplifies the process of selecting a graduate program and provides helpful information to international students. dService is a one-stop shop for all their needs, providing accurate and up-to-date information that empowers students to make informed decisions that align with their academic and career goals.

The E-Rate program provides funding for libraries and schools to access affordable internet and telecommunications services. However, the participation rate of libraries is significantly lower than schools. Our project aimed to address this issue by creating a tool that would increase library participation rates. Through surveying over 60 libraries, we created multiple features for our tool to help increase library participation: an application walkthrough, discount rate calculator, peer library comparison, and many more. By making the E-Rate program more accessible to libraries, we hope to bridge the digital divide and improve the lives of those who rely on these services.

The information problem we addressed was University of Washington’s electronic theses and dissertations not being easily accessible and discoverable online. Our results included an updated workflow and code, three improved master schemas, thousands of new master’s and doctoral theses, students, and committee members now discoverable via Wikidata, and handoff documentation and a training video for library staff and future Capstone students. Having thesis records converted to an open-source linked data format improves their reliability and discoverability. Our work helps future UW CAMS and PCC professionals, and also makes the scholarship of UW graduates more accessible outside of traditional catalogs.

Carina is a two-sided matching platform for those who are in need of homecare and those who provide homecare. To address user concerns about unresponsiveness, our team conducted extensive research and user testing. Findings showed that users faced missed notifications, forgotten replies, and overlooked messages. To increase the number of successful matches, we developed innovative designs relating to an unread message summary and message notification reminders with a focus on user experience.

HEALWA is an online medical library for healthcare professionals hosted by the UW Health Sciences Library via a contract with the Washington State Department of Health. HEALWA sponsored this capstone project with the goal to increase visibility and accessibility of its resources to better serve the information needs of its users. The project encompassed the curation of eBooks for 12 of its existing professional toolkits, creation of 3 new interdisciplinary toolkits, and drafting of 4 blog articles on the online library's news page. The enhanced and newly created toolkits have the potential to facilitate research for Washington State's healthcare professionals.

IHME has identified the need to evaluate if their keyword taxonomy functionality could be enhanced to improve search experience for public users of their data catalog. The results of this evaluation are a deeper understanding of the keyword taxonomy’s current functionality, how it compares to similar data catalogs, and where valuable changes would enhance current functionality. The results will improve user experience for not only public users, but internal users as well. These changes will also support more efficient internal processes and place IHME in a solid position to grow the functionality of their keyword taxonomy over time.

TradeUW is an online shopping platform that allows University of Washington students to buy and sell secondhand clothing items while aiming to reduce waste, cost, risk of scams, and promote a safe shopping experience. These are just a few of the key information problems present in the fast fashion industry that people actively partake in. As a result with TradeUW, college students are better able to shop both efficiently and effectively while accounting for both the negative environmental and personal complications that come with clothing shopping. Our project impacts the lives of others by encouraging and promoting fashion sustainability.