Memories of Japanese American incarceration have been plagued with incorrect and euphemistic terms that downplay and erase the racism, cruelty, and trauma of incarceration. This language has also made its way into archival descriptions. This capstone aimed to better understand the terminology and language used by the Japanese American community and scholars and to develop archival guidelines for writing more accurate descriptions. A set of recommendations was developed with metadata and technical suggestions. These recommendations will help archivists (re)describe their Japanese American incarceration collections with more appropriate terminology and context.

Recommended Reads for Equity is a collection of equity-, diversity-, and inclusion-focused books curated by members of the University of Washington community. The collection grows based on book recommendations that create an evolving representation of our community’s collective and individual experiences. Our work in organization, outreach, and accessibility revitalized focus on the project and re-engaged the UW community. We re-designed the webpage, formalized protocols, promoted and expanded the collection, and created a repository of community booktalks. Ultimately, this collection builds connections between community members by bridging themes of equity, diversity, and inclusion in books through sharing meaningful personal experiences.

The Caltech Archives hold a heterogeneous audio collection consisting of over 1300 cassettes, digital audio tapes (DATs), and CDs with content from 1932-2004 that has been slowly degrading while trapped in the archive. This project’s aim was to answer how this collection could be preserved and made more accessible to the community. It involved checking the physical items, streamlining the metadata in OpenRefine and reimporting it into ArchiveSpace as a resource record. This will allow the archive staff to move forward with preserving the audio through digitization and transcriptions that can be linked to the resource record for further accessibility.

The goal for this project was to envision possibilities for reorganizing the fixtures and collection of the Roosevelt library to make it a more dynamic space. Though the project was significantly impacted by COVID-19, weeding between January and March reduced the collection by just over 1,000 volumes. Recommendations for improving the library’s overall flexibility and accessibility include completing the weeding work, purchasing new shelving units on casters, and reorganizing the book collection to make it more accessible. Potential impacts include increased library use, greater campus unity, and readiness for a future as a 1:1 school.

AO3 is a nonprofit run fanwork database with a staff of volunteers organized into committees. AO3 Support frequently receives questions about how to perform basic site functions already answered in FAQs. Video tutorials may make it easier for users to find answers to their questions. However, there are many aspects of the video medium which differ from text. I researched software and created and tested a process for creating screencasts so that AO3 Docs volunteers can create quality tutorials without having to reinvent the wheel.

Sno-Isle Libraries consists of 23 community libraries that serve customers in Snohomish and Island counties in Washington state. This project addressed how library staff can better connect people in those communities experiencing social services needs to nearby resources. The primary deliverable for this project was a resource guide for each Sno-Isle library and one combined guide for the Whidbey Island branches. Supporting documents include a social services events calendar and content for signage promoting the libraries’ new guides. The information provided to staff will help them to more quickly and accurately connect patrons to resources provided by community organizations.

Working with the collection development librarians at the Washington Talking Book & Braille Library in Seattle, I doubled the number of titles in their nonfiction collection relating to bullying, discrimination and abuse. My challenge was to build an inclusive collection written by and for the LGBTQ community, people of color, religious minorities and other disadvantaged groups. The 39 books purchased for this project will be produced in audiobook and braille versions and added to the InterLibrary Loan collection of The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress.

Tacoma Community House (TCH) offers a variety of services to the community, including adult English and education classes. Many clients expressed a need for materials to help them learn English and books in their native languages. Our solution was to create a self-sufficient library on site that will grow over time with a focus on bilingual books and multicultural materials. In addition, we created a dashboard with online resources in English and world languages that is available to all TCH clients. Both the physical library and dashboard will allow clients to access resources that will help them meet individual goals.

Teen social media use and teen mental health struggles have been on the rise for many years. This correlation has created a great deal of concern but there has been little study into the content of teen social media information behavior. The Twitter accounts of 77 teens were analyzed for mental health related content finding that these teens were suffering significant stress in their daily lives, struggling with social relationships, turning to celebrities for advice and information, and that teens with an active focus for their social media information behavior were less likely to share mental health related posts.

The LIS Mental Health Collective is an informal group of librarians and information professionals who seek to create a space to connect with others over topics of mental health. As the collective and its activities grow, so does the need for a centralized location for information. A website offers a convenient and accessible solution to this problem, bringing together resources about the collective and the topic of mental health overall. Through the website built through this capstone project, information professionals have an accessible entry point for joining the conversation about an important area of well-being.