As student researchers, we took an opportunity to provide feedback about introductory information technology courses currently offered at the iSchool. We’ve dubbed these courses the 'INFX Suite'. The INFX Suite, implemented in 2010, is recommended to graduate level master’s students who don’t have a technological background when they enter the iSchool. As fast as technology progresses, we wanted to investigate the INFX Suite to see if it was still fresh. Using three questionnaires, quantitative and qualitative methods have been used to gather and analyze data from iSchool faculty and students, and top iSchools in the United States. Research results revealed the INFX Suite is still in line with current technology content trends, however; meeting student expectations consistently is an area that is lacking. Research outcomes will serve as a reference for the iSchool about future INFX Suite design.

This project addressed the archival processing of a historic 35mm moving image and lantern slide collection. Our team focused on the problem of both preserving and maximizing access to this collection. In order to provide access to film of this size, digitization is essential, both to facilitate viewing and to prevent degradation of the original materials. The equipment required for this process, however, is prohibitively expensive. Accordingly, our team experimented with alternative digitization methods that use tools commonly available in archives. We also strove to put the diverse components of this collection into a useful historical context that would maximize its utility to researchers and patrons. Our project seeks to provide a model of processing that can be done to archival collections, even without extensive funding.

Our project is part of the Game Metadata Research (GAMER) Group’s Crossmedia Advisory Services based on media appeal factors, which investigates common appeal factors across multiple media formats to better support advisory services in the 21st century. Appeals Factory aims to develop a framework for recommending games to users based on preferences regarding selected factors: Story, Character, Setting, Visual Style, and Mood. Traditional mechanisms for game recommendation rely on a user’s gaming history as well as strict subject and genre metadata, but through our appeals methodology, users with any level of experience can find games suited to their taste based on what draws them to stories in general and games in particular. Our project provides a foundation for game and interactive media advisory for researchers, teachers, librarians, parents, and gamers.

Greenwillow Books is a children’s book publishing imprint of HarperCollins publishing. Since 1979, Greenwillow has transferred its publishing records to the University of Oregon for preservation and access. However, a comprehensive finding aid accounting for the numerous accretions to the collection has been unavailable for many years. Under the direction of Stephanie Kays, the UO’s Archivist for Collection Management, I accounted for 280 feet of processed records, processed and oversaw student processing of roughly 200 feet of unprocessed accessions, rehoused a large collection of oversize materials, and deaccessioned over 50 feet of duplicate materials. The result was a 487.5 foot collection of author correspondence, edited proofs, artwork drafts, and more available to researchers in a searchable, published finding aid through Northwest Digital Archives (http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/). Access to this collection will be a boon to researchers of children’s literature as well as educators looking to teach object lessons on the revision process.

The KING Broadcasting Company Photograph Collection at the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections department comprises over 5.8 cubic feet of materials including more than 1,000 photographs taken from the Dorothy Stimson Bullitt papers collection. While prior work had been done, the storage of materials and numbering conventions used were inconsistent with department standards and best practices. Project objectives included properly preparing materials for archival storage, the creation of a digital finding aid reflecting an intellectual order, renumbering materials according to department conventions, and reducing the amount of physical space taken by the collection. The results increase access to photographs that provide a unique look into early radio and television broadcasting in the Pacific Northwest as well as special events in the Seattle area. Subjects of interest include early KING personalities, local and national programs and promotions, and local events including some related to Seafair, UW, and Boeing.

Since 2007, Capital Stage has produced the Playwrights’ Revolution: a theater series of staged readings for six unproduced plays, inviting artist and audience feedback for playwrights. The series now receives up to 300 script submissions each year. To address the high volume of submissions, I developed a structured process for shepherding submissions from script to stage that is responsive to the company’s needs. The process includes a script catalog, a scoring rubric for script reviews, and coordinating volunteer readers to ensure all submissions receive equal consideration. This project creates a tested script management process that is scalable to growth of the Playwrights’ Revolution series and transferable to other script management projects. There are not currently industry standards for managing submissions, although there is a recognized need for better organizational strategies. This process uses tools that are already familiar to users, and could be easily implemented by other small theater companies.

This Library Life Gabbie Barnes, Residential MLIS Rebecca Fronczak, Online MLIS Erin Vonnahme, Residential MLIS Librarians love to share. Despite our love for sharing ideas among ourselves and our patrons, there’s no single, independent repository available to find library programming across the country. Until now. This Library Life (TLL) is an interactive website where library professionals can share ideas, encouraging users to discover diverse library services and initiatives happening across the country. We’ve done a lot of “behind the scenes” work for this online tool, developing a well-thought out structure and metadata schema which will allow users to navigate TLL with ease. These considerations will make future growth and more customization possible. In short, we’re presenting a digital platform that aggregates and visualizes just how dynamic, creative, and vital libraries are to their communities. Just like the library itself, This Library Life is an environment that encourages engagement, interaction, and community growth, one story at a time.

Commercial music streaming services represent the fastest growing sector of the music recording industry, accounting for 32% of all digital revenue in 2014. User studies emerging from the field of Music Information Retrieval (MIR) research are currently being used to guide the strategic development of recommendation systems and new methodologies for the navigation of large music collections. This project serves to test the generalizability of seven user personas, constructed in prior research, and seeks to identify the significance of design implications for various user types. Approximately 1,000 users of music services were surveyed in order to determine behaviors and preferences when interacting with such services. Using a stratified sampling framework, key characteristics were extracted to classify users into specific persona subgroups. Such findings can inform designers of MIR systems and music streaming services in the development of targeted approaches, rather than a universal service model.

Personal information management (PIM) is a vital topic in information studies. Traditionally, PIM systems provided folders for information storage and retrieval. Nevertheless, in the era of Web 2.0, it is possible that tags can be widely used in the PIM systems. In recent years, much progress has been made in PIM, but many fail to achieve the goal of making tagging method widely used. Our project – designing and developing a web-based application overcomes the barrier between traditional hierarchical folders structure and tagging system offering a “Universal Tagging” model. This new application gives Internet users more freedom in choosing how to store and retrieve their own personal information items, particularly web references, through a simple, uncomplicated User Interface and efficient matching “Tagging” as folders mechanism. As always, people look forward to a better way to organize, re-find and share their personal information items. And we are innovating.

The University of Washington Press is a scholarly publishing house which prints approximately 50 new titles each year in a range of academic fields. About 1,400 of these titles are currently available in physical and e-book formats, but more than 3,000 titles of the backlist are yet to be digitized. The purpose of the Physical Archives project is to help make these print books available to individual readers and library collections through digitization. Using the Press’s physical space and database, I was able to gather, organize and document the books of the archives. I reviewed and organized the collection, recorded the bibliographic data in the database, and prepared physical books for scanning. As more readers move to electronic formats and devices, this project will allow these books to reach a larger audience than they might as purely print editions.