The objective of this research is to improve our understanding of how people perceive and describe the mood of video games and interactive media. The mood element and its respective controlled vocabulary was developed by the Game Metadata Research Group at the iSchool, in collaboration with the Seattle Interactive Media Museum (SIMM), as a part of the Video Game Metadata Schema.In order to evaluate the applicability of the mood element, I have conducted user interviews in which gamers were asked to evaluate the current mood CV and apply mood terms to familiar game titles. Next, I have compiled a list of over 1500 games, with applied mood terms, and sourced genres and release years. This project rectifies the scarcity of past research, enabling cataloguers and users of the SIMM to search and organize video game metadata by mood.

With a growing number of courses offered online there isconsiderable interest in distance education. As universities negotiate standards in online instruction we ask: How will effective communication, interaction, and motivation be established in the absence of face-to-face instruction? What will be the role for instructors in online education? How will students’ learning outcomes be assured and improved? To address these concerns, City University created a new set of standards for their online classes: the Exemplary Course Standards (ECS). But CityU was unsure how to start applying these. Our team modeled ways to use the ECS by redesigning a core course on critical thinking. We created an online experience that is interactive, uses story-structure, formative assessment, and caters to a variety of student types and needs. Education is an old art form but as the medium we teach through changes, we must adapt to harness the power of online instruction.

The Trumbull Library System in the town of Trumbull, Connecticut selected baseball as the theme of their annual One Book, One Town event for 2014. The theme honors the 25th anniversary of the Trumbull Little League winning the Little League World Series over the heavy favorites from Taiwan. In order to extend the conversation with patrons, I developed a program for collecting and preserving the memories of townspeople who remember or participated in the Little League World Series of 1989. This spring, I am recording the stories of townspeople in a series of story sharing sessions. The Trumbull Library System and local historical societies will receive copies of the audio in two formats, CD and on flash drive. The multiple formats and copies at multiple locations will help ensure that there are copies preserved for future researchers interested in this unique piece of local history.

OpenDoors is a readers’ advisory program aimed at middle- and high-school-aged readers. Our goal was to adapt librarian Nancy Pearl’s concept of the “four doorways” of adult readers’ advisory (plot, setting, character, and language) for use with YA works. Working with St. Thomas School, our team created an informational poster, bookmarks, and a Tumblr blog. Students are provided with a number of titles as a starting point and encouraged to explore further and to share their own discoveries via Tumblr. For some readers, these materials may get them thinking about why they enjoy the books they do and encourage them to seek out more diverse reading materials; others may use the categories simply as a field of suggested titles to draw from. In either case, they will be making new finds and actively considering what they liked about the books and why.

As in many libraries across the nation, the Iowa City Public Library (a single-site system) in Iowa City, Iowa, has witnessed a decline in circulation of young adult materials and participation in teen programming. In order to assess young adult (here defined as those from ages 12-18) interests and possible barriers to library access and use, I have observed teen center traffic and program participation, collected focus group responses, and conducted a survey of 200+ local members of the target demographic. I will present the Iowa City Public Library with an executive summary of this data, highlight the teen services’ successes, and offer a multi-pronged approach to both better meet the needs of their existing young adult patrons and attract new ones by a.) reconsidering the structure of programming, b.) incentivizing in-house and off-site library participation, and c.) fostering stronger connections to the teen populace at large via social media.

Communities Technology Centers (CTCs), such as libraries and nonprofits, teach people vital digital literacy skills. However, many of these organizations have no way to measure the impact of their digital literacy programs. Without a way to quantify impact, CTCs can neither assess the effectiveness of program services nor communicate the impact to funders. Outcomes-based evaluations offer a method to bridge this divide. With that in mind, I created ready to use protocols for surveys, focus groups and class observation that CTCs may use to assess digital literacy outcomes. These ready to use protocols may be used by CTCs to assess outcomes, to better understand program needs and strengths, demonstrate success to funders and potential funders, and ultimately to help ensure that all people have both access and ability to use information and communication technologies.

Libraries of all types often need expertise and advice from outside of their institutions. Where do they turn? To consulting agencies. But finding the right agency can be a daunting first step for any undertaking. What if libraries had one consulting agency that could expertly advise them on any type of project? Through extensive market research, we have helped to lay the foundation for a consulting agency geared to serving libraries in any endeavor. This small business is set to launch in September 2014, and plans to serve libraries throughout Washington State, with long term goals of geographic expansion, as well as expanding service to other cultural knowledge institutions.

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) offers free online access to over 5.5 million images and other records from organizations throughout America. With such a rich collection, discovering and contextualizing material on specific topics can be difficult for users. Our participation in the DPLA Digital Curation Pilot, creating a digital collection titled Religion in America Since 1900, will provide the DPLA with a high-quality addition to their topic-based access points. We developed a collection in Omeka using both materials from the DPLA and other digital resources as appropriate. We researched copyright status, shaped records into larger stories and themes, and developed accompanying text for the images. If selected by the DPLA, the final product will offer users an additional access point to locate material of interest, highlight historically important content from the DPLA’s partners, and support the DPLA’s goal of providing a portal for public discovery.

Undergraduate students need a way to understand how libraries fit in with their education and how the academic research process works. The librarians at UW help students understand the information world and develop critical inquiry skills. However, they cannot always be present at the point of need. What the UW Libraries need is a librarian in a box. Research 101 is an online platform that hosts short videos, example assignments, and assessment tools to support student information needs. Instructors and librarians can adjust content to specific disciplines and easily embed content into course sites and guides. Additionally, we have developed a plan to make the platform sustainable, flexible, and easy to update with new or revised modules. It is available to institutions beyond the UW Libraries, and our hope is that the information will be presented to more students and lead to success in academic research.

The Early Seattle Theatre History Project (ESTHP) is a digital history project launching its website later this year. The website’s mission is to help enrich the research of scholars, students, and subject enthusiasts. The ESTHP team hopes to do this by supplying the researcher with access to a plethora of primary resources. However, while the team began to familiarize themselves with the materials, the necessity of contextualizing some aspects of the theatre and theatre history arose. For my project I created a prototype digital exhibit for ESTHP focused on Seattle theatre during World War I. The digital exhibits contain essays and digital objects that focus on explaining certain themes brought up by the collection materials. The exhibits hope to illuminate subjects that might be missed by viewing the collection materials on their own. When the website launches other exhibits will be available to help guide researchers in understanding the collection.