Aerowood Animal Hospital, a 24 hour emergency veterinary hospital, has been serving its community for decades. Unfortunately, an interoffice shared network with hundreds of improperly organized materials, as well as a backlog of physical materials in need of digitization, and several training programs in need of updates and/or expansion has left the staff exhausted when it comes to communication and data retrieval. This project heavily relied on digitization, categorization, organization, and instruction. More creative efforts went into updating and expanding training methodologies. The impact improves the working environment, staff relationships with clients, and hospital communications.

With the growth of Seattle's elderly population, there is a bigger need for businesses in the city to provide better care for their older employees and customers. Going to our website and taking our curated assessment tests, businesses and organizations can learn, self-reflect, and improve their work environments by applying supportive practices that fit the needs of older adults. Therefore, they can recognize what it means to provide age-friendly customer service and to be age-friendly employers. Everyone grows older, and the sooner we prepare for the future of our citizens, the greater our city can become.

An evolving web makes sustained access to content of stakeholder stories a unique challenge—riddled with ethical questions. Montana State University (MSU) Library was ready to launch a web archiving initiative with limited capacity for background research and workflow development. The goal of this project was to support preservation of web content related to collection development policies and institutional output. Resources within this toolkit seek to center the agency of content creators; aid in diversifying collections; and serve as a model for other institutions.

The Gates Foundation Grand Challenges has teamed up with InfoVision in order to develop a point-in-time first encounter analysis and bias report regarding their current blind review methodology. The Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) team needs to know whether their “blind review” process of grants is working to ensure all types of organizations are being considered and brought into the loop. There should also be no biases altering decisions throughout.

90% of deaf individuals are born to hearing parents. At home, these individuals face the challenge of learning or practicing American Sign Language (ASL) in an environment where those around them do not know it. ASLearn is a mobile learning aid designed to teach children ASL, all starting with the snap of a photo. From there, users have immediate access to the ASL translation of that object. With ASLearn, kids can have an engaging, personalized educational experience through interaction with the things right around them - making the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities more accessible one sign at a time.

In 2017, the College of Southern Nevada library moved from the platform Millennium to ALMA. In the past, CSN Libraries allowed for the creation of brief records by circulation staff for reserve items that did not have enough information to provide discovery of these materials in the new discovery platform PRIMO. The solution was to create a bibliographic record procedure that allowed library staff to complete accurate information for these materials. As a result, staff members can revise and correct complete information in these materials successfully. Students, faculty, and staff can identify and view complete bibliographic records through the platform PRIMO.

Millions of people need a blood transfusion for lifesaving treatments each year. Yet, blood banks are often in short supply of blood due to a lack of donations. It is critical that there are enough resources available to provide patients with the care they deserve. Our project, BloodPact, empowers people to save lives through community, competition, and information. BloodPact is a web and text-messaging platform that gives new and returning blood donors the opportunity to join and compete across communities, set goals, earn rewards, and access important information about donation eligibility and blood drives.

Direct fieldwork at Boise State University (BSU) revealed that academic librarians with liaison responsibilities struggled to incorporate the BSU MakerLab into their instructional sessions. To investigate this further, I conducted unstructured interviews with academic librarians. Interviews revealed several barriers that academic librarians felt regarding the BSU MakerLab. To address these barriers, I developed the BSU MakerLab Toolkit, which is comprised of a literature review, an essay matching makerspaces to the ACRL Framework, downloadable lesson plans and handouts, and examples of how to other academic librarians have incorporated emerging technologies and experiential learning into library instructional sessions.

Seattle Central College holds the Broadway High School (1902-1946) Archives, which was developed by the BHS Alumni Association and contains over 250 linear feet of artifacts and ephemera unique to the history of Seattle’s first high school. The association disbanded in 2014 leading to questions about ownership and stewardship. Our team completed an item-level assessment of the collection, including an inventory and condition report, and addressed pressing preservation issues. We worked to forge collaborative relationships between stakeholders so that the archives can remain within its community of origin as a resource for students, teachers, scholars and alumni families.

We have developed the browser extension voice enhancement system (BEEVES), an extension for Mozilla’s Firefox browser which supports voice extension development along with a visual agent. Interviews with extension developers verified a need for a framework which implements and integrates speech-to-text and natural language understanding components. User research suggests the need for a seamless voice experience bringing the benefits of mobile browsing to desktop. What we’ve built on open source components is aligned with Mozilla’s mission to ensure a private and accessible internet for all, and has the potential for enhancing commercial platforms.