The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded a total of more than $1.3 million in grants to University of Washington Information School researchers to support five projects that build on scholarship in libraries and museums and support their roles in communities.
Four of the awards are part of the National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program:
Supporting the development of youth digital civic engagement in libraries through the co-design of table-top games, awarded $326,495, is a two-year project supporting youth ages 10-15 in digital civic engagement. Led by Associate Professor Jason Yip, the project aims to enhance understanding and support for youth’s digital civic engagement needs in cultural heritage institutions. The research team, which also includes Principal Research Scientist Chris Coward and Associate Professor Jin Ha Lee, will co-design a flexible tabletop role-playing game with librarians and youth for democratic digital learning in libraries.
Scaling Community Through Archives: A National Program to Expand Community Archives, awarded $399,485, builds on a previous successful collaboration with the Tacoma Public Library that resulted in a new community archives center for Tacoma and a resource for other public libraries interested in community archives. The new project will develop the toolkit for a broader range of public libraries including both small, rural locations and those large, urban settings. The project will fund librarians from eight public libraries nationwide to co-design and develop their own community archives projects. Assistant Professor Marika Cifor will lead the project with support from iSchool researchers Chris Jowaisas, Jason Young, Cindy Aden and Sandy Littletree.
This Site is Fake Dot Com: A novel resource for teaching information literacy and a community model to support it, awarded $249,884, will provide library staff with resources and a replicable model to support teaching information literacy in public and school libraries. In partnership with the Public Library Association, the researchers will develop a mock social media website designed to support library staff in running fact-checking exercises, implement information literacy instruction for teens, and use what they learn to iterate on the resources and distribute them. Stacey Wedlake, a research scientist with the Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA), will lead the project with support from senior researchers Chris Jowaisas and Jason Young.
“We’re thrilled to receive IMLS funding to create more support and resources for libraries to conduct relevant and effective information literacy programming and services," Wedlake said.
Improving Access to Critical Games for Game Education at Cultural Heritage Institutions, seeks to address the increasing difficulty of accessing historically and culturally significant video games due to copyright constraints, technological obsolescence, and the ephemeral nature of digital distribution. The project, through collaboration with Video Game History Foundation and The Strong Museum of Play, aims to explore characteristics of important games for education, understand existing accessibility challenges, and develop best practices for cultural heritage institutions like museums and libraries to ensure these games remain available for research and education. The IMLS awarded $249,628 to support the project, led by Professor Jin Ha Lee.
A fourth award, supporting research by the Califa Group, is part of the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program:
Libraries as catalysts for unveiling more inclusive data in rural areas will develop a training program for rural libraries, aimed at fostering community engagement and implementing inclusive data practices. This initiative addresses the challenge faced by library workers, policymakers and community organizers in finding datasets that accurately represent rural communities. The project will create a free, on-demand online course to equip rural library workers with skills and tools for implementing inclusive data practices. Awarded $249,994 ($110,896 to the iSchool), the project is led by the Califa Group with support from TASCHA research scientists Maria Garrido and Stacey Wedlake.