October 30, 2020
The pandemic has forced even more of our lives to move online. In Seattle, much like the rest of the country, lower income households are significantly less likely to have a computer or internet at home and have lower than average levels of computer-based digital skills. Physical distancing requirements and the unpredictability of the virus…
September 30, 2020
Washington state consistently ranks among the top 10 U.S. states for refugee resettlement. The state welcomed more than 14,000 refugees in the past five years, and 1,930 refugees in 2019. Most of these refugees come from Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Somalia, and Ukraine. While the number of refugees resettled each year fluctuates…
September 21, 2020
Earlier this summer, TASCHA Principal Research Scientist, Maria Garrido, and Senior Research Scientist, Chris Rothschild were invited by Infopeople to conduct a four-week online course intended to provide California librarians with the opportunity to learn about assessing marginalized voices in data and its importance from a public library perspective. The course was designed to explore…
September 15, 2020
Source: Afusat Ogunjimi, graduate of AfLIA Leadership Academy Cohort 1, Librarian, Oyo State Library Board, Nigeria. By: Renee Lynch, Jason Young, Chris Jowaisas, Stanley Boakye-Achampong, and Joel Sam A Problem of Perception Over the past few years, TASCHA and African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA) have been collaborating on the Advancing Library…
August 4, 2020
Katya Yefimova used to drive to a library branch across town just to browse Russian-language books on the shelves. Seattle traffic couldn’t deter the University of Washington Information School (iSchool) PhD candidate from her mission: Connecting her young daughter to her family’s language and heritage. Yefimova knows first-hand that public libraries play an important role…
July 8, 2020
“The rights and capacity to use, create, and share information in ways that are meaningful to each individual, community, or organization.” July 8th 2020 – The Technology & Social Change Group at the University of Washington Information School has released the Development and Access to Information (DA2i) Dashboards, a data visualization platform that tracks the…
July 1, 2020
By: Chris Rothschild Senior Research Scientist at TASCHA and a Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Fellow and Dr. Araba Sey, Senior Research Scientist We live in a data driven world – a world that is over 70% ocean. Thanks to recent technological developments, massive amounts of environmental data can now be captured and fed into the…
June 4, 2020
It’s never too early to talk about the importance of bringing more diverse voices into data to drive policy design and impact the wellbeing of our communities. In late April, during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place restrictions, we were invited to connect virtually with a group of outstanding students from the Heritage Academy in Minneapolis, Minnesota….
May 22, 2020
Local Context: Seattle & Refugee Women In Seattle, home of major technology giants like Amazon and Microsoft, twenty-five percent of people living in poverty do not have internet access at home and twenty-one percent do not have a mobile or smartphone. Many people also lack the skills to use technology effectively and are more likely to…
April 30, 2020
By: Stacey Wedlake, TASCHA Research Coordinator & Analyst As I wrote in my previous blog post, the ability to access basic needs during a pandemic relies on digital skills. As we’re seeing more and more, the pandemic exacerbates our societies’ inequalities, and communities in vulnerable situations need additional support and resources in order to “stay…
