Milestone 2 — Project Introduction

Project Direction

The direction of our project has not changed. We will be focusing on improving the pre-existing lost and found workflows at UBC.

Task Examples

1. Someone who has lost an item

Rebecca is a 4th year UBC student, studying in the library after a long day of class, when she realizes her water bottle is missing from her backpack. The last place she remembers having it was in her 9am lecture, but it is now 4pm and she’s been to half a dozen different buildings across campus since. After attempting to retrace her steps, she visits the Lost and Found at the UBC Bookstore. Despite there being a variety of other water bottles, hers has not been returned. She also visits the UBC security booths in some of the other buildings. Some of these other booths also have a pile of Lost and Found items but no water bottles had been turned in. At the bookstore, Rebecca writes down a description of her water bottle, the approximate time range she lost it between, and her contact information in a notebook that they use for filing lost item reports. She also visits the UBC Bookstore the following day to check again after receiving a message from the staff that there was a new water bottle returned.

2. Someone who has found an item

Jared is a CPSC 110 teaching assistant and he leads 3–4 labs per week. After each lab session, he does a quick scan around the room to see if his students have left behind anything. He usually finds a pen or a water bottle, and pools them together in the front of the lab room so that his students would be able to retrieve their lost items in a centralized location. These items just gather in the classroom until custodial services clear them out. He also makes quick Piazza posts about anything he finds that might be particularly valuable, such as IDs, phones, jewellery, or course notebooks. He will also reach out to students directly if the belonging has a name associated with it. He usually holds on to those items to ensure that the students would be able to reclaim them. In addition, he sometimes gets emails or Piazza messages directly from students inquiring about missing items. He tries his best to recall if he has seen those items, but usually ends up telling the students to go back to the classroom and check regardless.

3. UBC Security/ Bookstore perspective

The UBC bookstore receptionist, Kate, receives several lost items each day for various people. She stores these items away in the same area and awaits a phone either a phone call or an in person visit of someone trying to retrieve their item. Lost items vary between jewellery, to cards, wallets and small personal items. She notices that many people that come to pick up their potentially lost item are never sure as to where they are meant to look, but she assures them they are in the right place. If the lost item contains information associated to a UBC student or staff (by retrieval of a UBC card), she is able to email the person directly letting them know the item that has been lost, and where they can come and pick it up. However, most of the time this is not the case, and the items end up stored in this central lost and found with little hope of being regained. These items are donated to local charities after the end of a school semester.