Honoring Outstanding Undergraduate Research

Under the leadership of Kelly Clever, Public Services Librarian at Seton Hill University, the Reeves Library Undergraduate Research Award was created in 2014 to recognize and encourage the development of information fluency in resource-based research.  This has been a wonderful way not only to honor students, but also to increase awareness of the library and its resources.

“Collection”-based research (i.e., field/laboratory research, original literary criticism, or creative works are judged based only on their literature review/discussion sections and not on the portions of the project consisting of original work). Research projects in either traditional (e.g., academic paper) or multimedia (e.g., podcast, website, video, etc.) formats may be submitted.

Research projects created during the previous academic year’s Spring semester or the entire current academic year can be considered. There is no length requirement for works submitted. One entry is accepted per student.   A faculty member must sponsor each submission by completing a recommendation form. The faculty sponsor may be the instructor who assigned the project, or the student’s advisor. The student must submit the project being entered, a completed application form, and a brief (250-500 word) introduction to the project and a discussion of the research process.

The student’s name is removed from the body of the project to facilitate blind review.  Using a rubric, a panel of faculty and librarians judges the research. To make things easier, information is uploaded to the Canvas online learning system, which allows speed grading.

Each award recipient is recognized at Honors Convocation and receives a monetary prize in the amount of $250. One award is given to a first-year or sophomore and a second to a junior or senior.