Lynn Haggard Undergraduate Library Research Award

The 750-1000 word reflective essay describing your use of library tools and resources is the most critical component of your award application. Your final project is important, but the award committee is most interested in your investigative journey, and how you improved your research skills and understanding/use of library services, resources, and collections while creating your project.

Your reflective essay must discuss:

• How you became a better researcher by using the resources and/or services of the Forsyth Library
• How you gained a deeper understanding of finding and evaluating resources through the use of Forsyth Library resources and/or services
• How consultation or interaction with library faculty and/or staff made an impact on the your research

The following questions will help you think about your reflective essay. They are provided here to help inspire you, but they are not intended to be answered directly.

1. Consider your process: how you crafted your thesis, selected your search tools, developed search techniques, and chose which library resources to explore?
   1. How did you think about and refine your preliminary research topic?
   2. What specific strategies did you develop for finding relevant information?
   3. Which discoveries did you make by chance and which through planned search strategies?
   4. Look back on the process of adapting your interests into the scope of your project. How did you modify your topic given the time you had available for research and writing, the required length of the paper, and the nature of the information you found?
   5. What specific library search tools or resources did you use and why?
2. Consider your sources: the types and formats that you chose, how deeply or widely you explored your topic area, how you evaluated and selected materials, and how carefully you cited what you selected.
   1. Did you have trouble finding some types or formats of information and if so, how did you overcome this challenge?
   2. Did your assumptions about what information would be available change throughout the research process?
   3. Did you have some reasons for not selecting specific resources, even though they appeared promising?
   4. What did you learn about finding information on your topic or in your discipline? Was it necessary to move outside your discipline to find sufficient sources?
3. What you learned: how your understanding of library research changed and how you have grown as an independent researcher.
   1. What did you learn about your own research process and style?
   2. What expertise have you gained as a researcher?
   3. What do you still need to learn?
   4. What would you change about your process if you had another chance?

Remember to be specific, be descriptive, and choose good examples to illustrate your points. This rubric will be used to score your reflective essay. Your final reflective essay must be submitted in PDF format. 

Material for this page has been adapted from the Berkeley Library - University of California

The bibliography must demonstrate use of a wide range of resource types appropriate to the discipline and to the information need (e.g., primary & secondary sources, scholarly literature, data, books, newspaper articles, critical editions, original compositions, arrangements, transcriptions, sound or video recordings, models, plans, computer models). The researcher will consistently provide accurate, complete citations to sources in format/style appropriate to the discipline

Additional Tips

When preparing your bibliography keep in mind these points:

• Format your bibliography using a style guide appropriate to your project’s discipline. ALA, MLA, Chicago, and others are all acceptable, but must be used consistently and accurately.
• Cite all sources you used, even if you did not directly quote from them.
• For long bibliographies, subdividing your sources into categories may be helpful, but listing them alphabetically is also acceptable.

Original projects completed by individuals or groups in all formats are welcome and may include:

• Research papers
• Design portfolios
• Compositions
• Posters
• Film / video
• Digital projects

Student Submission Guidelines

The faculty supporter you choose should have first-hand knowledge of the quality of your project. It should generally be the professor or instructor for the class in which you completed your project. It can also be a faculty member you worked with on a research project as part of an undergraduate research experience, SACAD, or Research Day. 

Upon completion of your project, the faculty supporter you name will be emailed an evaluation form asking questions about the quality of your research and how well it represents the standards of the discipline. Once this form is received, your application will be complete.