The Award for Library Research Award in the Sciences is sponsored by the Dartmouth College Library and the Friends of the Dartmouth College Library. The competition is divided into two categories: First Year and Sophomore students in STEM courses, and Junior and Senior STEM majors/minors in STEM courses.
Submissions will be judged by a panel of Dartmouth College librarians. We want to recognize your development as a researcher and hear in your own words about your research process. The panel’s evaluations are based on a brief essay, a bibliography, and the effectiveness of the student’s submission. The First prize winner from each category will receive a cash award of $250 and the second place in each category will win $100 . The winners will be announced at the Wetterhahn Symposium, and will receive a certificate in honor of their achievement.
Award for First Year and Sophomore Research: Research in a STEM course this academic year by a first year or sophomore student.
Award for Junior and Senior Year Research: Research from this academic year by students majoring/minoring in science (including neuroscience), math, and engineering in a STEM course.
For both categories, essays on research from Summer 2022 to Spring 2023 are eligible for submission.
Reach out to lilly@Dartmouth.edu (Lilly E Linden) if you have any questions.
An essay of a minimum of 400 words but no more than 750 words, describing how you used library resources and the literature available through library databases, the strategies you used to locate those resources, what sources/databases you used, how your search skills developed, and how using library resources, which include your subject librarian, contributed to the quality of your research.
A bibliography of sources consulted.
Exceptional ability to locate, select, evaluate, and synthesize library resources (including, but not limited to, printed resources, databases, collections, web resources, and all media) and to use them in the creation of a project
Evidence of significant personal learning and the development of a pattern of research and inquiry that shows the likelihood of persisting in the future
What did you learn about the process of information seeking during the course of your work?
What did you learn about finding and evaluating sources?
What criteria did you use to refine the resources that you found to fit the scope of your research?
What discoveries did you make through planned searching, and what through serendipity?
How will what you learned while seeking sources for this project inform your future searching?
Did you have any conversations with librarians (via chat, email, or in-person) during your research project?