Library Prize rewards researchers

Undergraduate students who love to do research have a chance of winning $1,000 this semester with the newly created Library Prize program.

For the first time, librarians and faculty members will come together to reward three of the best research efforts done by undergraduate students at Temple.

According to Gretchen Sneff, head of the engineering and sciences libraries and chair of the committee, the Library Prize serves two main purposes.

“We want to encourage expanded use of the resources offered at the Temple libraries and foster the development of undergraduate research technique endeavors,” she said.

The program is modeled after similar ones done in libraries at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Washington. The Library Prize was seen as a good idea when Temple librarians noticed an increase in the undergraduate students’ use of library databases and subject guides on the library Web site for research.

Sneff said that undergraduates account for almost 50 percent of all books checked out, and 33 percent more students this year had a class with a librarian than the previous year.

She encourages all students to enter the competition, which will be held every year thanks to the partnership between the provost’s office with the library and the support of Temple alumnus John H. Livingstone Jr.

All student entries must satisfy the requirements of a credit course at Temple during the fall or spring 2004 semester and must be accompanied by a letter of support from the professor who assigned the project.

In addition, students must also turn in a bibliography and an essay about their library research. Projects can be done in teams or groups, but the money will be divided between all of the members.

The submission will be judged on its “originality, depth, breadth, or sophistication in the use of the library collections, exceptional ability to select, evaluate, and synthesize library resources and to successfully use them in the creation of a project, and evidence of personal growth through the acquisition of newfound knowledge,” said Sneff.

The deadline for entries is April 8, 2005 at 5 p.m. The winners will be notified two weeks later and will be featured on the Web site and in the Library Prize display case in the Paley Library during the spring semester. More information about the program can be found at the library’s Web site, https://library.temple.edu/prize or ask the librarians at the Paley Library.

Geraldine Rosado may be reached at grosado@temple.edu.