Congratulation to Elizabeth Holman ’12 and And Tara Shay GSEAP ’13 for winning the 2012 Library Research Prizes.
Elizabeth Holman ’12 won the undergraduate prize for her research essay on her paper Conceptions of Wendy: Barrie’s Depiction of the Adult Wendy-Lady and Hogan’s Portrayal of the Wendy-Child done for Dr. Robert Epstein's EN 103 Fairy Tales course.
Elizabeth wrote in her research essay. "One of the best aspects of this assignment was that it allowed me to use a variety of resources. Because I analyzed a film, not only was the film itself one of my primary sources, but I was also able to utilize film reviews." She reflected on the authority of film reviews, "I was not sure as to how to determine the authenticity of these reviews or whether or not certain ones would be appropriate. I then met with one of the reference librarians and he helped me find and determine the relevancy of some reviews." She also wrote, "I utilized a variety of sources, including articles from databases (LION and ProQuest), books, e-books, film reviews, and the film itself. I found the e-books to be very convenient, as I am a commuter student."
Tara Shay GSEAP ’13 won the graduate prize for her research essay on her paper A Pilot Experimental Study Examining the Effect of Resiliency Training on Short-term Future Outlook in Urban Adolescents for Dr. Barbara Welles-Nystrom's ED 499 Educational Research course.
Tara wrote in her research essay, "During our meeting at the library Curtis Ferree, the Reference and Electronic Resources Librarian at Fairfield University, introduced our class to the research process using a class guide he had created that can be accessed from the library web page. I utilized the class guide frequently throughout the research process to access research databases and locate articles from home. The databases which I found most useful included ERIC, Education Journals, and PsycINFO. I began the research process by searching key words related to my topic, such as future outlook, views of the future, and optimism. Within the articles I found I was able to identify more key words, including possible selves, future orientation, and future time perspective, and use the reference list at the end of articles to find additional journal articles and authors." Tara also wrote, " I kept a research journal as an organizational aid to keep track of interesting findings and key ideas from articles using the authors’ last name and the year of publication. This process made it easier to go back and cite properly when it was time to begin writing."
The Award ceremony was held Friday, May 3 at 2 p.m. in the Library Conference Room. Thanks to Award committee members Yohuru Williams, Anna Lawrence, Ania Aksan, Joan Overfield and Jessica McCullough for their thoughtful and insightful deliberations.