On Friday, November 4, U-M undergraduates, librarians, and faculty gathered in Bert’s Study Lounge in Shapiro Library to celebrate the winners of the first annual MLibrary Undergraduate Research Award, and to announce the opening of this year’s competition.

According to Laurie Alexander, Associate University Librarian for Learning and Teaching, the Library established the award to recognize the extraordinary academic achievements of U-M’s undergraduates. “This award highlights the diligence, intelligence, and originality that undergraduates bring to their research, as well as the richness of library resources and the commitment of faculty and librarians to undergraduate learning,” she says.

In its first year, the review committee received thirty-four applications drawn from a range of disciplines in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. The committee, which is made up of U-M librarians, awarded projects that demonstrated the fullest and most innovative use of library resources. “They were all so interesting and all so different,” commented Pam MacKintosh, one of the librarians on the committee. “We learned so much from reading them.”

The winner of this year’s first prize, Emily Schiller, saw the posters and postcards advertising the Undergraduate Research Awards, but hadn’t intended to apply until Julie Herrada, Curator of the Labadie Collection in the Special Collections Library, gave her a nudge. Schiller worked with Herrada while using the Labadie Collection of radical history to study community health activism for her honor’s thesis. She received an award of $1,000.

Committee members were impressed by the research undertakings revealed in the applications—students conducted literature searches, reached out to authorities in the field, tracked down primary resources, and more. Schiller conducted interviews with former Black Panthers, and honorable mention winner Michael Franczak spent his spring break conducting research at the National Archives in Washington D.C.

Second place winner Sita Marie Syal, who received a $500 award, is glad she made the effort. “It gave me the opportunity to reflect on what I’ve done and communicate it. It means more when you can share and tell others what you’ve done.”

Shirley Chen was awarded third prize and $500 dollars. Honorable mention awards of $100 each went to Georgia Ennis, Leanna First-Arai, and Michael Franczak. For more information about the winners and their projects, visit www.lib.umich.edu/shapiro-undergraduate-library/research-award-2010-2011.... The winning research projects can be found in DeepBlue (http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu), the University of Michigan's permanent, safe, and accessible service for representing our rich intellectual community.

The application deadline for the next round of awards is Sunday April 22, 2012. Projects can be in any format or medium—research papers, posters, websites, videos, or art installations. Individual and group projects are eligible.
For more details about the award, submission guidelines, and a link to the application form, visit www.lib.umich.edu/shapiro-undergraduate-library/research-award.