College students often do all they can to limit their amount of debt accrued and to gain recognition for their work and despite that, many opportunities may pass them by due to lack of awareness. One of those opportunities to gain both award and acclaim is the Anna Carper Excellence in Library Research Award. Carper was a librarian at Elizabethtown College from 1960 to 1986 as well as a graduate of the College in 1941, and due to an endowment provided by her family, the award has been made in her name.
Since 2009, in honor of the High Library’s 20th anniversary, the award has recognized students’ papers in first-year seminars (FYS). That award has been given to a variety of students in disciplines over the years with a prize of $500, a certificate and recognition at the Scholarship and Creative Arts Day (SCAD). For those who do not win the grand prize, there are $100 honorable mentions. Last year, the award was given to Education major Christine Castellano.
However, as of fall 2022, some of the guidelines behind the award have changed and opened it up to a lot more students than ever before. While in years prior, only about 20 students a year were up for consideration because it was up to a nomination from their FYS professor. The professors decided personally up to three students that they were willing to nominate based on the perception of skill in their papers. Now, students can nominate themselves for a paper or research-based project they have written in their first year in spring 2022, summer 2022 and fall 2022. In addition, the past FYS courses required a paper. Now, since they no longer require a research paper, the options for what can be submitted have changed. Options include but are not limited to research papers of any length, multimedia projects, lab reports, posters and field research studies.
First-year Nicholas Jacobs had this to say after being informed of the award: “It seems like a very valuable way to get students to engage and use the resources provided to them by the school, as well as, recognizing said students for their academic prose and talent.”
For any students interested in applying, the process is almost entirely in their hands. They are the ones who decide if they feel their paper is worthy and responsible for reaching out to their teachers. They also need to fill out the application on the library’s website (https://www.etown.edu/library/info.aspx#carper). Within the formal application, students will be asked to submit the project alongside a professor’s letter of recommendation and their own reflection on the work they submitted. The application submission deadline is Feb. 15, but for those with projects that they completed as first-years in spring or summer of 2022, they can submit it as soon as they would like to. Their work will be graded based on the rubric listed on the webpage for the award.
Instruction and Outreach Librarian Josh Cohen as well as a member of the panel of judges for the award, had this to say about mistakes students may make when doing their first-year project: “Sometimes students are heavily reliant on one or two sources. We are evaluating if a student has a variety of types of resources and not just relying throughout their project on one or two sources as we’ve seen in submissions in the past.”
In addition, any questions about the award can be addressed either through emailing Cohen at cohenjp@etown.edu or through conversations with your advisor about the quality of the work produced.
