The Giovale Library Undergraduate Research Awards recognize students producing outstanding research projects such as: papers, videos, and blogs that demonstrate information literacy and the effective use of Library resources.

First Place

Emily Naylor for her thesis titled "Psychometrics of the Imaginative Involvement Questionnaire (IIQ)"
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jennifer Simonds

"Through the use of limiters, broad sources, advanced searches, and library databases, I was able to identify a major issue within the measurement of fantasy-proneness. While the information I gained through this process required me to engage in more work by creating an entirely new scale for part of my thesis, this process not only enhanced my understanding of informational resources, but also enabled me to conduct a study that will benefit the measurement of cognitive process (fantasy-proneness)."
-Emilee Naylor, Reflective Essay

"Sometimes researcher will just pick a measure and use it because it has been cited X number of times. Those of us who question finer points of measurement find it valuable to use measurements developed using a thoughtful approach to construct definition and to consideration of the ways items address those constructs. Emilee’s work on this project provides this type of careful work that supports more valid measurement. Her work is already valued by one expert in the field and will be valuable to other because she was willing to do the legwork to dig up every measurement she could find."
-Professor Simonds

Second Place

Tavish Bell for her project titled "Using the Master’s Tools to Tear Down the Master’s House: Chesnutt’s Deconstruction of the Reconstruction through Julius McAdoo"
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Lance Newman

"Putting multiple sources in dialogue with each other, I was able to expand the conversation beyond just close reading and diverse interpretation; opening it up to critical racial studies through linguistic examination. The extensive research I put into this project rendered the library and its services invaluable."
-Tavis Bell, Reflective Essay

"The research, thinking, and writing in this project are of the highest caliber and would be recognized as excellent at the best English graduate programs in the country. The prose is refined and demonstrates confident fluency in the discourse of our field. The works cited include important work of the most influential scholars in relevant disciplines…And the thesis of the essay in both original and important."
-Professor Newman

Congratulations to the 2012 Winners!